My trip to the Pro Football HOF weekend including canceled game

[bobreaker50]

I actually had a great weekend at the hall of fame its my favorite place to go and I try and make the trip any time a Raider gets inducted. I started the weekend out at playable inks autograph signings where I got Ron Wolf and Cliff Branch's signatures. Branch was in to help celebrate Ken Stabler's induction and hopefully he'll be able to celebrate his own soon. The signing went pretty fast as i I was in and out in about 5 minutes! After dinner my dad and I headed to th enshrinement ceremony. The NFL network stage was blocking our view of the stage so HOF employees pulled all of us out of our section and gave us VIP seats down on the field just a few rows behind all the enshrines family and friends! Lots of greats were wondering around our area. Peyton Manning came through several times and was signing things as he made his way to and from his seat. I didn't want to crowd him as I already got his auto at Colts training camp back in 1998. I tried for some autos or pictures near Ken Stabler's section but got shoed way a couple times by security so I left that alone. I was able to get some pics with one of the grandsankes. It's never as nice when the enshrinee has passed and they can't give a speech so it felt somewhat incomplete in that way, but I enjoyed all the speeches except debartelos as it took forever. I even got on ESPN cheering for Stabler when his bust was unveiled! We toured the hall of fame museum the next day. It was an hour and half wait to see the busts, but worth it to me as I haven't done that since 2001. I saw all sorts of hall of famers touring the hall while I was in there including dan fouts, Anneus Williams, and Carl Eller. The highlight for me however was the fact that Roland Williams was there! He was a tightend for the Rams greatest show on turf and was there to celebrate with Orlando Pace, but more importantly for me he played on the 2002 Raiders AFC Championship team so I got a pic with him! The next day went to the "game." The gates were supposed to open at 6:00, but they did't actually open them until 6:30. We weren't given any indication that they might cancel to game when they opened the gates. We made our way to our seats and were getting settled in when we started to hear some murmuring about how upset people were going to be then I checked NFL.com and saw the game was canceled! Still no announcement in the stadium at that time. We planned on leaving the game early because the crowd was pretty crazy after the enshrinement let out so we decided to head out at about 7:45 so we wouldn't get caught in the crowd when they announced the cancelation, so I'm not sure when exactly they announced the cancelation in the stadium, but it was way too late as we should have been the first to know since we were there, but we will be getting a refund and maybe a little more than that it sounds like so I was happy because we were going to leave early anyway.

[bobreaker50]

[cyberer]

Good hauls. I can't believe you didn't ask manning for an autograph.

Also, after they cancelled the game, they announced that Colts and Packers fans would come out and sign autographs inside the arena for fans who had gotten screwed by the cancellation. So IDK who you missed but there were definitely some current NFL players signing. Just FYI.

[bobreaker50]

Good hauls. I can't believe you didn't ask manning for an autograph.

Also, after they cancelled the game, they announced that Colts and Packers fans would come out and sign autographs inside the arena for fans who had gotten screwed by the cancellation. So IDK who you missed but there were definitely some current NFL players signing. Just FYI.

I kind of hate Peyton Manning because he played for denver. The way the crowds swarm players at the HOF I didn't want to get in the way of someone that was an actual Manning fan just like I wouldn't want anyone to get i n my way if I was trying to get an auto from one of the Raiders. Meeting Roland Williams was the highlight of my trip and still would have been even if I got Mannings auto so I feel pretty good about it. I do wish we would have stayed for some autographs after the game, but it worked out ok because I had a 5 hour drive home and it was my sons first day of kindergarten in the morning so I was in bed by 1 AM and was pretty alert for that first day of school...had I not had anything else going on the next day I would have stayed for sure!