Warkymom: A priceless day at candlestick park

So yesterday was a big day for the Warkentins. It was the day we went to our first 49ers game. Tim has been a niners fan since he was a baby (it runs in Warkentin blood.) Anyways, he has always talked about one day going to a game, but he never actually has. It's been a rough couple years for our family, and for the 49ers for that matter. They've lost, and he's been in Georgia so he didn't get to watch them lose. Which seemed fine to me, why watch a team lose all season? But he obviously was shaken up by it. So I promised him one day when we moved to California I would take him to a game. Fast forward 4 years, and an ebay attempt (see my EBAY BLOG for the full story). I finally got the tickets and we packed up and went to the niners opening game yesterday. This is an account of our trip:

"Tailgate Party: Warkentin style "
We arrived with only a few moments till kick off, and several blocks to walk. So we opted to make our sandwhich tailgate party short and walk while eating. *Note: walking while eating a peanut-butter and banana sandwhich is not a good idea. I choked.

"Our View, well sort of"
Being an ebay find, the seats weren't exactly top of the line. As you can tell by the giant Simoan guy that was in our way the entire game. In fact there were about 10 guys standing in the aisles, yelling loudly throughout the game. Which brings me to my next point.

"Alcohol and you"
Alright you got me, this isn't a picture of some random dude drinking alcohol. It's the halftime parashooting show (which was also cool, but not blog-worthy). What is the deal with people and alcohol at sporting events? I could not believe how much people drink. I played my own drinking game: counting how many beers each guy drank throughout the day. I must admit, it was rather entertaining listening to their slurred words as they complained about a bad call, or a time out. But by the end of the day, I was ready to be done with the drunk guys.

"Meanwhile, back at the ranch"
Elijah was being watched by my friend Lauren. But he had his 49ers jersey and still paid close attention to the game via satellite. I told you, it's in Warkentin blood.

"Now here's when it gets weird"
This is where we are sitting just moments before the big brawl broke out.

"The Big Brawl"

Okay, so you knew there'd be a story in this blog somewhere. And here it is:

The thing I find fascinating about Football fans is their aggression. I've been to other sporting events, many many others but never have I seen so much rage than at a football game. Everyone is all about wearing Red on game day. It's a thing. You wear a 49ers jersey, or a cap or something to show your 49er love. Anyways, not 10 feet from where we were sitting a giant brawl broke out during a time-out. Appearantly, someone wore the wrong colored jersey and one group of guys behind him started calling him names, and throwing up gang signs because of it. It got all Jerry-Springer in a hurry. People getting in each other's faces, people taking off their shirts. It was a mess. So they called the brute squad (a series of officers) over and threw about 20 people out of the game. I must admit, it was way more interesting than the game at that point. And in between every play, I would quickly turn back my attention to the entertainment just feet away from me. NFL people are serious- don't mess with them.

Happy to be away from the drama
So, as you may or may not have heard, the 49ers lost. But it was still fun to be there to watch them lose. And even though I have blisters on my feet from walking so much, and my pants smell like the warm beer that one of the guys spilled all over me, it was really fun to watch Tim's face light up.