Football in America is a special game. A unique game. The men who play it make it so.
--John Facenda, aka "Voice of God", NFL Films
After our luxurious, upscale meal at Mike's Place and a pleasant evening and breakfast at the Country Inn, it was time to head south to Canton. Ever since we had first come up with the idea of a road trip to Chicago, I'd had my eye on a stop at the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Because football is awesome. Do I need any other reason?
I had to make sure everyone else was on board with it, though. First, I went to Julie:
Me: "You know, we will be driving near Canton, Ohio..."
Julie: "We're stopping at the Football Hall of Fame, right? We'd better be stopping there!"
I love you, honey.
And I'm sure the kids were fine with the idea too. Their opinion doesn't matter, since I'm driving.
Ok, fine, I asked them too. The boys thought it was a great idea. And Sarah said, "Well, football is better than baseball on TV, and I like the Eagles." That counts as approval in my book. You know, if I had a book to keep track of such things.
We decked ourselves out for the day in our finest Philadelphia Eagles gear, in order to better celebrate our team's proud history of not winning a blessed thing since 1960. That's right, I've never seen a championship in my lifetime. They seem to specialize in ripping out the collective hearts of their fans in excruciating fashion. So, I'm starting my kids young. Anyone who knows better would probably not choose to be an Eagles fan.
Yes, Sarah is wearing a Donovan McNabb jersey and Scotty is sporting Brian Westbrook, neither of whom play for the Eagles anymore. The
Budget Committee has yet to approve new uniforms.
The
Pro Football Hall of Fame is located in Canton because that was the home of the American Professional Football Association, which eventually became the NFL. It was also the home of the Canton Bulldogs team, which had great success owing to their star player, Jim Thorpe:
We entered the front door and saw a long line. Thankfully, it was for the window where you could get tickets to the 2011 enshrinement ceremony, which would be taking place in a couple of weeks. The other window was open.
A guy in a Redskins shirt saw our outfits and gave me the stink-eye. I gave one right back to him and promptly walked into a trash can, knocking it over. "Just like the Eagles," somebody else in line remarked.
"He didn't
throw it to me," I replied. Somebody else made a comment about the kids wearing all their Eagles gear. I told him we weren't sure if our family out-numbered the Eagles actually enshrined in the Hall. That got a big laugh out of the line for some reason.
We walked up a spiral staircase into the exhibit rooms. They had a big exhibit detailing the history of professional football from its inception to present day. I found this small display commemorating the last time the Eagles were good:
Another room had an exhibit featuring every NFL team. It didn't take too long to find the Dallas Cowboys:
And our beloved Eagles:
Have I mentioned how awesome my kids are yet?
From there, we found the main hall, which features a bust of every player enshrined. These are the greatest players in pro football history.
The room, as you can see, was kinda cool and kinda creepy at the same time. I looked around for some of my favorite Eagles, like Reggie White and "Concrete Charlie" Bednarik. Julie also found her favorite, Joe Montana. She admired him only for his football talent, or so she tells me.
Woman: Is this some kind of a bust?
Officer: Yes, ma'am, it's very impressive.
The coolest part of the hall was a series of huge touch-screens. You could find any player in the hall, and pull up their bio, career stats, and even video highlights of them in action. We had a lot of fun re-living the glory days of Reggie White, Joe Montana, Dan Marino, Walter Payton, and so on.
For some reason, I couldn't find former Eagles #1 pick Mike Mamula anywhere.
A room showcasing recent achievements was next, and Dave quickly found his favorite player's jersey--DeSean Jackson. He was noted for having scored a touchdown on a play longer than 60 yards in each of the first 3 games of the 2009 season.
We also found former Packers great Brett Favre's jersey, and I felt like I needed to take a picture for Barry, seeing as this is his hero and he'll always be beloved in Green Bay.
The next exhibit was the Super Bowl room, which had the Lombardi Trophy on display. I'm pretty sure this is about as close as Eagles fans have gotten to actually touching it:
We got to see a presentation of the most recent NFL Films Super Bowl film, detailing the Packers' win over the Steelers. It was shown in a theater that rotated 360 degrees. This sounds cooler than it actually is. Really, the only point of that was so they could have two seating areas and keep rotating them so they can move crowds through more quickly. Other than that, you were just watching the movie on a screen. Thankfully, NFL Films are like Disney World--I can't get enough of either one. So I was happy enough just to watch the movie. With their crackerjack camerawork, slow-motion photography and stirring music, NFL Films make even warm-ups feel like life-or-death situations.
While in line for the movie, a group of teens wearing high school jerseys got in line behind us. We think they must have come straight from practice, because that group had the worst body odor we've ever encountered.
When they opened the theater doors, I guided the family to a row that was already partially filled so that we wouldn't have to sit next to them. If only those guys had been able to do this:
Downstairs, they had a few "interactive exhibits", which basically meant a couple of trivia stations, a TV where you could play the latest Madden video game, and a football toss.
It was crowded and the B.O. Squad was close, so we didn't stay long. We lingered in the gift shop for a while, as Julie bound my hands behind my back and forbade me from blowing our vacation budget on football souvenirs.
After picking up a few minor trinkets, I took the kids to try out the NexTurf practice field next to the parking lot while Chef Julie worked on our PB&J sandwiches.
Remember the heat wave? It was about 98 degrees outside at this point, so our "game" consisted of each kid getting the chance to catch a pass and then walking back to the van for lunch.
Here endeth our tour of the Pro Football Hall of Fame. I enjoyed the visit here, and I think it's worth the trip for every football fan. That being said, I'm not sure I will be scheduling a return trip anytime soon. It could have used some more interactive features instead of static displays, and I'm not sure enough will be changing over time to warrant a return visit.
That was about it for the day's fun. The rest of the day involved a 5-hour drive to South Bend, Indiana where we were meeting our friends from college, Tom and Cathy. So, we set out after lunch on the drive--bellies full, DVD player running.
As we drove along the Ohio Turnpike, we noticed the clouds getting darker. And darker. Then it started spitting rain. Then it started raining steadily.
Eventually, it did this:
Many intelligent, safety-conscious drivers pulled over to the shoulder to wait the storm out. Naturally, I kept driving.
We crawled along for 10 or 15 minutes until I finally found a rest stop where we could take a bathroom break.
From there, it was on to Indiana. We needed to fill up with gas, so I was watching the fuel prices on billboards as we drove through Ohio. $3.55....$3.57...$3.56...
Wanting to make good time, we kept going. We finally pulled over at the first rest stop in Indiana.
$4.19/gallon.
I believe I now know where the term "highway robbery" comes from.
In any event, we pulled into South Bend that evening, and spent the night eating and catching up with our friends. We learned to our amazement that they had never, ever seen one episode of Phineas & Ferb.
Naturally, these poor deprived souls needed to be enlightened. So, at 10:00 p.m., we sat down, started up Netflix Instant Streaming and introduced our friends to what will hopefully be a new fulfilling world of intellectual entertainment.
Coming Up Next: Overcast with 60% chance of showers. Time to hit the beach!
He will brag up his team and taunt other people about theirs so obnoxiously that he tries to be as invisible as possible once his team loses because they give him so much crap! 
But I also have been a life long Cleveland Browns fan. I guess that right there proves I'm not a true football fan...just a tortured soul.
Massillon Dad! And don't worry, the Hall of Fame is the next stop on the agenda. The Melt Bar sounds pretty awesome. Not sure 20% is worth a lifelong tattoo of a sandwich, but it sounds fun.
I would definitely have voted for Philly as being the most tortured, but with the Phillies finally winning in 2008, it seems hard to say that anymore. But I know how you feel about the Flyers. I'm still trying to figure out why they blew up the team this summer. 
What did the kids try to do first - take off the Eagles garb or pretend they didn't know you?
