Neil's trip

It's 4:30am. I'd love to blame my being awake on the jet lag, or my 17 month old but can't on either count. It's Gameday. Season opener. Home to the Tennessee Titans. I'm at my friend's house about 20 miles away from Arrowhead and I'm ready for the game. It's still only 4:30...

We usually aim to leave the house around 7, the gates to the parking lot at Arrowhead open at 8 in theory but it's usually more like 7:30 if the queue is big. I switch on the news at 6:30 and there is already quite a sizeable queue. A quick run through of the checklist of tailgating essentials, make sure everything is packed. Have tickets? Check. Parking pass? Check. All set.

Time to head for I70 westbound as far as the Manchester Trafficway, take a left under the Interstate and around to Gate 5. Access routes have changed this year and Gate 5 is prepaid passes only, makes you feel kind of special to have one! Follow the road up around to the right and the smell hits you. It's barely turned 8 and the smell of BBQ is already heavy in the air. The amount of people already here is staggering. It's tailgating time and they take it very seriously around here. The place is a hive of activity as you drive around, folks setting up tables and chairs, grills and coolers. The latter two being essential. We make it around to 'our spot'. We are lucky that one of our group was in that queue at 6:30 and reserved places for us by setting out chairs in our parking spots so others can't fill them. We almost always manage to get the same places, there are some picnic tables on a grass bank on the east side of the parking lot, this time is no different and someone is already setting up a canopy over one of the tables when we get there. The forecast for the day is hot, somewhere around 28 deg and clear skies.

Time to tailgate. The table is overflowing with chips and dips, devilled eggs, chocolate cake, honey buns and all the junk food you could wish for. But the main staple is BBQ. Breakfast sausage kicks us off, steak marindaded in a Jack Daniels sauce up next, shrimp wrapped in bacon, jalapeno peppers stuffed with cream cheese and wrapped in bacon. It's a carnivore's wet dream. The next 3 hours is spent grazing on the food, washing it down with a few Jack and Cokes (anywhere that it is socially acceptable to drink Jack Daniels at 8 in the morning is alright with me) and having a good catch up with old friends. The perfect Sunday morning?

Concensus on the game is we have no idea what to expect. We ought to win but none of us are confident. About 11 we pack up, load the cars back up and head on in. Queues are long and it looks like it'll be a full house but they move quickly and we are soon heading up the spiral ramp of the Sprint gate to section 312. Top tier, end zone looking right down the middle of the field. In our seats by 11:45, just in time for the teams coming out with all the razamataz that goes with it. Once the National anthem starts, then it's game time for me. 70,000 or so finishing with 'And the home of the CHIEFS!!!'. Makes the spine tingle every time.

The less said about the game the better. It was as bad as it could have been. When DJ went down there was silence in the place, we all knew it was serious. The worst I can say is that in the 2nd half, everyone and his dog knew the Titans would run the ball and probably down the middle and yet they still managed 130 yards at nearly 5 yeards a go. Inexcusable to me. We moved seats at half time down to the lower level, friends down there had texted to say there were empty seats by them. It's a much different perspective down there by the sideline, I honestly don't know which I prefer. You get a better idea of everything developing from the endzone seats but when the ball is down the far end it's an awful long way away.

I don't usually leave a game early but when we punted with about 4 mins to go and down by 15 or so that was the final nail in the coffin of a miserable game. The coaching staff had given up at that point so I should too. It was a very sombre walk back to the cars, nobody could find any positives to take from the game. Word around the stadium was that DJ and DeVito were probably done for the season. It was depressing stuff. Back to the car for another beer and wait for the traffic to die down a bit. May as well sit in the sunshine and drink beer than sit in a line of traffic, right? Especially after a game like that...