The Magic of Playing in Stadiums

[Reginald Rutledge]

The other day, my wife and I had a discussion about the game of miniature football. One of those topics that my wife is very knowledgeable on is miniature football. Her 23 years of living with me has not been in vain (I hope). She was there when I built my first Rose Bowl. She's been to the hospital when I had to have my thumb sewn back on after an accident involving a stadium project. She's seen the evolution of the stadium from it's crude form to now. She's read the letters of people asking for the secrets on building stadiums. She's seen the letters from the Rose Bowl Committee demanding me to take the Bowl down or the NFL and its forever harassing letters. So she's seen a lot of what I do. In my time, I have built nearly every NFL Stadium there is. To me, its a work of art, a necessary pleasure to enhance my interest in the game. So with my pursuits in other arenas (no pun intended), she asked me a direct question "Reg, aren't you tired of this?" and "Is this the last one?"

No one knows the time spent creating these stadiums. Shucks, when most are sleeping and dreaming, I am hard at work being kept up by the motivation of wanting to see the end product. I saw a coach had asked the question about "Playing in Stadiums" a couple of weeks ago.

I did not respond because it was just not something I wanted to elaborate on. But as I get ready to retire from that part of the game, I can safely say that was probably my greatest thrill from the game (building stadiums).

The magic of playing in a stadium is something you can not quite put into words. It is the ultimate challenge for me in the game of miniature football! Imagine, knowing you have to tailor your game around playing in the Los Angeles Coliseum, or FEDEX Field or Bank of America Stadium or any of those stadiums. There is so many things you have to account for when playing in a stadium, it is unbelievable! There are certain strategical places where you should run up the middle, off tackle or around end. There are times that you want to run a sweep just to get the next play set up properly. There are places on the field, you better not throw the ball! If you do, the angle could come into effect. Playing the game without the stadium offers little or no challenge to me. I want to be the elements of the stadium.

When you play outside under the lights, there is no other spectacular setting! Hearing the crowd scream in the stadium and watching the scoreboard adds a type of realism that nothing else brings to the game.

Not only this, the stadium was the #1 way that guys were recruited to play in the DFW League. It was the marketing coupe that brought all the cameras to my house as often as I need be. It was the reason I was able to establish friendships and relationships with NFL writers and NFL Hall of Famers. It was a marketing magnet!

But more than anything else, to know I could wake up at 3:00 in the morning and go to my football room and turn on the light and hear the roar of the crowd was all I ever wanted in the game. If I could bring that to others as well, that was just gravy. When I see one of my stadiums on ebay, it reminds me that the owner had no way of appreciating it like I do. For them, all it was was simply a means to an end, a business transaction. But for me, it remains the most magical part of why I play the game. It's not to be around others or even win but to discover the final element of bringing realism to the game. There was truly magic in playing in stadiums.

Reg