The best Lions game ever! EVER!

Earlier this season, the best Lions game ever happened. For me, anyway.

The Lions were taking on the Roughriders on Friday August 7th. For those of you that don't speak CFL, this is a pretty big rivalry. Riders fans are some of the nuttiest fans in the CFL and they invade the dome like it's their own. These games are hands down my favourite to attend.

Since I live an hour away from Vancouver, my drinking at football games is typically kept to a minimum as I have to drive. Not this night! I'd already parked my car at Nate & Nicole's that morning as they were throwing a surprise birthday party for a friend, and my plan was to Skytrain to their place post-game. Knowing I could crash there, the Booze Train left the station early. And by that I mean that I downed two 24s of Corona at work before 5pm.

Jenn, Doug and I pregame with a little dinner and a lot of drinks at Shark Club. They're handing out post-game party passes (no line, no cover) and we snag a few. Apparently the host George and the bouncer, whose name is still unknown to this day, love me, and I have no idea why.

Get to BC Place and while we're walking the concourse to our section a guy from SportsAction stops me.

SportsAction Dude: "Do you want to be Fan of the Game?"
Me: "Fuck yes I do!"

And before he can even explain what this actually involves I've snatched the field pass from him and stuck it on my jersey. Jenn and Doug head to our seats, and I head to the field with SportsAction Dude.

What does being Fan of the Game entail? During the first commercial break in the game, they interview you on the field and ask who your two picks are; one for the game that night (BC, obviously), and the other for the game the following day (Calgary vs Winnipeg, and I picked Calgary, which didn't sit well with Jenn's dad the diehard Bombers fan). This entire minute+ long interview is up on the Jumbotron and I am beyond stoked to see my drunk face stretched out to 40ft tall. Then they give you the SportsAction ticket with your picks, which is worth $20 and in my case could net me up to $45 in winnings.

Wrap up the on-field stuff, head back up to the concourse and SportsAction Dude gives me three Lions shirts, one each for me, Jenn and Doug. I grab a couple of beers and head to my seat.

So there's this douchebag that sits behind us, and I have no idea why he even comes to the games because he is beyond miserable even when we win. He starts giving me a hard time about why I got to be FOTG and he hasn't, despite him having been a season ticket holder for ten years. Uhhh... maybe it's your garbage personality? Let's see, we've got the bubbly smiley blonde rocking eyeblack and tons of Lions gear, or we have grumpy dude who looks like he might cut himself if the Lions fumble again. Who would you pick?

Regardless, knowing he's pissed off just makes it even sweeter.

Cut to halftime. I have no idea what the score is at this point, but I think we were winning, and I know I was happy. After catching a little hell from Papa Roy for picking the Stamps over the Bombers, I go to meet up with Carla. This is the first time I've met her and she's a Riders fan. Regardless, she's awesome, equally if not more drunk than I am, and I like her. I think our initial conversation involved a lot of yelling, not a lot of communicating. Also, she has a friend in tow who IS ALSO NAMED SAM ANDERSON! How great is this! I yell about how great this is.

Carla's wearing a green shirt with yellow lettering: NOT EVERYTHING IS FLAT IN SASKATCHEWAN. And since her boobs are about three times the size of mine, the lettering's stretched right out. I like her more. I think I yell about how much I love her shirt, and she yells about drinking, and then we yell about going back to our seats to watch the game. Getting more beer was probably involved. Several people high-five me as they've recognized me as Fan of the Game.

Fastforward to end of game: we won! We know a bunch of people at the game, and we all head to Shark Club. While we're walking there, even more people recognize me as Fan of the Game! If you haven't caught on yet, I love recognition. And high fives. We had four party passes from that day and three VIP passes that George the host that loves me had given to me before, so seven passes total. We've got about a dozen people to get in, and for some reason this isn't an issue. I never get in anywhere without waiting, so needless to say I am stoked. I hug George several times for being so nice to me and my friends.

We get parked at a table at the back, which I'm not happy about, because everytime I do a stroll through the bar I get more high fives. This is solved by repeatedly leaving the table to collect high fives. Turns out every person (slight exaggeration, but probably at least 30 people) at Shark Club saw me on the Jumbotron! Table at the back quickly turns from we-got-shafted to we-got-the-best-fucking-table-in-the-house when the Lions show up and fill the room next to us. Soonafter I'm getting yelled at by someone. It's Glover, and because I'm wearing his jersey he needs to come say hi. This is one more reason why I love this team: would a Canuck ever stop you because you were wearing their jersey? Doubt it.

Carla calls me, and she's trying to find Shark Club. Her friends are gone (I can't remember where to, or maybe she didn't know) and she's on her own. I go tell George to keep an eye out for her. He tells me they're full and he can't get anyone else in. I pout and call Carla back.

"Dude, they told me no more people, I dunno if you'll get in."
"No, it's ok!! They let me in because of my shirt!!"

Boobs + shirts about boobs will get you everywhere.

So the Lion that I went on a couple of dates with earlier this year is also there, and I probably should have just ignored him. Instead I attack him with a hug and lots of Ohhhhhhh my goooood it's soooooo good to see yoooooou!!s and make it so that I have no option to ignore him. And despite the fact that he was injured and didn't play the game, I still congratulate him several times on his big win. Go team.

Later, he's pestering me with texts such as "Come see me" (I had just left where he was), "Where are you" (he knew where I was) and "Why you ignoring me" (I wasn't).

So the night goes on, and from what I remember it involved more yelling, more beer, more high fives, and more taunting Riders fans. We duck out shortly after 1pm to catch the Skytrain home.

What happens next is probably the best thing that could have possibly happened to me, as I didn't even know which Skytrain line I should take to Burnaby, let alone what bus I needed to take after that to get to Cole's house. The Lion calls.

"Why'd you leave?"
"To catch the Skytrain!!"
"Where are you?"
"Waiting for the Skytrain!!"
"No, I'll drive you. Where you at?"
"The Skytrain station!! Are you sure? Because if I miss this and you don't show up I'm screwed!"
"I'm driving over there."
"Really?!"
"Yes just get in the car."

And he's still driving Paris Jackson's car. I had previously lost my shit when Paris Jackson's car was parked in my driveway. Now I'm IN Paris Jackson's car!

So in typical Sam fashion I totally lose my cool. "Ohhhhh my god I can't believe I'm in Paris Jackson's caaaaaaaar yaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!" Then I remebered whose company I'm in and try to smarten up. Probably didn't work well, but A+ for effort. The Lion drops me off at Nathan & Nicole's place. Summary of the next two hours: yelling for cheeseburgers, walking to Denny's, accidentally stealing cutlery, forgetting to pay my bill (thanks Nate!) and falling asleep on Dan's shoulder in the booth at Denny's, walking back to Cole's house, passing right the fuck out.

I wake up the next day, hungover as fuck, $45 richer since my second pick was right, and with the Best Lions Game Ever! under my lionhead belt buckle.