An Englishman in …Indianapolis
Regular readers of this site may recognise me as one of the beat writers for one of the Elite Ice Hockey League teams, the Coventry Blaze. However, I have a longer association with American Football, having been involved in the sport in the UK through either playing or coaching for nearly 20 years. I first started watching the game back in the ‘80s with Mick Luckhurst and Gary Imlach on Channel 4 and never lost my love for the game. I’ve been to the NFL International Series at Wembley, and they’re good games, but up until this week I had never been to live game in the US.
So when I got the opportunity with work to spend some time in Indianapolis on a conference, I checked the NFL schedule to see what was on. I was a happy man. The Colts were at home for the opening weekend and they were playing the Oakland Raiders. I made sure I found out when tickets were being released and managed to get a fairly reasonably priced ticket for the game. The excitement was already building.
An NFL game in the US is not like an NFL game at Wembley – they are simply two different beasts. At Wembley, you come in, you go to the fan zone out the front, you watch the game, you cheer a little and you leave. You might have been lucky that you got to see your team play, but the odds are that you are a fan of one of the 30 teams not playing in London, rather than the two that are. Myself, I’m a Philadelphia Eagles fan, so I’ve not seen them play in London for a very long time (1991 in fact…). There simply isn’t the passion there.
In contrast, passion and enthusiasm are overflowing in Indianapolis. Shops and restaurants have opened on the Sunday to catch trade from the near 63,000 capacity crowd expected in the stadium. There are events popping up all over downtown Indianapolis; I ran into a band playing in a square about three blocks away from the stadium at an event organised by a local radio station. There were more events as I approached the stadium; all of them backing the Colts for a big win.
Lucas Oil Stadium, the home of the Colts, is from the outside, a very strange looking building. It’s like they have taken an extremely large warehouse, completely shelled it out and put a football stadium in there. Not quite the case, since the stadium was purpose built to replace the old Hoosier Dome, but it does have that external appearance. You can’t mistake it or miss it either. Outside the front of the stadium was ‘Touchdown Town’ – a collection of food stalls, business stands, another music stage all designed to improve the fan experience with giveaways, competitions for kids and the like. I had to get involved and the provolone steak sub from Jim Bob’s food truck was really quite, quite tasty.
What I didn’t see that I was expecting was the familiar ‘tailgate’ party that is often spoken about in the UK. There was a big car park to the south of the stadium, and there were a few people set up with barbecues, but nothing to the extent that I expected. Maybe they are located further away from the stadium? Maybe it just isn’t the done thing in Indianapolis? Regardless, there was still a heavy build up of fans as friends from around the state met up for the first time since last season and discussed their hopes for the coming campaign.
The Colts are expected to do big things this year. Andrew Luck is big news in Indy and the fans are close to demanding that he brings Manning-like success to Indianapolis. That’s going to be difficult, but not impossible. The pre-match buzz around the stadium was that today could be a big win against a perceived weak side in Oakland.
The free programme (take note UK sports clubs) stated that the Colts wanted to make home field advantage count. They pointed out that they were 7-1 at home last season and wanted to repeat that success. They spoke about the atmosphere and the 12th man of the crowd helping the team. There was also a fitting tribute to coach Chuck Pagano and his battles against leukaemia and how that had also inspired the team last year. Because of the weather in Indianapolis that day (humid, 32 °C), the roof was closed and the stadium was set to a much cooler temperature inside. Apparently the endzones at Lucas Oil can get extremely hot with the glass windows and open roof bearing down on them on hot days.
That decision to keep the roof closed was probably one of the best decisions the Colts made that day. With that many fans inside, it was loud. Seriously loud. I’ve been inside the Millienium Stadium with the roof closed listening to the Welsh fans sing ‘Land of My Fathers’ at top voice before a Six Nations game. It was louder than that. This continued throughout the game, particularly on Raiders’ 3rd downs. If they want to be an intimidating place to play and disrupt the opposition, they should bolt that roof closed and throw away all the tools.
In terms of the actual game, Indianapolis took an early 14 point lead as Luck connected to Reggie Wayne and Dwayne Allen through the air. It seemed to be going to script as the strong favourites were trampling all over the underdog Raiders. Darren McFadden managed to get some points on the board for Oakland and by the end of the first half, they were in the ascendency. The Colts O-Line couldn’t protect Luck and Raiders QB Terrelle Pryor had found his running legs. Largely due to the inability of the rest of the Raiders to do anything else. Oakland generated 372 yards of offense. 329 of that was Pryor (217 passing yards, 112 rushing yards).
They outgained the Colts in the game by over 100 yards and it was no surprise that they took a 17-14 lead in the 4th quarter. Luck masterminded a final 11 play, 80 yard drive that saw the Luck-Wayne combination in full effect and the comeback win was on. Raiders looked as if they were going to sneak in at the death, but an interception at the Colts 8 yard line with 25 seconds remaining killed the game and the Colts took the victory. Two turnovers for Oakland, none for Indianapolis is a key statistic given the yards gained by both teams.
As a neutral, the game was much better than expected. I was thinking that it was going to be a one-sided affair but in reality it was a close game between two relatively even sides. The Colts will need to protect Luck better should they be wanting to go far in the postseason; the Raiders would do well to give Pryor some help on offense. Neither are terrible teams although Oakland will likely have a losing season and the Colts will probably hit around 10-11 wins. Experience is a key factor there.
The experience of my first proper NFL game was definitely a good one and should anyone ever get the opportunity, grasp it with both hands. Tickets can be hard to come by but with a bit of planning you can get to pretty much any game you like. And immerse yourself in everything that is going on around you. The three hours before kickoff that I was at the stadium flew by because of all the surrounding activities. The fans are all friendly and you do get some strange looks and questions, “Your accent is different, where are you from?” “I’m from England” “What the hell are you doing here?”… etc. Despite the cost being a little more than Premiership football, I would happily repeat the experience if I was ever near an NFL game again.