SWEEP YA LATER !! The story.....

Into The Belly of the Beast.......
 
Driving From Ohio to NJ for the Jets game gave me plenty of time to think. While I was optismistic about the Dolphins chances, I was unsure about my Wife & I's personal safety. As you know, the Jets fans have a nasty reputation. I wasn't so much worried about myself as I was for my Wife, she can be a bit of a Nervous Nelly at times. We arrived at our hotel about noon'ish on Saturday and thanks to my wife's excellent computer skills we ended up about a mile and a half from the stadium. Sweet I thought !! We could walk to the game and save money on the parking,.....right,.....NO,...wrong !!!! There is a mega highway between us and the stadium, definately not a place one would want to walk to ( on a highway with crazy ass NY/NJ drivers.....no thanks ). No problem, I'll do the NY thing, and take a cab there since I don't really know the area. In hindsight, this was a pain in the ass and ended up costing me more than parking at the stadium would have. Not so much in going there, but coming back to the hotel,......UGH, we waiting an hour+ before we finally got a ride back to our hotel. Oh well, chalk it up to one of those NY experiences. Anyways, back to Saturday for a moment, we arrived early enough to do a little site seeing. so, off to Time Square we went. Not bad, big time tourist trap with tons to see and do. We ate lunch at the ESPNZone and watched the Buckeyes, good stuff. From there we walked around going to Madison Square Garden and macy's before heading back to the hotel.
 
Gameday !! Nervous & excited all in one, that's how I felt. We arrived at the stadium around 10am. My 1st impression, kind of funny seeing a brand new stadium right next to the old one and wishing they would have finished it sooner ( new old looks nice, real nice !). Being a vertern of many Dolphin road games in places like Detroit, Cleveland, and Buffalo,...I knew better than to walk through the parking lot thru the crowd of Jets fans tailgating. We hungout by one of the stadium gates talking with a number of passing Dolphin fans. At one point I thought, this is funny, as I saw a group of People all wearing Henne jersey's. " ALL RIGHT, GREAT LOOKING JERSEYS !! " I said. after a breif conversation I find out that I had just been talking to Chad Henne's family,.......Aunt & Uncle, Mom & Dad, and others. Good oman I thought. Around an hour after we arrivd I finally met up with another Dolphin fan I met online who is from the NJ area. NJDolphan68, as he is known in cyber-world, turned out to be a really good dude and he and his Brother hit it off well with me and my Wife. The next couple of hours was spent throwing back a few brews and yukking it up as we waiting for gametime to arrive. If I heard it once, I heard it 10 times. NJ's brother would say, " let me get this straight, you guys IM each other at beefcake.com and that's how you met ?" Laughter was not in short supply for those two hours ! Good times !!
 
So far, no problems at all with all the Jets fans, but now it was time to go into the stadium. Here's where one of the funnier things of the happened. As we walked in some fan started in on my Wife about our team. She quickly responded, "ahh,...you must need a hug" as she walked up and hugged the guy who had to be 55'ish and probally hadn't touched a hottie like my Wife in sometime ( if ever ). He didn't know how to act and was know a "friendly". That girl, she's a smart one. From there to our seat, the abuse was non-exsistense,......go figure. And, there were a fair number of Dolphin fans in attendence,......NICE !!
 
1st half,.........boring. As in, no touchdowns. Although, I met these good natured Jets fans that every time the Jets did something good or the Dolphins did something bad they would bust out this stuffed Dolphin in a fishing net and start screaming " DOLPHIN CAUGHT IN A NET, DOLPHIN CAUGHT IN A NET !!" and swinging it around their heads. Again, funny stuff. 2nd half, let the excitement beGINN !!!!! WOW, you guys see that "Ohioian" run, there was no stopping him. Staight from the doghouse to the penthouse in one half. And, JT,.....I guess there is some gas in the tank yet ( future HOF'er,....bet on it ) !! Offense was alittle light on this day, and the defense showed up on the finally drive,.........heart attack waiting to happen as our seats were upper deck on that goal line. Talk about being on pins and needles,.........what a great game,.......for Dolphins fans !! But, in the end,...they don't WINN without GINN !!! My ohio bias shows through,......sorry. But really, I could care less if Elmer Fudd ran those kickoffs back as long as the Dolphins come out on top. All in all, it was a great time at the game and we were treated respectfully by all The Jets fans we encountered, that was a big ( and nice ) surprise. So, to all those Jets fans out there, ....SWEEP YA LATER !!!!