By Felicia
Each stadium basically defines the city it represents. The Raiders have Oakland-Alameda Coliseum known for face-painted fans; colorful fans and laid back city a big contrast compared to the subdued KC fan.
From my hotel I could look across the freeway and see Arrowhead Stadium. On Sunday people from the hotel cheerfully made the walk over, to the stadium including me. Boy was I grateful I brought flat shoes. I don’t think I’ve walked like that since making the walk to junior high school from the 34 bus stop in downtown Oakland!
In the lobby the day before the game Chief fans were in the hotel mingling, drinking and mixing with other Raider fans; it’s like one big family. Some people have made the trip for 30-plus years and others were bringing their kids for the first time.
I met the cutest family with a gorgeous daughter named Hailey who reminded me so much of my niece Kaylea. She watched the exchanges between the Raiders and Chiefs fans with a sweet smile on her face.
It was the first year her parents brought she and her brother to a game and for the life of me I can’t remember the state their drove from but it was a drive. Poor child, I can only imagine what she was thinking.
On game day I walked through hills and valley’s (well not really but you get the picture) only to be told by the man in the Will Call booth that the Media Will Call was another couple hundred feet away from where I was.
Although I am supposed to be biased and I try my best, I felt like I was in a bad dream amongst all of that sea of red and yellow walking through the parking lot with my laptop stern across my shoulder, iPod in ear (so I couldn’t hear anyone talking crazy) and a growing case of throbbing feet.
Yea, I know I said I had on flat shoes but they still had a heel, plus I was dealing with puffy feet from the flight to K.C. For some reason I couldn’t seem to find a Silver and Black color in the house. Not until I offered to take a picture of two couples who were Raiders fans, in front of the stadium that were from Nebraska!
Arrowhead is definitely a building designed in the Jetsons heyday but it’s a classic and I like that. The people at the stadium were so friendly but the fans; they hate Oakland like Oakland hates New England. Any word of being from California they will automatically assumed you’re here for the Raiders and their faces change like a kid who was told he didn’t get his favorite toy for Christmas.
In the Press room I ran into, former NFL wide receiver Curtis Conway who I've known for years. The husband of Laila Ali he still looks like he can go for a bomb pass like his days in Chicago. Now the newbie to the radio announcing world is officially a member of the media and I sure teased him about it too. Congrats to he and Laila and their beautiful new son!
The Press box is night and day compared to Oakland. It is very quiet but they feed you constantly supplying us with big sub sandwiches, after the game. Sweet! After the game in Oakland all we do is eat popcorn.
Kansas City it is Middle America, a red state to the core. I went to a Marshalls Megastore after getting lost coming from the airport and found nothing. Is that humanly possible? Everything was for cold weather. Shoot, it was warm in KC; do you have anything besides a wool coat and shirts with big plaid fluffy scarfs?
The pre-game video montage at Arrowhead was full of country music stars, current and former players and the young and old. A beautiful horse rode onto the field (I don’t know why I couldn’t hear from the box) at halftime and they had three former Chiefs do a halftime performance. I thought they were the four tops! It looked like the Superbowl.
O.k., I will try to be nice but…the Chiefs cheerleaders. Hmm…let me say this, we are very spoiled in Oakland with the Raiderettes. I saw mid-sections and weave jobs Stevie Wonder could do a better job at. Sorry!
But the thing that caught my attention first was at the end of the nation anthem, I’m waiting to get teary from the flyover and the part where it says: And the home of the brave, instead I heard ‘And the home of the…'CHIEFS.’
The person sang the anthem the right way; however, the fans overpowered them and yelled it out in unison. I don’t know how I feel about that, we are serving the flag and people are dying daily for our freedom, for us to be changing it for some football game.
The second thing was this mascot. His name is KC Wolf but he is a grey thing that looks like a goofy rabbit. I had a conversation with someone with a big name in the NFL and they swore it looked like a rodent. How could a team be deemed as tough with a silly mascot running around and bouncing on someone dressed as a Raider player? Wooo, I’m soooo scared!
The third thing; the team name Chiefs. I am sensitive to political correctness especially those involving Native Americans. At one point in the game the fans started chanting like they were in a tribe and doing a tomahawk, which made me uncomfortable.
Outside of California it’s probably not a big deal but I guess they feel they have to keep something Chief-related since they changed their mascot from a Chief to a rat, I mean a rabbit, I mean wolf.
I’m clicking my heals three times like Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz, There’s no place like home, There’s no place like home……...
