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'The World's Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party': Unbeatable
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Professional teams are constantly being measured by their on-field success and their fan base. In Major League Baseball there is the argument of who has the best fans. Is it Red Sox Nation or The Lovable Losers in Chicago or the Dynasty-Driven Yankee Die-Hards or the Philly Fanatics? Up here in Boston we like to point out the waiting lists for season tickets for the Red Sox and Patriots. We like to flaunt the rich history of the Red Sox, Celtics, and Bruins and the recent success of the New England Patriots. The arrogance of us as fans far exceeds any other pro-driven region with the possible exception of New York. The Boston media and the fans are arrogant enough to award us a medal for our faithfulness to our teams.
This past weekend I witnessed fandom at its finest. Being raised in the Northeast and having gone to college and lived no where else but the Northeast, pro sports has dominated my life. I have always been a college football and basketball fan, watching games on television, taking part in office pools for the Bowl Games and March Madness, but I have never really experienced college football fandom. I have been to numerous Boston College Football games including games against Notre Dame. Northeast College Football and even Northeast professional sports, are both amateur hours compared to SEC Football.
The World's Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party lived up to its hype. The chants started at eight o'clock on Halloween night in Jacksonville. However Halloween was second billing to the real reason why hundreds of thousands of people flocked to the otherwise dead city of Jacksonville, Florida. The Florida Gators were taking on the Georgia Bulldogs in a matchup of two SEC powerhouses in the neutral site of Jaguar Stadium on Saturday afternoon. Many fans already had their tailgates set up all around the stadium days before the game.
After a long night of partying Saturday morning came quick for us Northerners in foreign territory. We pulled ourselves out of bed at eight in the morning to head to the stadium for a three-thirty game. The highways were already packed, trucks had trailers with smokers already smoking meats following their tailgates. Every car on the road either had Bulldogs flags and decals or Gator flags and decals. Once we arrived to the stadium it took an hour to find our tailgate party. Most of the fans were already ten beers deep and had already polished off a rack of ribs and a turkey leg by the time we got settled. The place was already pandemonium and back home in Boston, most people hadn't even got up and grabbed the Herald and a Dunkin coffee yet.
Since my friends and I had no real allegiance to either team we asked the resident Floridian who had the better fans and more importantly the better looking female fans. He gave us the red light so we went out and purchased Bulldog sweatshirts, visors, train conductor hats, and tee shirts. We were pumped to be a part of this type of fandom none of us have ever experienced.
Nearly every tailgate had a satellite dish with ESPN Game Day on the television. Every tailgate had southern barbecue smoke clouding the air. Every tailgate was dominated by either blue and orange or red and black. Every tailgate had fans chanting and cheering and noon had not even hit.
At a Patriots game ninety five percent of the parking lots are full of fans who have tickets to the game. In Jacksonville, not even half of the people in the lots were going into the game. It was physically impossible due to the size of the stadium versus the size of the fans. Tens of thousands of fans would stay and watch the game in the lots or head to area bars or of course to a place that makes Mardi Gras look like Sunday Morning Mass, The Landing.
The crowd at The Landing did not wane at all throughout the course of the night. Even though Georgia got blown out by thirty nine points, their fans stayed true to The World's Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party, and they partied all night long. Daylight savings even gave the fans an extra hour of drinking and that hour was fully taken advantage of. That means the majority of fans partied for nineteen hours that day. Red Sox Nation does not compare to this. Patriots tailgates doesn't even sniff the butt of a Bulldog Barbecue or a Gator Grill. BC Football? Go back to the mods!
The Boston Media, myself included, really don't know about die hard fandom because we are living in a professional town. We are living in a world of consecutive game sellouts that is helped out by corporations buying up half of the seats. We are living in a world that if our teams lose we go home. After going to The World's Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party, I am an even more jealous Boston fan. I am not jealous of the Phillies winning what ended up a "Little League World Series." I am not jealous of Peyton Manning's younger brother getting lucky on a couple of tosses to beat the undefeated Patriots. I am jealous of what SEC fans get to experience. I am jealous that drinking on the streets of Boston for one weekend a year will never happen due to the bitterness of fans in win or lose situations. SEC fans know how to party, but more importantly they know how to party without getting angry.
So when fans and the media put down fan bases like the Tampa Ray Tourists, the Florida Marlin Flounders, and the Atlanta Brave-less, and pump up Red Sox Nation and the Cleveland Brown Dogpound, keep in mind SEC football. If there is one place every sports fan needs to go in 2009, it is to Jacksonville, Florida for The World's Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party. Bring plenty of Pepto Bismol, Tums, Pepcid AC, Tylenol, and Paxil, because that is a cocktail you'll need to start your day off before you enter the world of SEC football.
(Special: Pictures to follow this article)
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