#greatsportsweek

The genesis of what turned out to be one of the coolest sports experiences of my long life of sports watching came in September when Linda gifted me with two tickets to the November 13 Steelers-Saints game at Acrisure Stadium.  Then about three weeks ago, Linda made mention of having never been on a road trip to see her beloved Penguins play.  A check of the schedule, a few clicks on the inter webs and BAM! we had ourselves tickets to see the Pens play the Capitals in Washington on Wednesday, November 9 and room reservations in the Chinatown section of DC, a three minute walk to the Capital One Arena.

Following your hometown team on the road is something that I have never done, and I found it to be an incredibly cool experience, and we were not alone, far from it.  The proximity of Washington to Pittsburgh makes a game at the Cap One Arena a virtual home game for the Penguins.  We met a couple of Pens fans from Harrisburg who said it's closer for them to come see the Pens play in DC than is would be in Pittsburgh.

That the Pens won 4-1 was a bonus, and when the victory became apparent, we got a text from our friend Tim Baker who said "Now you have to head over the The Steps."  In a tradition that began during one of the Pens' Cup years, Penguins fans head across the street the steps of the National Portrait Gallery to cheer for the victory and harass - in a good natured manner - the Caps and their fans.

Here's Linda as the crowd begins to gather....

...and coalesce into a full scale mob.... 

Then the rhythmic cheers begin...."Let's Go Pens"......"This is our house"....."You can't beat us"....."We've got five Cups"....and my personal favorite "Crosby's better".

It's hard to explain, but it turned into one of the coolest experiences I've ever had at a sporting event.  And the Caps fans who walked by were cool with it too.  Oh, there were a few middle fingers thrown to the Pens' crowd, but there were smiles as they were flipped, and most Caps fans just walked by and smiled at the scene.

As we were standing in line to get into the Arena for the hockey game, I said "I wonder when the Wizards are playing next?".  A check of the schedule showed that they would be at home the very next night playing the Dallas Mavericks.  Again, a few clicks on the phone, and we had tickets to see the Wizards go up against the Mavs and their superstar player, Luka Doncic.

We had really nice seats for the game, and the home team Wizards won 113-105, but the disappointment of the night was seeing Doncic held to only 17 points and, in fact, play pretty poorly.  Three nights later, Doncic put up 44 points and had a triple double.  Oh well, even superstars can have off nights, and as I always say, nothing is guaranteed when you buy a ticket to a sporting event.

Both the Caps and the Wizards games were played to crowds of 18,000 plus.

Before that basketball game on Thursday, we did some sightseeing that included seeing Hamilton (the statue of the first Treasury Secretary, not the musical). the White House, Washington Monument, World War II Memorial (a must see), the Viet Nam War Memorial, and one of my favorite spots, the Lincoln Memorial.

Linda decided to count the steps that you need to climb to get to see Abe sitting in that chair, and it came out to 87 steps.  Considering that we were there to see the Penguins play, that was a pretty serendipitous number.

You can't do the Nation's Capital in a day, can't even come close.   Perhaps a four or five day trip needs to be planned.  Going to have to check that Pirates schedule for '23 to see when they visit the Nationals and then plan for a longer stay.

So in the space of 24 hours, we had seen an NHL and an NBA game, and two days after getting home, we went to an NFL game.

I had not seen a Steelers game in person since I passed my season tickets on to my nephews back in 2003, and as easy and comfortable and hassle free as it is to watch on your TV set in your living room, I was very much looking forward to it.  I was not let down.  We had nice seats as you can see from the photo above, I got to experience the player introductions, including the crowd going berserk when T.J. Watt was introduced, got to see something called "Here We Go", which is an apparent pregame fixture about the Terrible Towel,  saw the Pittsburgh Steel Line, a drum line that plays at home games, and maybe best of all, got to experience the playing of "Renegade" early in the fourth quarter.   None of these things existed back when I attended my last Steelers game in the flesh.

And, oh yeah, the Steelers won, 20-10.  Life was good.

Unless someone comes through with airplane tickets to Qatar and primo seats for the World Cup later this month, I don't know how this past sports week can be topped.