"At the twilight's last reaming"

Most people secretly want their enemies to crash and burn. 
Then there's taking it too far by wanting to dance on their graves. 

That's kind of how I feel this morning.  I've been whining and griping and moaning about Jerry Jones and the City of Arlington stealing land for stadiums for a long, long time.  I'm going to say it.  I feel sorry for Jerry Jones.  Lord have mercy, what a mess. 

A few days before the Super Bowl, I posted pics of the disastrous weather, the unlikely rolling power blackouts, and all the other signs that Jerry and Arlington were sinners in the hands of an angry God. 

I suggested some purifying rituals that Jerry could undergo.  He apparently did none of them. 

Here's the Fort Worth Star-Telegram on the game day meltdowns.  Or lack of melting.  Whatever:

These weren't the text messages, phone calls and e-mails that Bill Lively had envisioned.

On Monday, the president of the Super Bowl Host Committee and his staff expected to revel in the afterglow of the region's first Super Bowl, which they had promised would be the "the biggest and best" ever. Instead, they found themselves among several entities facing a barrage of questions about what went wrong and who was to blame.

After more than 31/2 years of work and with a well-choreographed plan that was praised by National Football League officials, the Host Committee is under fire for a series of events that were out of its control during Super Bowl week.

For his part, Lively said he would essentially use the same approach, with a few refinements, when the region makes its next Super Bowl bid.

"The stadium is a great venue and it will get us another Super Bowl, whether it is 50, 51 or 53," he said.

Problems at Cowboys Stadium on Super Sunday and unexpected bad weather in the days leading up to the game have called that faith into question.

The biggest single-day event in the country once again set a record for the most-watched TV program of all time.

But a number of the 103,219 people in attendance Sunday might be wishing they had stayed home to watch. About 1,200 fans had to be moved just hours before kickoff because temporary seats in the end zone and on the main concourse were completed too late and judged unsafe.

And ice and snow on the giant domed roof prompted closure of some stadium gates, creating long delays for fans trying to enter. Six people were injured by falling ice on Friday. Even Lively felt the pain, waiting for two hours to get inside, a member of his staff said.

People waited outside for three freakin' hours to get inside of The Debt Star.  According to DFW talk radio, cops were instructed that if anyone left their place in line to go to the restroom, they had to go to the back of the line.  Half the gates were shut down because of ice overhanging the Dome Of The Wreck.  1200 people had no seats. 
The NFL offered 'em seats in the media area, out in the parking lot, in a bar someplace, merchandise, a chance to go onto the field after the game, 3 times the purchase price of their tickets, and a free ticket to next year's Super Bowl.  Yeah.  Green Bay and Pittsburgh fans are totally pumped about a chance to go see Tampa Bay and Arizona next year. 

For the sadists among you, here's some video of pissed off fans chanting "Jerry Sucks". Can you imagine flying or driving from Green Bay or Pittsburgh, having paid 3K to a scalper for a ticket, and being told "Oh, your seat isn't built yet"? It....Got....Ugly....



Bill Lively eventually offered up this classic line:
"I don't think it will be harder next time," he said, "when you consider that we were laboring under the deepest recession in 70 years."
I think Mr. Lively has seen too many of Mr. Obama's press conferences.

Here's The Startlegram on the seat problem....

Several days before the Super Bowl, the National Football League, the Dallas Cowboys and the city of Arlington knew that the installation of about 15,000 temporary seats was behind schedule, but they still believed that the seats would be finished in time.

Some of the bleacher seats were deemed dangerous and placed off limits during the game. On Monday, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said the league will not only refund affected fans $2,400 per ticket but also invite them to next year's Super Bowl in Indianapolis.

"There were some very unhappy fans, but people went home safe," said Arlington Fire Chief Don Crowson said. "That is what matters to us."

Arlington fire inspectors had been monitoring the installation of the vertical metal bleachers for at least two weeks before the game, he said, and there was a concern that their completion "was going to be close." Contractors were working on the stands, set up in the end zones and along the main concourse, through the afternoon of game day.

But time ran out.

At about 2 p.m. Sunday, Crowson said he told the NFL that about 500 bleacher seats in the west end zone were not going to open. The staircases leading up to sections 425A and 430A, at either end of the stand and about 30 feet tall, didn't have guardrails and handrails as required.

"We were hopeful work would be completed, but it was not," Crowson said. "When it became apparent the stairs were not going to be completed, we told the NFL those seats were not going to be in use."

The NFL and Cowboys owner Jerry Jones wanted to break the Super Bowl attendance mark of 103,985, set in 1980 at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, Calif. In the end, they fell short with a crowd of 103,219.

And then there was the national anthem.....Christina Aguilera has more talent in her little finger than most of us have in our entire 210-pound selves.  She has been on stage since she got out of diapers. 

I've heard Willie Nelson and Roseanne Barr botch the anthem, but they weren't laboring under the Jerry Jones Eminent Domain curse.  Aguilera left out lines, doubled up on others, and left us with the classic line "At the twilight's last reaming". 




So, one last time before next year's football diasters start to fall on the heads of Jerry Jones, The City of Arlington, and the Dallas Cowboys....
God doesn't like it when you steal somebody's land for a football stadium.