Most of the people I meet in my life, can tell right away that I am a football player, and by deductive reasoning, that means that I must love football. So you can definitely assume that one of my most favorite memories was my first football game. And for the record I am a Philadelphia Eagles fan. So you must understand how excited I was when I got the news.

In 2006, I was a 10 year old little boy religiously sitting in front of the TV every Sunday to support my team, win or lose cheering right along with my dad. Today’s game was against the hated rivals, the Redskins, at one o’clock. As the excitement began to rise in us diehard fans, the phone rang. My mom answered it, as she usually does, “Hello, Piser residents.” “Oh, hello Rob, how are you?”, “Oh really, let me talk to Pete.”, “Pete! Come here!”. Then all I heard was mumbling, and then the phone was hung up. My parents came down the stairs, and without any chance to ask what the phone call was about, I was told to put all of my Eagles stuff on. So of course, as the child I am, I went up the stairs, put all of it on, and back down the stairs I came. “Now Ben, guess what!”, my parents asked me in unison. “What?”, “You’re going to the Eagles game!!”, “What? No way! But its already 11!”, “Yes, we know, that’s why you have to leave now, Dad will take you. But first you have to go pick up the tickets.” my mom answered. So into the car my dad and I went, excited out of our minds. But as we started driving to go pick up the tickets, the rain started to come down. We picked up the tickets from my parent’s friend in New London PA, and then went on our way to the stadium. Now, You may be surprised when I tell you that the game wasn’t my favorite part of this memory, it was the time I spent with my dad, and the rain.

This being my first game, I wanted to get to see the whole game, regardless of the rain. We had the best seats, right below the eagle head in the top section. You get the best vantage point, and can see the whole field from these seats. The rain was coming down hard all game, and at halftime the Eagles were up 17-3. My dad turned to me and said, “Do you want to go home? The rain is coming down hard, and this jacket isn't really a rain jacket.”, “Dad, we’re at the Eagles’ game. You don’t leave because of a little rain!” I responded. So we stayed through the third quarter, and my dad asked again, “Ben, do you still want to stay? They are up by a lot.”, “Yes Dad, I’m sure.”. So we sat in our seats, alone, all of the fans around us had left. My dad and I stayed for the rest of the game, and sprinted to the car, and with only one one wrong turn, made it home safe and sound.