Last year the sports editor for our school paper went to New Jersey for a Devils’ game, wrote about it, and garnered fame far across the land.  In an effort to procure similar attention I’ve decided to summarize my Vikings’ game experience during a trip to the Twin Cities last weekend.

20 bucks.  That’s all it cost me for 50-yard-line tickets to a game against the Detroit Lions.  One guy said that’s all it’s worth, since the Lions are more like lambs, but I later concluded he was senile and probably a croquette fan, since the Vikings alone made it a steal.  I received some added entertainment value for my purchase when the scalpers I was bartering with nearly started a brawl outside the stadium.

“Don’t (expletive) buy off that guy,” argued scalper #1, followed by a “go (expletive) yourself” and a feigned right hook from scalper #2.  All in front of simple families, children, and probably a nun somewhere.

The passion, people!  You haven’t seen it if you haven’t seen football in America.

The game’s result was as expected. Peterson, Favre and Sidney Rice illustrated why the Vikings are awesome and why the Lions are brutal.  But aside from that there were plenty of other highlights.

Everyone beaks Americans for their eating habits, and the stereotype was strengthened after witnessing the gallons of beer, soda and popcorn the vendors dished out.  You know when you get a large popcorn at an event and say “man I’m a donkey, who the hell can eat this much popcorn?”  Well multiply that large popcorn by two and the fine people from the “Land of 10,000 Lakes” still don’t have that problem.  In fact they say, “you know what would go great with this? A couple of foot-longs and a gallon of beer.”

The Metrodome itself is pretty impressive.  It’s basically Commonwealth Stadium with a roof.  Throw in 64,000 screaming, purple-clad fans and it’s easy to see why it’s one of the loudest stadiums in North America.  It was contagious – and quasi-scary.  After a blown helmet-to-helmet call, I was sure everyone wanted to rape and pillage some distant country.  The Scandinavian cheer they do probably had something to do with it.

Don’t forget about the camouflage.  I’m a hunter myself, but I’ve never thought of any place other than the great outdoors to sport camo gear.  Well in Minny they love their Cabela’s as much as we love Tim Horton’s, so promoting it in as many places as possible is the thing to do.

Aside from that, though, the stadium is a lot like Rexall – old with narrow concourses.  Plus it has only two small “big screens,” which may have kept AP from posting three TD’s in the game.

A new stadium is first on the Vikes’ list of things to do, which is great since the Wild’s Xcell Energy Center in St. Paul is first class, not to mention the Gopher’s football stadium.

The city is comparable to Edmonton as well.  Sure the cold weather is the same (or nice weather if you want to take the current situation) but it has that rural, blue-collar feel to it, with a nice river-valley and a passion for hockey.

So if you want a home-away-from-home and a great sports city, then Minny is a good place to check out.

Just save room for the popcorn.