How to Attend an NFL Away Game

Meet up with fans of your favorite team at the away game. At every NFL regular and postseason game there is always a group of fans cheering for the away team. Get to the stadium early enough and try to find those fans at a tailgate. Perhaps your favorite NFL team has an official fan club such as the Browns Backers. If so, contact the fan club. Many times members of the club will get together to attend road games and will even have extra tickets, which means you could sit with fellow fans at an away game.

Wear team colors appropriately. Remember that you are cheering for the away team, which inherently means that you are in somebody else’s house. Be proud and wear a jersey or a sweatshirt that has the away team’s colors on it. Save the face paint and wigs for home games.

Have thick skin. Depending on which away game you are attending you have to be prepared for anything from jeers and insults hurled your way to an ice cold beer shower. NFL fans are passionate and they don’t like away fans coming into their stadium.

Be friendly with the fans sitting next to you. I always try to make small talk with the fans sitting next to me when I’m at an away game. Bring up neutral topics such as fantasy football or random NFL statistics. You could even bring up the strengths and weaknesses of both the away and home team.

Cheer for the away team respectfully. It’s alright to get excited and to cheer when you’re at an NFL away game and your favorite team makes a great play. However, an away game is not the time to scream your lungs out and jump up and down for five minutes straight. Stand, applaud your team, and let out a yell or two. Keep it toned down and you shouldn’t receive any real hassle from the home crowd.

Don’t jeer the home team. Booing the home team’s quarterback while he’s on the field when you are an away fan is in bad taste. Also, doing so will almost guarantee that you receive large amounts of verbal abuse from the hometown fans. Remember that roughly 80,000 people are attending the NFL game you are at. Most of that crowd is cheering for the opposite team when you’re at an away game. Ridiculing the players beloved by that crowd is just not smart.