Eric Fowler, who provides vikings.com with comprehensive coverage of small college football in Minnesota, is at the NFL draft this year and will be chiming in with some thoughts throughout the day.
NEW YORK, NY – NFL football fans were out in full force this morning in New York City as they await the opening of the Radio City Music Hall doors for the 2008 NFL Draft. I was shocked to see that at 8:30a.m. the line to obtain free tickets to the event was 4 ½ blocks long. As I strolled along the entire length of the line, I quickly saw nearly every NFL city represented. I spoke to a number of ardent fans this morning and here is a taste of who they were:
- Billy Walsh from Rockaway Beach, NY, has the first place in line for the draft. In order to obtain that spot he arrived at 2:30 p.m. on Friday, April 25. Billy is an ardent fan the San Francisco 49ers and he was donning a Joe Montana jersey to prove it. I asked why in the world he and others would show up a day in advance for the event. His response was: “We bleed NFL”.
- Garrett Wilkins from Atlanta, GA, showed up at 5 p.m. to get the 2nd spot in line. Wilkins is on a long business trip and had little to do for the weekend so he thought he would attend the draft. He is hoping the Falcons take Glenn Dorsey or Matt Ryan at the #3 pick in the draft.
- 84-year-old “Pee Wee” Scheidt of Freehold, NJ, rolled into the line at 5:30 p.m. and professed that he has been a huge sports fan for 68 years and just loves the New York football Giants.
- Two blocks east from the front of the line were two Green Bay Packers fans from the Newark, NJ, area - Mike Korybski and his friend, Kyle. They had to arrive at 4:30 a.m. at the corner of 5th Ave and 50th Street just in order to be able to see the front of the line.
- The “Monmouth County Boys” from the Jersey shore starting drinking at 5:00 a.m. at Penn Station with their Styrofoam cooler full of choice beverage. One of them, Herman Chesterfield, was born and raised in Little Silver, NJ, and has been a lifelong Kansas City Chiefs fan.
- Teri Anderson and Patti Anderson traveled from Wisconsin with their main purpose of attending the 2008 NFL Draft. They both were clad with Brett Favre jerseys. When asked if Teri Anderson cried during Brett Favre’s retirement announcement she replied, “Yes, I did. I got teary-eyed.”
- Rob Shanely, a University of Minnesota graduate, has been living in New Jersey for the past three years and woke up at 5:15 a.m., left the house at 6:15 a.m. and was in place in line over four blocks away from the front at 7:15 a.m.
- Bill Mullins, 29, from Levittown, PA, teamed up with his buddy Mathew Godfrey, 26 from Plymouth, PA, to secure a spot in line around 1 a.m. on Saturday morning. The pair has a hotel room nearby and they’ve worked in shifts to hold their place in line.