Football on Thurday night? Yes, football on Thursday night.
Last week, Seattle was introduced to Thursday Night football, part of the NFL’s never-ending quest to monopolize an even greater portion of American sports fans’ media consumption. It used to be they just played on Sunday. Then, once the college season was over, they started playing on Saturdays. Then, 40 years ago, they started to play on Monday nights too. Five years ago, they expanded it to Thursdays for the second half of the season. So now, in December you can watch NFL football four days a week. What a wondrous age we live in. On to the pictures!
I long ago tired of shooting the player intros from the field, so this game I decided to shoot the player intros from the stands above the tunnel. It’s a nice elevated angle, but it’s too crowded with too many people until all but the last few players are introduced. With the combination of light, smoke, music, the environment oozes testosterone to a practically intoxicating level.
Some fan in seats above the tunnel handed Marshawn Lych a 12th Man flag to wave as he was the last to be introduced. Lynch had a monster game, dominating the Eagles to the tune of 148 yards and two touchdowns:
The Eagles backup quarterback, Vince Young, was pressed into service by injury and had a performance approximately 180 degrees from Lynch. He threw four interceptions, including one returned for a touchdown:
Seahawks coach Pete Carroll enjoyed the game-clinching score:
Over on the opposite sideline, the sentiment wasn’t quite as merry:
Eagles fans attending the game seemed to finally grasp that the preseason pick to reach the Super Bowl wasn’t going to come to fruition.
While I won’t say that I’m a fan of night games, especially against East Coast teams like Philadelphia, with the accompanying early deadlines those cities entail, I will admit that having a Sunday off is quite enjoyable. Good news for my Sunday next week: the Seahawks host a game on Monday instead.
More blog posts to come soon!
