Thanks to the success of the Chargers in 2025, I decided somewhat last-minute to a quick day trip up to Dallas for the Sunday noon game vs the Cowboys. Of course, I brought John along, hoping to make up for his first NFL experience (December 26, 2021 where he got car sick on the drive to Houston and spent the game in the medical room).

I wanted to leave at 5:30am for the 3.5 hour drive Sunday morning. Why so damn early? Because I bought Standing Room Only tickets at the bargain-bin price of $24 each, unheard-of for the NFL. We paid 10x that for our Lions SRO tickets in November! SRO means thousands of fans admitted into the stadium to fight over a few dozen drink rails in the end zones. We raced to a good spot the second the gates opened at 10am and planted ourselves there. If we left for any reason, they’d be gone and then John wouldn’t have been able to see the game. If it were just me it wouldn’t have been an issue, I could have seen fine from ten people deep. So we had to stay there the entire day, from 10 to when we left around 3! If we needed bathroom or concessions, we’d have to go one at a time.

At one point, some guy sidled his way up to the front and wedged himself next to John. John thought it was very unfair that this guy could get the same view as us without putting in the effort like we did. John was red in the face, tears falling from his eyes. I thought he was getting another migraine until he explained why he was mad. The guy would leave for some reason and John thought it was over, then he’d jam his way back and John would get angry again!

The game was fun to watch in person, but it sure is hard to tell what’s going on watching from an end zone vs. great angles on TV. The Cowboys looked great early, jumping out 7-0 and then 14-7, but after that the Chargers outscored them 27-3 and ran away with it for a 34-17 victory—the first time I have seen them win in person! Not only was it the first time I’d seen them win, but the first time they hadn’t gotten bludgeoned (Vikings in 07, Texans in 21, Jaguars in 22).

It seemed the day was going to be a big success. But then came the ride home. John quickly fell ill in the car. First he got goosebumps all over his body. He felt super hot one minute, then cold the next. He was coughing like crazy. We stopped a few times for him to collect himself, then kept on trucking home. Illness aside, 7 hours in the car was a lot for one day. So our day was ride for 3.5 hours, stand for 6 hours, ride for 3.5 hours. The aftermath looks like John may have COVID or something, he’s really gone through a ton of symptoms. This follows Edie missing a few days of school the final week due to a similar mystery illness.