Football Duke Blue Devils vs Miami Hurricanes

Last Saturday, October 22nd, we attended the college football game between the Miami Hurricanes (Florida) and the Duke Blue Devils (North Carolina)

We hadn’t really planned to go to a football game during our stay for two reasons.

First of all, I don’t know much about it. But hey, I wasn’t a big fan of baseball either and we still went to see 2 games.

Then the price of tickets for professional games is exorbitant.

But on Wednesday 10/19, we met Ingrid at a Comedy Club evening. She convinced us that we couldn’t end our trip without attending at least one college game. She herself is a fervent supporter of the Miami Hurricanes. This is college football, so the players aren’t professionals. But the organization around it is!

So we bought tickets for the game the following Saturday: good tickets in the 5th row in the middle of the field without having to remortgage the house. The only downside was that we were in the full sun and it was really hot.

Fortunately at half-time, we found Ingrid who kindly invited us to accompany her to the VIP area a little higher up in the stadium… but in the shade.

The stadium, the Hard Rock Stadium, is simply magnificent. It can accommodate more than 65,000 spectators. It is also the home of the Miami Dolphins, an American football team playing in the Eastern division of the American Football Conference in the National Football League. The 2020 Super Bowl was played here… Jennifer Lopez and Shakira, does that ring a bell? They did the half-time show together.

Football is almost a religion here. The game is important, of course, but it is not the only attraction of the day. The party starts in the morning with the tailgate: BBQ, music, beer, whiskey, bean bag games or dominoes.

Also not to be forgotten are the performances of the marching band and cheerleaders before, during and after the game.

In short, the atmosphere starts to heat up even before the kickoff and it continues throughout the afternoon.

Even if the match ended with a thaw for the local team, we had a great day and we discovered the very special world that is American college football.