Legally playing football for Money

It's true.  There are football players out there who are ALLOWED to accept money (LOTS of money) to play football.  They're called "professional football players" and they play in this league that I think is called the NFL.  This is where you go AFTER college.  (And to those of you that it may not be clear, college football players are NOT allowed to accept money or gifts to play football.  Just want to make sure that's clear)

I crossed over and went to my first ever NFL football game.  Roommates and I headed up to Northern Virginia for Dad Weekend #2 to watch the Washington Redskins play the New York Giants.  It was....AH-MAZING.

Did you know you can drink beer inside the stadium in the NFL?  It's true.  You're allowed to pregame, and then you're allowed to still drink in the stadium.  It's awesome.


Beers in the Stadium.  By the way, our seats were awesome...

You seem to also be able get into fights in the stadium during the game and not get kicked out.  It's cool, but it also seems that drinking throughout the entire game leads me to do things like this:

This happened right after we started chanting, "Who hates the Giiiiiiiiaaaannnnts?"

Thanks to Caroline's dad, we were able to experience the game up close and personal.  I may be a little spoiled because I can't imagine sitting anywhere other than these seats for the rest of my life.

Did I mention we had great seats??

Have you ever been able to slap Eli Manning on the back for a job well done?  We have...

I can't remember if I've told you or not, but we were REALLY close to the field

A few lessons learned on the professional football front:

• Double check the game time the morning of the game.  Otherwise, you end up in the stadium parking lot at 11:30am for a game that doesn't start until 4:15pm.  When it's raining and sleeting outside, it makes for a cold afternoon.
• Double check the weather before going to the game.  Otherwise you find yourself in the Team Shop (or the "bookstore" as I liked to call it) purchasing Redskins gloves, hats, sweatshirts, socks and jackets.  I'm stocked up for next year!
• Take Monday off of work.  I'll continue to think college football is better because you have Sunday to recover.  In the NFL, you have no time to recover.  Your alarm still goes off Monday morning and you still have to go to work.
• Even though in the NFL you get a lot of chances throughout the season, it still sucks when your team loses.

Sadness / Anger from another Giants Touchdown