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Somewhat limited by a family holiday, our NFL trip in 2002 had to be to Florida. Due to poor scheduling on the part of the NFL & NCAA, we spent a large part of our time driving up and down Florida's Turnpike. Nice! |
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After a long drive down from Orlando, the signs for the Orange Bowl were more than welcome. We circled the stadium for a while, and finally decided on an official Park & Ride lot (although we never did locate the "Ride" part), a short distance away. For five dollars we were not going to complain!
It was a lovely warm day, but there were showers all throughout the afternoon. So much for sunny Florida!
It was the final game of the season, and the graduating seniors were honoured by having their numbers plastered on the chest of a cheerleader. We doubt the players complained. |
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The cheeries give their bodies to the graduating seniors. |
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A sunny (?) day in Miami. |
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The fans were in high spirits, especially as two of their starters were on the final Heisman nomination list (a week later it was announced that Willis McGahee (RB) and Ken Dorsey (QB) were beaten into 4th & 5th place respectively). Also riding on the game was the continuation of the 'Canes unbeaten run and the Big East title, as well as a spot in the Tostitos Fiesta Bowl. It was a sea of orange (where have we seen that before??), spattered with green.
The flypast by Marine Corps helicopters at the start of the game was a nice prelude to this highflying game. Occasional showers did little to dampen the offences. Dorsey and McGahee lead the high-powered Miami offence that rushed for 258 yds and passed for 301 yds. McGahee rushed for 6 TDs and Dorsey passed for two, one to WR Andre Johnson and the other to TE Kellen Winslow Jr (whose father was a TE with the Chargers and is enshrined in the hall of fame in Canton). RB Jarrett Payton rushed for 45 yds (his father is the late, great Walter Payton). |
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McGahee scores one of six rushing TDs. |
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Jarrett Payton - like father like son. |
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On the other side of the ball after being down 0-14 at the end of the 1st qtr, VT kept pace with Miami. QB Brian Randall threw for 168 yds and a TD to WR Shawn Witten. Randall also rushed for 126 yds (shades of former VT QB Michael Vick). RB Lee Suggs scored three TDs on 60 yds and TE Ernest Wilford caught for a TD from back up QB Grant Noel. Kicker Carter Warley completed the scoring with a 20 yd FG. VT’s other back up QB also has a famous relative, he is freshman Marcus Vick, younger brother of Michael. |
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The 'other' Vick - little bro Marcus. |
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Miami won easily after stretching it out early to complete a 12-0 season. In a ceremony after the game Miami were invited to contend the national championship against Ohio State on 3rd January at the Fiesta Bowl in Tempe, Arizona. |
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"We're on our way to Wembley Tempe, we're on our way to Tempe, la-la-la-la..."
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FINAL SCORE: Virginia Tech Hokies 45 - 56 University of Miami Hurricanes |
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Tampa Bay bought sunnier weather, which we deserved after the previous night's driving. We decided that as the Tampa game kicked off at 1pm, we'd drive halfway there on Saturday night. And it meant some time off the Turnpike. The drive from Miami to Fort Myers was a very dark one, on an unlit road through the Everglades. There are no exits and no service stations. Fuel was getting low and with no mobile phone it's difficult to get help. If the car had broken down, Lou would have too. Thankfully therewas one petrol station, and we arrived to find that most of the 'Cains fans on the road had also decided to stop. But we digress...
It was great to finally see the famous pirate ship, even if it did block part of our view of the near endzone. Bloody foliage! |
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The Bucs' ship - looks nice, but the plants blocked our view of the Endzone! |
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QB Michael Vick was held to 125 yds passing for the second time this season by Tampa Bay, and only 15 yds rushing. He was also intercepted twice although one was nullified by a TB defensive penalty. |
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Gratuitous cheerie photo! |
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It was a scoreless 1st qtr that kept Atlanta punter Chris Mohr busy. He played for the Montreal Machine in 1991! In the 2nd, Tampa came alive as former London Monarch Brad Johnson threw 3 TD passes, a couple to Joe Jurevicius and one to Keenan McCardell. The Falcons were only able to answer with a 30 yd Jay Feely field goal to take it to the locker room 21-3. |
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A big photo of Brad Johnson, one of the biggest Monarchs of all time (no, The Fridge doesn't count!). |
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Jurevicius makes one of the day's TD catches. |
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Punter Chris Mohr from the Montreal Machine, 1991. And that guy diving to block is Ron Warner from the 2002 Dragons. "It's a small world (league) after all"... |
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In the 3rd qtr Atlanta could only go 3 and out as Brad Johnson crafted 55 and 66 yd drives that were capped by Martin Gramatica field goals from 42 & 21 yds. |
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Gramatica makes one of the day's field goals. |
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In the 4th qtr Michael Vick finally passed for a touchdown to the wonderfully named TE Alge Crumpler. Johnson then threw his fourth TD to McCardell (his second) to close out the scoring at 34-10. Johnson passed for 276 yds and 4 TDs with a passer rating of 140.6. Rushers Mike Alstott, Michael Pittman and former Claymore Aaron Stecker combined for 150 yds. |
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The boys did good - Our Brad hands off to former Claymore Stecker |
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The big story though was the Tampa defence lead by Warren Sapp and Simeon Rice. Despite losing Pro Bowl safety John Lynch to injury early in the 1st qtr, they applied huge pressure on Vick and shut down his rushing game. They also held the Falcons leading receiver Brian Finneran, a former all NFL-EL player with the Dragons, to just 3 yds on 2 receptions. |
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Vick on the run to avoid the sack (or should that be Sapp?). |
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After the game we headed to the players' entrance to see some of the guys leaving. Sadly, there was no sign of our man Brad, but it was great to see the reaction given to some of Tampa's guys, especially head coach Jon Gruden. They love him in Tampa, and Lou was very happy with her Gruden pendant with the flashing eyes (look out for it!). |
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Chucky looks on from the sidelines. |
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Two down, one to go...back down the Turnpike to Miami!!
FINAL SCORE: Atlanta Falcons 10 - 34 Tampa Bay Buccaneers |
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A guy selling ponchos walked past as we parked up our car. Neither of us reached for our wallets. This was probably silly as the water was being pumped out of the car park next to ours... |
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We took a stroll up to the stadium and collected our tickets. The entertainment outside NFL stadiums is beginning to improve, especially on Monday nights. There's usually a local sports talk radio station and the omnipresent MBNA, maybe a charity or competition. Miami had the best entertainment we've seen in a long while...A BEER TENT! There was also a merchandise stand, and Ian bought a poncho. Lou's reaction was "I'm not paying $10 for a plastic poncho!". |
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We decided to return our purchases to the car. As we got to the car it began to rain. Where was the poncho guy now? We sat in the car until it cleared and headed back to the stadium. Just as we got close it began to rain, so we made a dash for the beer tent. It continued to rain. And rain. And rain. Buckets of it. For ages. So Lou relented and paid her $10 for a cheap plastic poncho. Eventually it pretty much stopped and it was time to head inside for the game. |
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It poured down during the 2nd qtr. We got under our ponchos and the rain just ran over and on to the floor. The shower probably cost us a dollar/minute, but it was worth every penny! Next time we'll pack the yellow ones from Disneyland! |
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Our Monday night football game was more memorable for the players that were on the field during the halftime show than what happened on the field during regulation.
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The Dolphins, behind the rushing of Ricky Williams, cruised to an easy victory ahead of a struggling Bears team. Williams rushed for 216 yds and 2 TDs including a 63 yarder, his longest rush of the season, before handing over to Travis Minor with 10 minutes left. QB Jay Fiedler (Amsterdam 97) passed for 196 yds and a TD to TE Jed Weaver. WR Cris Carter caught his first pass as a Dolphin for 8 yds. Olindo Mare completed Miami’s scoring with field goals of 23, 7 and 29 yds. |
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Ricky Williams makes one of his two touchdowns. |
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Former Admiral Fiedler tries to get one past Keith Traylor. Traylor played for the Barcelona Dragons in 1995. |
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Cris Carter made his first catch for the Dolphins at the game. |
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For Chicago, starting QB Jim Miller (Frankfurt 95) was pulled after completing 3 of 12 for 9 yds and 1 int. Backups Chris Chandler and Henry Burris were just as bad. The 3 QBs combined for 101 yds with 3 interceptions and 1 TD, a 6 yarder to Marty Booker. This gave the group a combined QB rating of 15.2. Burris was also the lead rusher. The only good point was kick returns (they had enough practice) with former Berlin star Ahmad Merritt returning for a combined 140 yds. But let’s not depress Bears fans any more. |
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Former Frankfurt QB Jim Miller didn't look too hot... |
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...but neither did future Berlin QB Henry Burris. |
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The halftime show was very special, as 2002 is the 30th Anniversary of the NFL's only undefeated season. In 1972, the Dolphins went 17-0. To commemorate this the Dolphins retired the jersey of the their leading rusher that year, Larry Csonka. For the ceremony, the entire 1972 team came out wearing their jerseys and Dolphin alumni including Dan Marino (whose jersey is also retired) were also in attendance. It was great being amongst a group of older fans who remembered that year. Each player was introduced individually, including Hall of Famers LB Nick Bioniconti, QB Bob Griese (the only other Dolphin whose jersey is retired), C Jim Langer, G Larry Little, WR Paul arfield, and Larry Csonka who was introduced by hall of fame head coach Don Shula. The ceremony overran but the players, coaches and referees just came out and watched the last 10 minutes. The respect from them, and the crowd, was overwhelming. We are honoured to have been there to see it. |
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The Czonka number retirement ceremony was an impressive and emotional affair. |
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Many other former Dolphins Alumni were on hand, sporting jacket that any Masters champion would be proud of. |
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After the game we returned to the car, safe in the knowledge that Tuesday morning would bring our final drive up the Turnpike. Well, for a couple of days anyway...
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FINAL SCORE: Chicago Bears 9 - 27 Miami Dolphins |
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All photos are owned by Ian Mathias. Please seek permission if you wish to reproduce them. Email us at beerleaders@hotmail.com. |
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