Week 8 - Superburrl I

I've grown accustomed to the landscape of Scotland in the last couple of years. It's a pretty bleak place to be honest. However, it is bleak in a desolate, wild and charming kind of way. England on the other hand is bleak in a slightly more depressing way. Once you get a bit past Manchester the people become notably less friendly, the vista loses that certain post-industrial charm, and the air becomes thicker with smoke every inch closer you get to London. However, as we hurtled down the A1 in our little Fiat Punto our spirits would not be dampened. We embraced the Englishmen and their ways, particularly the accent. Even the sore sight of Bedfordshire couldn't ruin our mood. Why? Because we were going to Wembley to watch the New York Giants take on the Miami Dolphins in the National Football League. (Baby!)

After a day seeing the sights of London we were well and truly "pumped" about the prospect of Wembley. Of course we got our tourism on beforehand - St Paul's Cathedral, the Tate Modern, Westminster, the Eye. We even found ourselves some Krispy Kreme doughnuts...

But come Sunday 2pm it was time to hit the Underground at Piccadilly Station, and patiently wait on our train until we finally arrived in Wembley Central. A short walk and we were there - Wembley Stadium, London. Considering neither Ireland nor the Bears were playing, I could not have been more excited and I wasn't disappointed on entering. When you sit down in Wembley you know you're going to have a perfect seat wherever you are. You know that you are only 60 seconds away from a queueless food stall or queueless toilets. You know just everything is going to be awesome.

And then there were the Miami cheerleaders...

My five Philadelphia compadres and I enjoyed a full hour and a half of dogs, doughnuts and jeering the Giants team as they warmed up on the field. It may have developed into a tough, wet, horrible game of football, but the experience was phenomenal, climaxing with the ultimate high five with Glen when the Dolphins finally scored a touchdown with a minute left on the clock. "Touchdown, Dolphins! T - O - U - C - H - D - O - W - N! Touchdown!"

So the Giants won again in London, England and those fuckers, Green Bay won too. However it turns out not knowing what is happening in a Bears game only makes me more anxious about them. Particularly when they're taking on their bitter NFC North rivals at Soldier Field. Of course they lost. And as I said, their even more bitter rivals then won in overtime on Monday Night to go 6 - 1 for the season. Though I guess things could be worse - I could be supporting the Minnesota Vikings and losing my hair.

Green Bay Packers 19
Denver Broncos 13

Detroit Lions 16
Chicago Bears 7

Philadelphia Eagles 23
Minnesota Vikings 16

New York Giants 13
Miami Dolphins 10