American Football

On Saturday I went to my first American Football game! 

UMass vs Rhode Island. 

Tailgating

But the most important part about going to the football (according to everyone I’ve met) is the tailgate! Tailgating is when everyone hangs out outside the stadium a few hours before with lots of food, some drinks and a few random games/activities. My suite-mate Allie let us stuff her car full of food and we drove down to the stadium. 

Cops pulling apart the crowd

During the tailgating we roamed around, and spotted a huuuuge crowd. Next thing we saw was a couple of cops- on their horses- entering the crowd. It turns out someone passed out and they were trying to make space around him so that he didn’t get trampled on or anything before the ambulance got there. However, this attracted a lot of attention, and soon there was an even bigger crowd, full of people chanting “wake up” to the unconscious kid. The ambo’s came, he woke up, everyone moved along. 

Go UMASSS!

Eventually we made it inside the stadium, where we could see the marching band, the cheerleaders, the dance team, and lots of UMass fans. Absolutely no Rhode Island fans!  Eventually the teams came out, and we learnt a few UMass cheers. Allie kindly explained the rules to me throughout the game.. And yet I’m still confused. There is a lot of time spent waiting. The quarters are only 15 minutes – so the game should be 60 minutes, but they stop the clock every time anything happens. The game went for a good three and a half hours! But I enjoyed it, despite the cold.

Marching Band!

The highlight was half-time when the marching band did a massive performance. There were sooo many of them, and it’s all choreographed. Adourable.

   

UMass won! And there were fireworks after. Woo.