The Average Joe went to his first NFL game of the season last weekend, and let me tell you, it was a blast.  The Titans got beat by the Raiders, but it was till a fun time.  I'm a college fan at heart, but pro games have their own pleasures.

Having beer brought to your seat is one of the best of those pleasures.  The SEC doesn't allow beer sales at its games, so all the drinking I do at college games is of the snuck-in whiskey variety.  I'm not too proud to admit that I've taken bourbon into Titans games before, but I did not last week, opting instead to give the beer man some business.  

I started by buying a ticket outside of the stadium for half of face value.  I usually look for the cheapest ticket I can find at Titans games, because I have no intention of sitting where that ticket tells me to sit.  Titans fans have been spoiled with success, and now that the team is crappy, there are plenty of empty seats, even down low between the 20-yard lines.

I found a good seat around the 15 just before kickoff.  Luckily, I was there in time to see Terry Tate, Office Linebacker, do his thing on the stadium screen.  Remember him from those Super Bowl commercials a few years back?  Well, he does a gig for the Titans where he screams about the Pain Train.  It's really funny, and it gets folks fired up.  As fate would have it, I was close to an aisle that the beer men worked steadily, and there was a pair of very cute girls right in front of me.  

I got my first beer and settled in just in time to see the Raiders go up 17-0 in the first quarter.  Everything that could go wrong did for the Titans early on.  I got a good dose of unexpected entertainment from this pair of little kids behind me who were begging permission to cheer for the Raiders after they gave up on the Titans.  The older of the kids must have been about 10, and his little brother was probably six.  The older kid kept telling his dad, "We've got to turn this thing around."

When he decided that the Titans were not going to turn it around, he loudly announced that he was taking off his lucky Titans wristband and he started booing the home team and cheering the Raiders.  His dad wasn't real impressed by the quick switch in loyalties, but the little brother took it up in a hurry.  The 6-year-old started yelling about “Raiders of the Lost Ark.”

But the Titans did turn things around in the second quarter, cutting the lead to 17-15.  Just before halftime, “Pac-Man” Jones returned a punt for an electrifying touchdown, and the kids came back around to the Titans.  The punt return got called back, unfortunately, but it gave the little comedians something to crow about.  I've never heard little kids get on the refs, but these two were giving it to them like old pros.  The big brother launched into a particularly funny tirade about how the scoreboard operators were cheats and liars for taking the points off the board.

The kids wore down as the Raiders put the game away in the second half, but they made the price of admission worth every penny.

Obligatory rant about Ole Miss
I was sadly right on the money about what I expected out of the Ole Miss offense against Auburn last weekend.  The Rebels were totally ineffective in a 27-3 loss.  Auburn's defensive front looked like it was facing a Pee Wee team for much of the afternoon, and Ole Miss' usual array of ill-timed penalties and bizarre play selection didn't help matters.

Luckily, I didn't bet on the game, because I would have bet on Ole Miss +20.  The Rebels would have covered, too, if their offense had managed more than about five minutes of possession in the second half.  Former Rebel coach Tommy Tuberville put his Tiger team over the top, spread-wise, by running a pair of reverses with his team up 17 points with less than six minutes to go.  Thanks for everything, Tommy.

It could be worse
I did win my lone bet of the weekend, a small play on Mississippi State-Kentucky UNDER 39.  That play was never in doubt in a 13-7 Kentucky victory that worked out quite nicely for the Average Joe.  Not only did I put a little money in the bank, but my rivals have now pretty much packed it in for the season.  If you're a masochist and like to watch punishment, tune in to the Alabama-Mississippi State game on CBS this weekend.  The Bama D is going to abuse State's pitiful offensive line.  I'll be real surprised if State scores more than seven points.  I'm really not kidding when I say they should probably open the OVER/UNDER line on the Ole Miss-MSU game at about 25.

This article is a regular feature in the Sports Memo Newsletter. To subscribe to the newsletter, click here.