Three Cities, Three Weeks, and The Thrill of the NFL

Traveling, training, and taking it all in, it’s an experience that yours truly, The Imperfect Football Fan, will not soon forget. What is involved when traveling to three cities, in three weeks, visiting three NFL training camps? Culture, food, and fun. Lets look at the football culture first. All of the areas visited were in Southern cities, so you’d expect Southern hospitality, right? Let’s start in Richmond.

Richmond, Virginia, Bon Secours Training facility, and its a closed practice session between the Washington Redskins, who hosted the Houston Texans, it is also a session that one had to win tickets for. Guess who won tickets? Yes, the imperfect one. First prayer answered. Then the bonus; everyone that received an invitation from the imperfect football fan was available to meet for the practice, second prayer answered. It was overcast, and the rains come shortly after sunrise, third prayer not answered, but every prayer unanswered is unanswered for a reason.

The rains came, and people sought shelter everywhere, and just as many weathered the storm, as those that fled. The weather did create a bit of disappointment besides getting wet, however. This so called closed session was not as meaningful as it was set up to be. The rain caused a rush in staff as well as fan. Fans crowded a very broad, and open gate, where attendants loosely checked tickets, and threw their portion of the tickets into plastic, 50 gallon barrels. The imperfect one had four tickets, and was accompanied by three people. Two of the party of four walked right past the gatekeepers, and were not checked at all. The imperfect one had all four tickets, and was not asked by one attendant to whom each ticket belonged. So much for feeling lucky, special, privileged, or whatever adjective you prefer here. It was somewhat of a let down to know that a good portion of the crowd could have slipped through without having any credentials at all.

The rain turned a few away, so it wasn’t as packed as it could have been, but Redskin faithful, for the most part showed their allegiance to their team. #HTTR (Hail to the Redskins), had meaning, because the sidelines were shoulder to shoulder with Skins faithful. GEICO did their part in playing hero for the day for a few hundred as they handed out ponchos for the rain soaked crowd, that signed up to be added to their mailing list. Unfortunately, they went from hero to zero in approximately 20 minutes, as they ran out of ponchos. People tore up their information entries as they discovered they were not going to receive a poncho.

Once inside we discovered that the fans surrounding us were pretty amazing, and amazingly enough the fans were all, pardon the expression here, somewhat a tribe of one. There were more folks of African ancestry than not, but for the most part, all ethnicity was dismissed because this culture represented one nation, “Redskin Nation.” The people experience was a very good one.

On the field the marshals were in control, watching the fence lines carefully, and were very professional about it. The coaching staff did not make themselves very available for their fans, but they were well focused on their team, and with good reason, but first, let’s look at cuisine before we get to the teams action on the playing field.

A few restaurants from the greater Richmond area catered the event. We chose barbeque. The food wasn’t bad, and the serving wasn’t so skimpy that you felt as if you had only an appetizer, but it was far from a grand serving. It also wasn’t as warm as it could have been. However, on the flip side of that, I would give them 3.5 stars out of 5 considering it was a soggy day.

Ok back to the facility, and field. The facility is not yet complete, and most training facilities are not blessed with accommodations and luxuries that make one feel as though they’re in the box seats at their favorite teams stadium, but the proximity and closeness to the field make you feel very much a part of the team.

The players were fired up, and ready to practice, and the skill players all looked sharp. The most closely watched figure Robert Griffin III, or more affectionately know as RG3, by his fan base, was on point. His touch passes were picture perfect, and his deep ball was excellent as well. Then… came the first fight! 

ESPN had announced that Mr. Golston had removed or had his helmet removed, and that sheer and utter chaos had broken loose at Bon Secours. 

Unfortunately, because of the rain, yours truly had his camera tucked away in a dry, and secure spot. There were two more fights that took place, and finally the two squads separated for good. A few Texans signed autographs on the the far side of the field, but most of the bigger names to refuge in the fieldhouse immediately after practice. 

 

The sun came out at the end of practice, which was somewhat of a blessing. Had the sun shone as brightly all day as it did at the end of the day it most likely would have made us all miserable. The good thing about was that I was able to get a couple of shots in at the end of the day. Training camp would manifest what appeared to be a good team, a team ready for a young quarterback to lead them into a promising season. Mediocre is not what they expected, but I'm predicting another split between the Tribe, and the other Texans. .500 is possible, but I'm going out on a limb saying we'll see RG3 back at the helm before seasons end, and they'll finish at 7-8. 

Next stop: Flowery Branch