2011 NFL Draft

So now that we have pre-partied with Bud Light and celebrity-watched at the red carpet, it's time to actually go to the NFL Draft!

Eric and I met up around 5:30 on Friday night to get in line to claim our tickets for the draft. Much to our delight, we quickly learned that we didn't just have general admission tickets - we had Bud Light VIP tickets! That meant that as we entered Radio City Music Hall, we were ushered up to the first mezzanine level, where we were given gift bags, free Bud Light jerseys, and free food and drinks. Bud Light, I take back my whining about the overpriced drafts at the pre-party. At the draft, as soon as we stepped into that mezzanine lobby, there were lines of employees just waiting to hand us free beer. They had three bars (all with free Budweiser, wine and pop) and three buffet stations with a variety of food - fried chicken, delicious sandwiches, pizza, pasta salad, chicken skewers, etc. Needless to say, we ate and drank a little bit!

Eric is loaded down with free stuff in the Bud Light VIP area!

Sporting my VIP "credentials"

Lines of people that want to give you free beer

One of several food buffets

Our seats were pretty good, too. We were towards the back of the section, but we still had a great view of the action and could see all the TV commentators.

The view inside Radio City Music Hall as soon as we walked into our section

The NFL Network crew

Mel Kiper, Jr., John Gruden and Chris Berman from ESPN

Having fun at the draft!

It was really fun when people who were actually at the draft were drafted. As their name was called, we could see all sorts of commotion off stage to the right, and then the new recruit would come out to the stage all happy and excited and pose for pictures with the commissioner. Then his entire entourage would crowd onto the stage, sporting hats of their guy's new team, posing for pictures and hugging. What a great moment they must have been having!

See the guy with his fingers in the air? That's Rahim Moore from UCLA, who just got drafted by the Broncos.

Rahim Moore hugging Commissioner Goodell on stage

Randall Cobb from Kentucky greeting Jim Taylor and Roger Goodell after being drafted by the Packers

Randall Cobb's entourage taking over the stage!

We also got to see a few other notable football players, usually as they helped announce the picks for their team: Paul Warfield (Go Browns!), Jevon Kearse (Go Gators!), Doug Williams, Jim Taylor, and John Lynch (among others, I'm sure, but that's all I have pictures of).

Paul Warfield announcing the Browns' pick

Jevon Kearse being interviewed

Doug Williams at the podium

John Lynch being interviewed

We also took a break from the draft action to wander around a bit and take in the atmosphere.

Draft attendees milling about the lobby

Yay, draft!

Vince Lombardi trophy on display

Super Bowl rings on display at the base of the trophy

We stopped to have some fun in the photo booth they had set up, where you could have your photo taken "on the stage" (really, in front of a green screen) holding up the jersey of your team of choice. I'm so glad the Browns finally drafted someone who will take them all the way to the Super Bowl this year:

Yeah! Go Brownies!

Way to go, Eric - drafted by his hometown team, the Bucs!

After that, we hung out a little while longer, and drank a little more beer. Then we called it a night. On the way home, we were treated to a lovely view of the Empire State Building towering over Bryant Park, looking quite dashing in blue, white and red in honor of the Royal Wedding that morning. Even the ESB had Royal Wedding fever!

Gorgeous, gorgeous.

And thus concludes our epic football week! Not to worry, all you non-football-loving types. All of our celebrity encounters last week were not limited to athletes, and tomorrow I'll be sharing some more "gleeful" celeb sightings with you!

NFL Draft Red Carpet

NFL Draft 2011

You may recall that last year we went to the NFL Draft thanks to the Gotham Gators (local Gator alumni group) securing a block of tickets for Gator fans. We went to the second round because it was anticipated that my beloved Tim Tebow would be drafted in the second round, and the Gotham Gators wanted to be there to cheer him on. Of course, he gave us all the slip and went in the first round (way to go, Tebow!), so there was no Tebow cheering to be done at Round 2. However, we still had a fabulous time and thought it was a very cool event. This year, when Draft tickets popped up on 1iota.com, we figured, why not? Only this year, we did far more Draft-related activities in addition to attending Round 2 (which I will be telling you about tomorrow): that Bud Light Party I already recapped, and the Red Carpet at Radio City Music Hall on Thursday night.

We actually got tickets to the Red Carpet (again, through 1iota), which meant that this was not our usual red carpet stalking from across the street, straining and stretching to try to snap photos between the heads of real paparazzi. This time, we actually got to be right up along the red carpet, on an elevated platform just behind the writers and bloggers. That meant we got a great view of the attendees, and most of them even stopped for interviews right in front of us!

Radio City decked out for the Draft

A look down the red carpet

Crowds of fans across the street, hoping to catch a glimpse of some athletes

Hanging out at the red carpet!

(Between the two of us, we had my two teams covered: I wore my Browns shirt, and Eric supported the Gators!)

We were able to get a good look at many of the top recruits, and most everyone was very nice and took their time with reporters and fans on the red carpet, with one exception: Cam Newton. He was the first to arrive at the red carpet, and basically made a beeline past the press straight inside. He was the only one who didn't spend any time interacting. But, I never liked him anyway, so whatever. I was also a little bummed that Mike Pouncey didn't walk the red carpet, because I was hoping for a little Gator chomp action! But overall, we had a great time checking out the athletes up close and personal.

TOP ROW: A quick shot of Cam Newton (Auburn QB, drafted 1st overall by the Panthers) as he sped past; Mark Ingram (Heisman-winning Alabama RB, drafted 28th to the Saints); and Marcell Dareus (Alabama DT, drafted 3rd overall to the Bills) showing off his excessive "bling."

MIDDLE ROW: Julio Jones (Alabama WR, drafted 6th to the Falcons); Von Miller (Texas A&M OLB, drafted 2nd overall to the Broncos); and Patrick Peterson (LSU CB, drafted 5th to the Cardinals).

BOTTOM ROW: Mark Herzlich (Boston College LB); Blaine Gabbert (Missouri QB, drafted 10th to the Jaguars); and A.J. Green (Georgia WR, drafted 4th to the Bengals)

One more to give you an idea of the press situation! This is Cam Jordan, drafted 24th by the Saints

We also saw a handful of past NFL greats (including Barry Sanders, Charles Hayley, Deion Sanders, Marshall Faulk, Shannon Sharpe, Anthony Muñoz, Jim Taylor and Richard Dent), NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, and a random TV celebrity: Chris Meloni of Law and Order fame.

Charles Hayley

Commissioner Roger Goodell

Chris Meloni

Barry Sanders

After about an hour or so of solid celebrity-sighting fun, the red carpet shut down and we headed out, since we didn't have tickets to Round 1. We'll be back for Round 2, though! Stay tuned for that recap tomorrow!

Arms As Big As My Head

Now that we have covered the history-in-the-making matters of the day, it's time to resume our regularly scheduled recaps. Although I am very excited to tell you all about yesterday's bike ride, I have a ton of pictures to sort through and I kind of need to get my thoughts together about the whole thing. So, I'll get to the Five Boro recap later this week. In the meantime, let's talk football!

Last Thursday morning, Eric and I went to a rather fun event in Times Square. As you may or may not know, this year EA Sports held a fan vote to choose the athlete to grace the cover of their Madden NFL '12 game. Each team in the NFL had one athlete entered into the contest, and fans voted in a bracket-style match-up. The player entered for my team, the Cleveland Browns, was Peyton Hillis. Thirteen million votes were cast during the course of the contest, with Peyton Hillis emerging as the winner! He upset Ray Rice of the Ravens, Matt Ryan of the Falcons, and even Super Bowl MVP Aaron Rodgers. In the finals, he beat Michael Vick handedly, with 66% of the vote as opposed to Vick's 34%. Way to go, Peyton!

To add to the fun, EA Sports decided to hold the cover photo shoot in Times Square the day after the contest results were announced, enabling NFL fans to be a part of the process. Eric and I got tickets last week (once again through 1iota.com), and waited anxiously to see who would be the cover athlete (if it had been Michael Vick, I would not have gone - and does anyone else see the irony in the Dawg Pound beating Michael Vick?). I was so excited when it was announced that Peyton Hillis won! So, I got my Browns gear ready to go and we were off to Times Square early in the morning on Thursday.

When we arrived they had us line up for a bit before were allowed in to the photo shoot area. They asked if there were any Browns fans in attendance, and guess what? I was the only one. Of course, that is not very unusual. A few more showed up later that morning, but at the beginning, I was all there was.

However, when they let us into the photo shoot area, they handed out free Browns stuff to much of the crowd: Dawg Pound hats, foam fingers, caps and t-shirts. So, the crowd looked like it was made up of Browns fans! They even all got into the "barking," too. It made it a little more fun, even though I knew they were all imposters!

Hanging out at the photo shoot set

Fake Browns fans

We didn't have too long to wait before Peyton Hillis came out! He greeted the fans as he walked by, then he got right down to business with the photo shoot. It was great fun to watch - we saw him do all sorts of poses, moves, etc. And hello, is he ever cute! Not a bad day to stand around watching a guy like that in his football gear doing all kinds of athletic moves.

Peyton Hillis greeting the fans as he arrived

Time to take some pictures!

Work it, Peyton.

Kudos to Eric for this awesome action shot!

Other football greats also made an appearance: both Deion Sanders and Marshall Faulk showed up and did some interviews and interacted with the crowd a bit.

Marshall Faulk

Deion Sanders

Deion Sanders taking pictures of the crowd

They also did a few trivia contests throughout the morning, giving away autographed Peyton Hillis jerseys and footballs as prizes. Sadly, we didn't win anything!

For the most part, the weather held out through the morning, with the exception of one brief but torrential downpour. The people running the event were all over it though, and quickly handed out ponchos and umbrellas. Luckily, we didn't need them for long (especially considering that it POURED later that afternoon!).

Staying dry!

At one point, some of the camera guys came through the crowd and asked if anyone was actually from Cleveland. I spoke up, and ended up being interviewed by EA Sports as one of the few authentic Browns fans in attendance! They asked me what I thought about the cover athlete contest, and the event as a whole. I told them I was a lifelong Browns fan and was thrilled to see a Browns player on the cover, and that the whole process and cover shoot event was a great way to involve the fans. I don't know if that interview is floating around out there in Internet Land or anything, so I can't share it with you, but it was fun!

I am a proud Browns fan, born into a proud Browns family. You might say I was born this way.

Tangent for trivia: did you know my grandfather had his picture on the side of the bus because he is such a big Browns fan? He shot an ad for the Cleveland Browns radio station back when I was a kid. He is a Lutheran Pastor, and his ad said he "Listens Religiously" along with a great photo of him. He now has that bus ad hanging in his basement! Way to go, Gramps!

When they were satisfied with the photos from the cover shoot, Peyton came over to interact with the crowd for a bit. The emcee of the event started by asking him to do a few "cover poses" that the fans on Facebook had been requesting: the "Witness" Lebron James move, the Heisman pose, the Victory Call, one knee with finger pointing up, and "The Belt." It was great fun!

VIDEO: Peyton Hillis obliging his fans with fun poses at the cover shoot (found this on YouTube!)

Heisman!

Lookin' good, Peyton.

Victory Call. Wowsa.

He then came over to the crowd to sign autographs and take pictures. He autographed his shoe and gave it to the kid in the wheelchair next to us, and that kid was just in awe. It was so sweet! I also got him to take a "guns" picture with me. He was so nice!

Goodness, he's cute.

I mean, honestly. Is it just me or are his arms actually AS BIG AS MY HEAD?

Our arms look just the same, no?

It was definitely a fun event, and I'm so happy for Peyton and the Cleveland Browns on this victory! Now, let's work on a SUPER BOWL VICTORY! Go Browns!

Historical

As you all know by now, it was announced last night that Osama bin Laden was killed by U.S. troops in Pakistan last week. When the news broke, impromptu celebrations broke out all over the country, including crowds at the White House, the World Trade Center site, and Times Square.

Crowds gathered at the World Trade Center

(photo by the New York Times)

I'm not quite sure how I feel about celebrating death this way. I can't help but remember seeing images of people in Pakistan celebrating the attacks on the World Trade Center nearly 10 years ago and how sick that made me feel. Of course I understand that celebrating the killing of thousands of civilians is different from celebrating the death of an evil terrorist leader, but I'm still just feeling a bit conflicted. I think MLK said what I am feeling most eloquently:

"Returning hate for hate multiplies hate, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that." - Martin Luther King, Jr. ("Strength to Love," 1963)

Personally, I am interpreting these events as more a time to reflect on the September 11th attacks and how our nation has changed since then, and to say a prayer for the victims and their families. May this bring them some peace.

That being said, I am so grateful to our military leaders and brave soldiers who have fought so long and hard to bring justice to America for what happened on September 11, 2001, and I do sincerely hope that bin Laden's death brings some sense of closure and comfort to the family and friends of the victims of that horrific attack and all others around the world who have been affected by bin Laden and Al-Qaeda. In addition to gratitude I also feel a sense of relief that bin Laden has finally been found and that chapter of the history books has closed. And of course, as always, I am proud to be an American.

New York City firefighters watching the news unfold in Times Square

(photo by the New York Times)

Thank you to all who have served to bravely in this war, and those who continue to serve and protect our nation. God Bless the USA.

I DID IT!!!!!!

I finished!!!!! 

Our souvenir tour photo, taken at the end of the ride

Am I completely and totally exhausted? Oh yeah.

Is every single muscle in my body tired/sore? You betcha.

Is my backside violently angry with me for subjecting it to such abuse? You could say that.

Are my legs filthy and covered in scratches and bruises? Painfully so.

But did I ride my bike for 42 miles, through all five boroughs of New York City? OH, YES I DID.

It didn't go smoothly the entire time, and there were times when I really had to gut it out to keep going (and probably would not have been able to do so without the support of my awesome husband by my side), but at the end of the day, I can say I did it. It is a great sense of accomplishment.

I'll be recapping the whole thing much more in depth for you next week (with lots of pictures!), but for now, I just wanted to share my good news before I collapse into bed. I may never move again.

I did it! Hooray!