Captain Of The Tailgate: Brutal Weather Conditions?

December 16, 2007 against Buffalo may have been the worst game weather I have ever experienced. That was the 8-0 Blizzard Bowl, for those that don’t remember.

I had a pair of tickets and my wife wanted no part of going. Her sister, who had been transplanted to and married a Cinncinnati fan 30 years ago, was in town and not about to attempt the drive home with the forecasted weather. She had never been to the “new” stadium and had her ski suit in the car. I had a date.

My mother and aunt – both season ticket holders – wouldn’t let a little thing like a blizzard coming off the lake deter them, age be damned. We had eight wins and were knocking on the door of the playoffs. All they wanted to know was where we were getting beers and food first?

I chose our usual pregame – poor weather spot, right next to our pre-paid parking at E.9th and Chester (we worked downtown). The walk from there to the Muni-Lot in nice weather isn’t too bad and getting out of Downtown is a breeze. Scorchers was right next door for the games when the weather was too bad to tailgate and the Browns pre-game TV show was broadcast from the bar. Scorchers also happened to be below the hotel that a lot of the visiting teams fans stay in. Cool, fun atmosphere.

The weather when we arrived at Scorchers wasn’t too bad. It was actually almost 40 degrees outside without as much as a snowflake falling, or on the ground. We carried our cold weather gear from the garage to the bar – it was too warm to wear yet anyway.

We ate our wings, had some Christmas Ales and woofed it up for the cameras behind Galetti and Golic . We paid no attention to what was going on outside until it was time to get ready for the trek to the game. What a difference a couple of hours had made.

The ground was already covered with snow and it was now coming down sideways. The winds had kicked up to a steady 25 mph, with gusts up to 40. The temperature had dropped from a realatively balmy 37 to a frigid 25. We began the walk form E.12th and Chester to the stadium. The wind from the Northwest was brutal – and we were walking right into it. Never before had I wished I’d spent the $20 to park closer to the stadium.

By the time we crossed Superior we were all walking backwards to avoid the wind burning any exposed skin. We had to yell to hear each other over the howling wind – but we were mostly laughing at the ridiclousness of the situation. We all agreed we had to be crazy to brave these conditions. Or, at least be Browns fans. Not once did we consider turning back.

Once in the stadium we were all lucky to be seated on the North West end where we were sheilded from the wind and most of the snow. Several layers of clothes, Carharts and a ski mask were enough to be almost comfortable. The South side wasn’t so lucky – the seats were buried and the wind had a direct path to the folks seated on that side. Note to self; always try to pick seats on the North and under an overhang….

The game was an excercise in offensive futility other than Jamal Lewis 163 rushing yards and an incredible performance by Phil Dawson. Grooundskeepers used leaf blowers to uncover the yard lines on the field. Most of the fans didn’t make it till the final gun sounded – but we stuck it out. Browns win 8-0 in front of an announced 73,196. Where 25,000 of those people were hiding, I’ll never know.

The walk back to Scorchers wasn’t nearly as bad with the wind being mostly at our back and the 9th win of the season under our belts. After a couple more 22oz Great Lakes X-Mas ales, we were downright toasty again.

If I had to do it all over again – I’d do it the exact same way!

Penn State tailgate, Browns connection -

OSU-PSU game at State College, PA a couple of years ago. It was an 8pm game, we started drinking about 10am; I had quite a few “beverages” over the course of the day. My wife worked until 5pm that day, but worked in State College, so she walked over to the tailgate when she was done. When she got there, she couldn’t find me and no one knew where I was.

About an hour prior to her arrival, I walked to one of the porta-johns for some relief and noticed some OSU fans tailgating, but 2 of them were wearing Browns jerseys. I went over and ended up spending the next hour or so tailgating with them, talking about the Browns.

I was a little fuzzy, but it was nice that we put aside our differences of that day to come together over our Brownies.

Do in-game experiences count? Or an Indians game? Because that is the only professional sport I’ve seen not counting a KSU or UMU game.

SBN knows their user base! I love me some Captain & Cola.

My story is kind of tame, but the worst conditions I’ve ever watched a game was in about 14 degree temperatures at around 8pm, 2008 Ohio High School Division 1 State Championship game, Cleveland St. Ignatius over Sylvania Southview. Great game, insanely cold.

I had to laugh at the title. It’s 68 degrees here. This week it got up to 82.

I’m looking forward to wearing fall/winter clothes, though!

I thought this one was for Browns games…..? Sorry not trying to be a Special Brownie lol
BB

a great trick for brutal weather that my mom taught us when we were little kids going to playoff games in the mid-to-late 80s (what awesome memories), and that i still use to this day: two layers of socks, zip lock bags outside the socks, then ziplocked feet into boots. your feet will never be so warm.

I’m just going to tell my Indians game if that’s alright. I’ve never been to a Browns game and hope one day to so forgive me if this is too far out of context.

It was my first professional sports game. I was 9 years old with my friend of the same age. My dad got us and my friend’s dad tickets to an Indians game. No clue who we were playing and only knowing Hot Stove rules, baseball was still a tough game for me to grasp. We were in right field about 10 rows up. Me and my friend spotted two open seats in the front row! We ran down, snatched ’em and just waited for a stray ball to come our way. Too bad those seats were next to a douchebag.

Each time we watched a ball sail off he’d say “Oh yeah, you guys almost had that one,” or “Go back! I’ll go and get the usher to kick you out of the stadium.” My dad got wind of this and it is now one of my most fondest of memories.

He didn’t even bother walking down 10 rows to get in their face, he just stood up and started. WTF IS YOUR PROBLEM YOU PIECE OF S*&T? THOSE TWO ARE 9 YEARS OLD AT THEIR FIRST BASEBALL GAME. YOU LIKE MESSING WITH MY SON? WHAT’S WRONG WITH THEM GRABBING TWO EMPTY SEATS? KEEP MESSING WITH THEM AND I’LL COME DOWN THERE AND KICK YOUR A** STRAIGHT OUT OF THE STADIUM."

Everyone around us started to clap and cheer and the guy just pulled up his collar and sunk into his chair.

I love my dad.

I’ve only been to warm browns games (preseason and Falcons) so I’ll just tell about the most brutal high school game I’ve been to with my marching band.
It was a couple of years ago, my sophomore year I think, but we were playing our last regular season game. We had to win or else we were out of playoffs. The only problem was that we were a passing offense, and it was like low 30s and raining w/ a wind chill of like 20 degrees.It was so bad that we didn’t even march at halftime The weather shut down our potent passing attack and the game went into overtime tied at 10 a piece. While this happens, it starts to be a mix of rain/snow. But we end up getting a field goal to go up. So norton gets the ball back and start driving, but a costly fumble at the goal line gave the win and playoff berth. One of my all time favorite games despite the terrible weather.

This isn’t really tailgating, but…

My family went to an Indians game at the beginning of April. I think I was 3 or 4 years old. All I remember is that one minute it would rain and the next it would be sunny. It was so weird. We weren’t really prepared for how cold it became, so I had to use napkins as gloves because my hands were so cold.

Just wanted to say that Marisa Miller is outstanding but disappointing with no nipples showing in the white tank top in this video,truly disappointed!

I went to an Indians game at Municipal Stadium in the late 80’s (the painful years) when a storm came in off Lake Erie and just dumped buckets. The tarps were pulled out and for some reason they held out for like an hour through this monsoon. Several people eventually left the stands and started using the tarps like a slip-n-slide. I think they resumed at some point and I think the tribe won, but it was so ling ago and I was so young (6 or 7) that i’m not sure. I will never forget wading back to our car after the game in about 6 inches of rushing water.

As far as Browns games go, I’ve only been to three but one was last year’s season ender against Jacksonville. It was bitter cold despite the many layers of clothing, but you could hardly feel it when we won (the only game of the three that the Brownies won). It’s memories like those that make being a Cleveland fan worth it.