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St.
Louis
Rams
November 7, 2004
"Domination in the Dome"
Big
Al and I
flew out on Saturday morning and enjoyed practically empty flights offering
plenty of room to spread
out. Bama picked us up at the airport and true to form, had an adventure
getting to the hotel! Once there, we checked in, grabbed a bite and hung out
waiting for the arrival of the boys. Ran into Pats Planet's
Sir-Drink-Alot (Keith) and his Missus who happened to be staying at the hotel with a
good sized group. They take a yearly jaunt but this was their first stay
at The Team Hotel. Rachel certainly had the time of her life and I'm
sure it won't be their last!
Hotel staff did a good job of sneaking most of the team in the back service
entrance
 while
about a dozen players came in and took the elevators off the lobby. Andruzzi
busted on Koppen by yelling out "Hey Everybody, Dan Koppen's here!!" at the
top of his lungs. He had a huge contingent present as did Vrabel, Vinatieri,
TJ, Hochstein, Green, Harrison, and Faulk. Big Willie gave me a smooch as he
was heading out for a cab as did Jarvis. Never caught a glimpse of TedyB the
entire weekend (which was not surprising.) Most players didn't make it down
but those with family were seen quite a bit. This was the most spread
out that I had ever seen the team, however.... Usually, they're contained to
one or two floors but it seemed that they were spread all around in this
hotel. I ran into quite a few guys and family members in the halls and
on the elevator. Just quick hellos were exchanged and I let them have
their privacy.
Ate breakfast on Sunday morning next to the Vrabels and Rodney was just
finishing with his crew. Vrabel was a riot running with his two little guys
in the revolving door! Saw Lonie, Adam and Josh heading out early on
game day and got to talk to him for a bit.. Lonie said they were taking a cab
to the stadium to "work out with trainers".... hmmmmm a little game of catch
for Adam perhaps?
Saw the
Krafts a few times and said a few words, spoke to Jonathan more than once and
spent quite a bit of time talking to Brian Lowe of PVN and the team
photographer, Silverman. (I know the PFW boys and always talk to them
anyway; Bryan Morry, Fred Kirsch and Paul Perillo.) It was a low key
trip... and there weren't too many fans there. The few that were newbies
hooked on to me quickly and asked me who every player/person was that came
through. We didn't take many pictures and didn't bother anyone for autographs but
relaxed and had a few cocktails while hanging in the lobby. Bama and Big Al
stepped out for some stogies while I curled up with a book on the couches.
Staying right in the city was awesome! We headed over to Union Station to
chec k
out the shops on Sunday morning. The hotel offered a free Sports Shuttle to and from the game... (We
shared it with the Greens, Vrabels, Adam's crew, and the Faulks.) Al and I
took the Metrolink from our hotel to the airport after the game literally door to door for
.... $1.50 each! We didn't realize that it also went down to the Arch and
regretted not taking off to see it while we were there... (next time!)
As for the
 game,
Bama and I had great seats in the corner EZ but most of the action was
down the other end. Big Al sat up in the boonies with the Patriots families
and he said it was WAY up there! Forget about catching anything on the
replay because THEY DON'T DO IT! They do a lot of fan cam stuff and never
show a single replay. Bama and I had very nice people around us who
were polite and friendly. We enjoyed a great game and a great win. I had
never been to a game inside (except for Houston and the SB which technically
could have been outdoors...) so it seemed funny to see people dressed up at a
football game. One thing I must say is.... THERE WAS ABSOLUTELY NO SECURITY
CHECK going into the stadium. I walked in with one of those drawstring
backpack things and I could have smuggled anything in as they didn't even
look to see if we had anything at all. (Damn... should have brought my own
cold ones and saved myself some dough!) They just reached over heads to grab
the ticket and rip it then hurried people through.
All in all, it was an excellent mini-trek with our boys coming out victorious,
spanking the Rams 40-22... thanks to a total team effort, players doing
whatever it took to win (ie. Brown at CB, Davis at Safety, Vrabel at TE, and
Vinatieri throwing a TD pass!) and taking One Game at a Time!
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