Originally Posted by Senator Clay Davis
On Sunday I missed my first NFC Championship game since I was a kid. To be fair I had a pretty good excuse since I was at Arrowhead for the AFC Championship game. It just so happens that two of my best friends are a Bills fan and a Chiefs fan, both of their wives are Swifties, so I off the cuff suggested we should go, and so we did exactly that. Was a bit a of a jaunt because flights from Calgary to Kansas City were stupidly expensive; cheapest we could find were $1600 per person and those required layovers of 4 hours on the way down and 6 hours on the way back. So we flew to St. Louis with only 45 minute layovers each way in Denver, and those were under $700 a person, and we just drove the 3.5 hours to KC (favourite part of the drive was some random, massive titty bar just off I70, about 70 miles outside KC...God Bless America).
The game day experience was a ton of fun. Got there three hours before the game to tailgate and it was amazing to see how much cooking was going on. We read in advance to just offer up beers and people who happily share their grub, so we brought a 36 pack and gave a bunch away and had a full belly going into the game. Bills fans showed out huge and there was a massive pile of tables in one of the rows where they had taken over. So many random jerseys too (Kelvin Benjamin Bills jersey? LeSean McCoy Chiefs jersey?) that just make you laugh. Going into the stadium itself was pretty ridiculous, very poorly structured to get good lines flowing, its kind of just chaotic with no rhyme or reason. But made it inside with about 20 minutes before kickoff so had no time really to explore the stadium.
We were in the second level, about halfway up, and still felt like we were right on top of the field. Not a bad seat in the house I would say. Sat on the Chiefs side and was stunned by how much Bills Mafia took over the lower bowl on the Bills side, I would say at least 30% of the fans were in blue. Even the Chiefs fans I talked too were impressed how many Bills fans were there. It was thankfully not too bad for cold, but it helps when 76,000 people are all standing and producing lots of body heat with the support. And being Canadian helps cause you know how to bundle. Whenever there was a break and people would sit down is when the cold got more noticeable. Bathrooms are well set up with actual entrances and exits so no bad lines, but definitely the first stadium in North America I've seen with troughs in the bathroom. So not a great stadium for the pee shy. And while it was definitely loud in there it was only really hard to think loud in the biggest plays, but having been to many metal shows over the years it wasn't anything crushing. But the lower bowl might be a different story. Still impressive how loud they get without pumping in the noise like the Colts.
As for the game itself it was obvious right away that Josh was nervous and a big part of me thinks if the Chiefs didn't force a play for Pacheco that caused the fumble they might have won a laugher. Probably would have gone up 14-3 and the pressure on the Bills might have made Josh force the ball more. But after that it was a very even game, both pass rushes struggled to get much going so the QBs were comfortable, Bills did great with the outside runs but strangely went away from it in the fourth quarter. I know there was a lot of criticism for that third and 10 screen play that set up the final fourth down, but when Cooper caught it I thought he was gone, the Bills had 3 v 2 once he caught it, but Karlaftis made a hell of a play to get back there to tackle Cooper. Wasn't quite like 13 seconds as a classic, but it was still a phenomenal game and an incredible atmosphere, and I wish it could be Sunday at 530pm KC time again.
The exit process, well, it's ####ed. No transit options to get to the stadium, and Uber is a non-starter since we read horror stories of people waiting hours after games to get picked up. So we drove and yeah it was probably an hour to get out, and because you have tons of drivers trying to get out, and tons of fans trying to get to their cars, it seems like a recipe for disaster. Saw many close calls of people nearly getting hit by cars. But better to slowly wait in the warm car then praying for an Uber or cab. But $70 USD to park in GA, or $330 USD to be in the gold lot....yeah. But whatever, no other real option.
Overall it was worth every penny. I think something like that is far better bang for buck than a Super Bowl cause the atmosphere is much more intense than the corporate schmooze that is the Super Bowl. And now we're all hoping the Bills can host the rematch next year so we can go experience that too.
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