T.O. Show

Philadelphia Eagles v Dallas Cowboys, November 15, 2004

Texas Stadium, Section ??

It was a protest game. I always hated the Cowboys and never yearned to go to Dallas to see them play. But my dad was a Cowboys fan in Philadelphia since Staubach's days playing the the Army Navy game at JFK Stadium. It was a milestone birthday so we decided to take him to see his favorite team in their own ballpark.

It just happened the Eagles were the closest home game to his birthday and it was a Monday Night game. So it made it more of a compelling trip.

We did not "tailgate" but went into a corralled off area in the parking lot where there were bands, food and beer. We bought my dad a personalized Cowboys jersey. The place had a pretty fair share of Eagles fans who traveled. And some one from the old neighborhood noticed my dad's name and came over to hang out with us. They made the trip from Philadelphia for the game.

When we go into the stadium and I got to see the field I had that same feeling of awe like the first time walking into Fenway Park, Yankee Stadium, Boston Garden and the Montreal Forum. There was a sense of history. It probably was the team I have most seen on TV (outside of Eagles games) and the stadium I have seen the most, but have never visited.

We sat in the end zone, first level 16 rows from the field. I can't find my ticket stub

Terrell Owens got the fun started with a 59-yard touchdown he considered so easy that he celebrated by pretending to ice skate in the end zone. Then he followed a 27-yarder with his favorite Texas Stadium pose, spreading out his arms while standing on the Cowboys logo.

When he scored again, Owens just dunked the ball over the crossbar. Might as well save the good stuff for a tight game, because by then the Philadelphia Eagles were well on their way to a 49-21 victory Monday night.

Donovan McNabb made sure the Eagles (8-1) bounced back from their only loss this season, throwing four touchdown passes and setting up another with an incredible, scrambling 60-yard completion. Lito Sheppard capped a record-setting night for both teams with a 101-yard interception return for another score in the closing minutes.

"The guys took pride in themselves to come out here and rebound from the loss last week," said Owens, who had 134 yards on six catches. "We came in with a passion, the pride and the character of the guys on this team, and it showed today."

The Eagles quickly showed why they should still be considered the midseason favorite to represent the NFC in the Super Bowl by scoring 35 points in the first half -- more than they'd scored in any game this season. They wound up with their most points in a regular-season game since beating the St. Louis Cardinals 52-10 in November 1981.

"It takes a couple plays for us to get a little momentum," said McNabb, who was 15-of-28 for 345 yards with no interceptions. "Once things get going, we feel confident that every play that we call is going to be effective and possibly get in the end zone."

The most amazing play didn't reach the end zone, but that's a minor quibble.

Facing third-and-10 from the Philadelphia 25, McNabb spun away from one would-be tackler and sprinted to his right, only to find another defender waiting. So he went back to his left, chased by two more players, and finally heaved the ball, letting loose a 60-yard pass toFreddie Mitchell. . Replays showed McNabb held the ball for 14 seconds before the pass.

"It felt like a video game out there," he said.

Brian Westbrook followed with a 1-yard TD run, giving Philadelphia touchdowns the last five times it had the ball before halftime, a streak that continued on its first drive of the third quarter.

There was the minor interruption of a punt, but the Cowboys (3-6) fumbled the return, adding to the humiliation of their fifth loss in six games -- and their eighth in nine tries against the Eagles.

This one was eminently forgettable for Dallas fans as the team gave up its most points ever at home and its most anywhere since a 50-24 loss at Cincinnati in December 1985. The Cowboys allowed four touchdowns in one quarter (the second) for the first time in franchise history and the 35 points Philadelphia scored in the first half tied another dubious record.

After calling his team "stupid" following a 26-3 loss to Cincinnati last week, Dallas coach Bill Parcells tried holding his tongue.

"We just got to get better," he said. "I'm not going to get into the state of the union right now."

The Eagles loved every minute of it, especially Owens.

He was in such a good mood after his first touchdown that he and McNabb playfully argued on the sideline, mocking their sideline confrontation from last week. He celebrated his second touchdown on the Cowboys' star in the end zone, mocking his midfield moment four years ago that marked his entry into the realm of post-touchdown performers.

Owens finished with his second three-TD game of the season and upped his NFL-best total of scoring catches to 12.

"It's never easy," he said. "I just make it look easy."

Parcells grimaced through it all, knowing there was little he could do about yet another lopsided loss. The Cowboys' season is a bust, with the only curiosity left being when he'll turn the offense over to rookie quarterback Drew Henson.

Vinnie Tesaverde playing two days after turning 41, was decent enough to keep the future leader on the sideline. He was 21-of-30 for 254 yards with two touchdowns to Jason Witten. Eddie George added a 15-yard touchdown run.

Testaverde's only interception came in the end zone with about five minutes left. Sheppard took it all the way, breaking past the defense around the 30. Keyshawn Johnson grabbed his collar at the goal line and just held on, knowing he was too late.

Philadelphia's biggest struggle was on third down, a problem that's bothered the Eagles for weeks. The skid ended on McNabb's 60-yarder to Mitchell.

About the only thing Philadelphia did wrong was call a timeout in the closing seconds of the first half, when the Cowboys had taken a knee and were walking to the locker room. Parcells stalked back to midfield, then stared across the field.

It was the same blank look he wore most of the night.

Lindros 1st Career Hat Trick

Ottawa Senators v Philadelphia Flyers, November 15, 1992

The Spectrum, Section Y Row 14

The Senators were a new NHL team and not very good. Eric Lindros was in his first full month of his NHL career. Talk has surfaced recently raising the debate if Eric Lindros is Hall of Fame worthy.

In a scoring fenzy, the Flyers netted 7 goals against the lowly Senators, including 3 from rookie Eric Lindros, the first in his early NHL career.

Lindros netted an opening minute goal to start the game at the 0:41 mark of the 1st with assists from Mark Recchi and Dimitri Yushkevich. Lindros scored again in the 2nd to up the Flyers lead to 5-1. A power play goal early in the 3rd by Lindros earned him his first NHL hat trick. In a sign of frustration, Ottawa's Dave Marsh took a run at Lindros in the closing seconds of the game to earn them both roughing penalties.

Dominic Roussel stopped 31 of 33 shots while Peter Sidorkiewicz managed to stop only 20 of 27.

Do you like Aerosmith?

Aerosmith, November 14, 1987

Richmond Coliseum, Backstage Passes

I was a personal trainer in college at a swanky invitation only health club. High highfalutin lawyers, bankers, etc in a downtown high rise. My boss came up to me one day to ask if I ever heard of Aerosmith and if I liked them. I told him I did. He said "Good, you are working them out for the next week".

Steve Tyler shows up, we are introduced. He starts stretching in a corner. I have to stop and and ask why he is stretching without warming up. He never considered that stretching is not good with cold muscles. He is a pretty approachable guy so he listens contently. He was into running. I always found time after hours to use the bank of treadmills to run. Steve was into running so I ran with him during work hours.

I noticed he had these pink slip on shoes that he was running with. I had to rip him for running with pink shoes. He laughed and told me they were his encore shoes. I also noticed while spotting him while lifting weights that he has zebra strip fingernail polish. I told him I couldn't spot a man with finger nail polish so if the weights dropped on his neck he was on his own.
Of course I never would have said this if he wasn't an approachable and cool guy.

Joe Perry was more into the stationary bikes and weights. Again, very approachable and easy to talk with. He doesn't look like a chatty type on TV. He is too cool for that. But he was unbelievably a great guy to shot the shit with. Not much music, just everyday stuff. They were there as students, not as entertainers.

Brad and Tom were also very approachable and good conversationalists, but didn't spend hours and hours in the gym like Perry and Tyler. I can't say the same about Joey, the drummer. He was a douche bag.

The band stayed in a central location for a week or so at a time. In this instance they were in town for 10 days. They'd jump on a lear jet and fly to shows in the region at nights. This provided some stability for the families. I only remember seeing Joe's wife and little boy during the stay.

Steve left me a few tickets for the Richmond show, back stage passes. I had an out of town girl friend, who could care less about Aerosmith and a roommate from NY who was a huge fan. She surrendered the 2nd ticket to my roommate. Backstage was a cool pass to have but I felt funny about bugging the band, so we kept our distance.

The club was closed on Sundays but someone asked me to come in to open the place for the band. Since it was a non work day, I brought my girlfriend. When my roommate found out I had to go in and work the band out, he begged. He was a runner as well. So I threw him a bone and allowed him to run with Steve.

Steve really liked the treadmills we had and asked if I could get him info to purchase one for himself. I never do know if he ever bought one.

I tried to keep music conversations to a minimum. We did have either MTV or VH1 playing on all the TVs in the workout rooms. At one point "Dude Looks Like a Lady" came on. My buddy asked Steve how they came up with that. The band has said in interviews that they were in a limo and saw a construction worker with long hair and one of the members said, "That dude looks like a lady". But allegedly Steve told my co-worker that they saw Mr T on TV an joked that the guy looked like a girl with all the jewelry but would never admit it because Mr T would kick their asses. Don't know if the story is true or not.

Shortly afterwards, I did move to Boston. They were gods there. WBCN had the band in heavy rotation. People I met up there could not fathom the fact I got meet the band.

Setlist:
01 Toys In The Attic
02 Same Old Song And Dance
03 Dude Looks Like A Lady
04 Big Ten Inch Record
05 Lightning Strikes
06 Rag Doll
07 Back In The Saddle
08 Last Child
09 Draw The Line
10 Rats In The Cellar
11 Dream On
12 Sweet Emotion
13 Walk This Way
14 Train Kept A Rollin

Sunday Night Hockey

Boston Bruins v Washington Capitals, November 11, 1990

Capital Center, Section 200 Row L

My first and only trip to the Cap Center for hockey. A strange structure. We were up top. The roof dipped in the center. We were ceiling height looking down on the dip while trying to see the ice.

I just moved from Boston and became hooked on B's hockey. DC was a little over 2 hours from my new home. It was a Sunday night game so the crowd was not that large.

The Caps were loaded with some pretty decent talent. Dino Ciccarelli, Kevin Hatcher, Dale Hunter, Peter Bondra and Hall of Famer Rod Langway.

The Bruins weren't too shabby either with names like Ray Bourque, Cam Neely, Craig Janney, Randy Burridge, Garry Galley and Lyndon Byers.

The B's won 5-3.

D1-AA

James Madison University v Richmond, November 11, 2000

University of Richmond Stadium, East C, KK

Ryan Tolhurst caught a 21 yd pass from Sean Gustus to put the Spiders up 7-0 in the 1st in a
6 plays, 50 yards drive.

In the 2nd Richmond capitalized on a 3 play 30 yard TD pass to JR Purnell.   This put the Spiders up 14-0
at the half.  The Spiders added to the lead with a 1 yard poke in from Tyronne Turner.

The only points the Dukes were able to put up was a safety.

Richmond 21 JMU 2.

March To The Cup

Pittsburgh Penguins v Carolina Hurricanes, November 9, 2002

RBC Center, Section 330 Row J

Can't say I remember this one too much.

The Penguins has a decent amount of fans in the stands. And they let themselves be heard after the first goal of the game. A Martin Straka power play goal at the 14:49 mark of the first. That was the only goal in the first.

In the 2nd, the Canes Kevyn Adams tied up the game at one. The 3rd found goals being scored by the Penguins Alexandre Daigle and the Hurricanes David Tanabe and Bates Battaglia.

Carolina won the game 3-2.