Notes from First Arrowhead Trip

[NoHuddleKelly12]

First let me doff the cap to most of the KC fans this weekend—welcoming, genuine and all around good sports is what my experience was. I was a little bit nervous that my son’s first regular season Bills game would be an away game, and how that would go, but I needn’t have worried whatsoever. We both had a blast. A minor exception would be a few hotheads who lost their minds in the final few minutes of the game and let loose with profanity riddled screaming diatribes (not directly at me or my 8yr old) that I was doing my best to shield my son from by way of me sending over the shoulder disapproving “dad” stares in the direction of said persons, but to zero effect. 😁 

 

Only heckling I got all day sounded like this: “No, don’t go Bills…but I hope you have a great time, and safe travel back!” 😂

 

Our local guide for this trip was my Chiefs fanatic nephew, who along with his wife, arranged getting the tickets and showed us around everywhere. 

 

We started out from my brother’s house in Independence KS, close to the Oklahoma line, meaning an almost 3 hour car ride up to KC…but talking football with my nephew helped that go by quick. (Side note—KS roadways are catnip for speeders like me, as the roads are straightaways for miles, no hills or cop presence in rural communities to worry about, and well maintained).

 

First stop was QC39 BBQ in Overland Park by 11:15am local time, where we beat the worst of the lunch rush, and I counted at least 5 other tables of Bills fans…a good sign! I had the Brisket sandwich with a side of their 5-cheese Parmesan encrusted Mac, and let’s just say this was almost worth the trip by itself. 

 

@Zerovoltz, there should never be any doubt about how solid that place’s BBQ game is. 

 

Then we headed to the stadium lots, (long car ride when that trash Tech N9ne KCMO anthem is blaring) which were about 3/4 full by 12:45, and heavy rising smoke from the tailgaters. Saw plenty of Bills fans sprinkled like seasoning throughout the tailgates, and witnessed zero fights or altercations of any kind between the 2 sides, fwiw.

 

Went into the stadium when gates opened at 1:30, and were “treated” to a tour of the Lombardi trophy cases and other Chefs propaganda by my gleeful nephew…all in good fun of course. Another side note—amongst all the Chiefs historical dioramas, hung a Bills letterman jacket straight from the 60’s, in the case talking about the early years of the League. We got to go down to field level seats and watch warmups—Stef and Gabe came over to where we were and waved—Gabe played catch a few times with the Bills fans near us, but no autographs were signed by any players that I could see. What I thought was kind of cool was Diggs playing corner against Davis for some of their drills, and Davis always caught those contested throws—unlike the game of course 😢. 

 

Also got to see Sal Capaccio hold court with some fans in the roped off VIP experience paint, signing autographs and taking selfies like he was on the team or something! 🤷 (Whatevs…I’m just jealous he didn’t make it over to our area). BTW, Bass made all of his warmup kicks until getting to about 45+ yards out—he for sure missed the 55 yarder he attempted, by kicking at least 5-10 yards short of the goal posts—I wonder if McD had this in mind when he decided a Hail Mary was preferable to trotting Bass out right before the half? 

 

Then on to our actual seats in Section 302, Row 4, on 40 yard line–they were great—far enough away to have an all-22 type vantage point, but still close enough to clearly see jersey numbers, and feel like we were right over the action. Bathrooms were “vintage,” with Chiefs fans in line being good humored about the troughs and only 2 stalls setup—they know these are originals in sore need of upgrades! 

 

Concessions are what you’d expect—a pretzel and 2 waters cost 20 bucks for example, and beers were 14 on the cheap domestic end, 16-18 if you were going to”fancy” import cans.

 

Here’s what I found most shocking however—the noise while the Bills were on O was loud, but I was expecting my ear drums to burst given the reputation of the place, and yet it was strangely totally not like that. Even my son who can be sensitive about loud sounds, never once mentioned the crowd noise to me as a negative thing. 

 

The game itself was exciting of course, and I finally broke my own streak of only seeing the Bills lose when in person! I won’t rehash the game details as we have all sorts of threads for that, but a few quick observations:

 

I never saw other players really interact with Von on the sideline whenever I was watching—in the 4th I noticed him sitting by himself on a drinks cooler almost dejectedly—I did find it ironic to overhear Chiefs fans talking about how Von shouldn’t even be playing in the game, he’s a woman beater who should be in jail right now etc., when we all know the long and sordid history of the DV offenders who have trotted out for the Chiefs through the years, but I digress. (I did mostly agree with the sentiments, fwiw). 

 

Cook looked fast and electric out there—ala Thurman in Super Bowl XXV—so why did he only get 15 total touches?? 164 yards, the man was a beast today. 

 

Allen was under duress a lot, but he didn’t lose his cool, and he showed a lot of poise just in how he carried himself at the line—the man just flat out looked comfortable despite his line doing him no favors, and his WR 1 being uncharacteristically sloppy. 

 

Seeing Rousseau running stride for stride down the sideline in perfect pass coverage for a breakup was another highlight for me—a “double mint double take” type moment (fellow Gen  Xers will know what I’m talking about, ha ha).

 

While the Chiefs were in meltdown mode having just witnessed the Billsiest of losses in the Mahomes era happen to them, I had to constrain my celebration, out of sportsmanship empathy with my distraught nephew as well as having felt like we literally stole the W, not so much earned it on that final drive—but hey, I’ll take it!! (Still bumped a lot of Bills brethren fists walking out, sharing knowing grins and solemn “Go Bills”) 

 

Anyway I think I’ve LAMPED long enough for this OP, thanks for reading! I’ll edit this in the coming day to add some pics. 

[Figster]

Awesome stuff OP,

 

It was nice to see most of the bounces and penalty calls going Buffalo's way for a change. The Mahomes meltdown was not a good look for him.  Joe Brady with another impressive game plan and play call vs the defending Superbowl champs. I really liked the way we looked today OP. Glad you could be there to represent.

 

Thanks for sharing  

[CSBill]

Glad you and your son had a great time. That is as it should be.

[DBilz2500]

Sal signing autographs like he is some big deal/celebrity?! Now that’s funny lol 

[BillsPride12]

That's awesome dude glad you and your son had a great time!  I went to Arrowhead in 2015 and really enjoyed it as well.  I think Arrowhead and Lambeau are tied for being my favorite NFL stadiums I've been to.  I had a similar experience about the crowd not being as loud as I was expecting but the game we went to the weather was pretty crappy and it was Thanksgiving weekend so the locals told us it's usually a bit better than it was. 

[WhitewalkerInPhilly]

I too would visit just for the BBQ

[BRH]

A quarter of my family tree is from/buried in KC and I spent a lot of time there as a kid, especially in summers. It’s a great place with great food and great people who are borderline insufferable about their football team.  Not unlike WNY in that respect.  Glad you had a good time.  Glad we beat their asses. 

[DJB]

29 minutes ago, DBilz2500 said:

Sal signing autographs like he is some big deal/celebrity?! Now that’s funny lol 

Sal has a huge ego im not surprised 

[DBilz2500]

17 minutes ago, DJB said:

Sal has a huge ego im not surprised 

Good point. Just funny to me. 

[NoHuddleKelly12]

1 hour ago, DBilz2500 said:

Sal signing autographs like he is some big deal/celebrity?! Now that’s funny lol 

He literally was signing hats, posters (one kid had a poster board saying, “All I Want for Christmas is more Teeth and Josh Allen and Stefon Diggs to say Hello”) and glad handing with surgical precision like he was heading to the showers after 2 a days in camp—quite impressive! 😁

[PBF81]

Nicely written, fantastic account!!!

 

Thx for using paragraphs!  LOL. 

 

 

[jaybee]

2 hours ago, DBilz2500 said:

Sal signing autographs like he is some big deal/celebrity?! Now that’s funny lol 

 

Do we know for sure Sal didn't pay them $$ to ask for autographs ?  !!!

[HOUSE]

To much Red for me

The place reminds me of Chuck e Cheese.

 

.

Edited December 11, 2023 by Bogie_Klinkhammer

[Talley56]

Sometimes I think the treatment of away fans gets exaggerated.  Heck, I am even friends with a Chiefs fan who went to see the Chiefs play in Philly a couple of years ago with a Chiefs hat on and he said he got through it just fine except for a few comments.  And Philly is supposedly the worst of the worst.  I recall about 9 or 10 years ago I was at an NE At Buffalo game, and, of course, there were a number of Pats fans in the stands.  One Pats' fan had his son with him and a Bills fan gave him a friendly heads-up that there would be profanity yelled around his son.  He wasn't disrespectful, just gave a fair warning, and that Pats fan was cool with it.

[Saxum]

Awesome review of environment.  Close as I got to KC game was on road for work and I drove by KC during a game.

 

Did you see any of the Bills famous tailgaters like Kenny (Pinto Ron) in parking lot?

[Big Turk]

Went to Q39 when we were in Fountain City also...that place rocks!  Best BBQ I ever have had, although some locals said it's not even in the top 3 but opinions seemed to vary 😂

 

Did you get to check out the little area that is modeled after Seville, Spain?

[Nuncha]

[NoHuddleKelly12]

2 hours ago, Limeaid said:

Awesome review of environment.  Close as I got to KC game was on road for work and I drove by KC during a game.

 

Did you see any of the Bills famous tailgaters like Kenny (Pinto Ron) in parking lot?

I did not; but during warmups I was standing next to a fan wearing a Buffalo felt headdress w/ horns…which was a nice touch 😄

1 hour ago, Nuncha said:

I failed to mention no Swift sightings for us lol.

2 hours ago, Big Turk said:

Went to Q39 when we were in Fountain City also...that place rocks!  Best BBQ I ever have had, although some locals said it's not even in the top 3 but opinions seemed to vary 😂

 

Did you get to check out the little area that is modeled after Seville, Spain?

I didn’t, but sounds like a good tip for next time!

[Big Turk]

6 minutes ago, NoHuddleKelly12 said:

I did not; but during warmups I was standing next to a fan wearing a Buffalo felt headdress w/ horns…which was a nice touch 😄

I failed to mention no Swift sightings for us lol.

I didn’t, but sounds like a good tip for next time!

 

You definitely need to go there and check it out!  The developer traveled there or lived in Seville for a time and loved it so much he literally build a replica of an area of the city right down to a famous church/building that was there. It was super cool...it's a little shopping district area.

Edited December 11, 2023 by Big Turk

[Bleeding Bills Blue]

5 hours ago, DBilz2500 said:

Sal signing autographs like he is some big deal/celebrity?! Now that’s funny lol 

 

Saw him at Shea's once and recognized him and there was a moment of like - he knows who i am.  But I didn't say anything because I don't really know what he does?