I caught TD pass at Ford Field

02-05-2006

As my son Ben took the snap and dropped back to elude the two pass rushers, I faked to the left then ran something approaching a fade route, heading toward the right corner of Detroit's Ford Field end zone 20 yards away.

		Tours Ford Field Tours will resume Feb. 13. Information: 1-313-262-2100 or www.fordfield.com.

More conscious of the spongy FieldTurf beneath my feet than the route I was running, I glanced back over my shoulder just as I crossed the goal line and realized, with some alarm, that my 17-year-old had already launched a tight spiral in my direction.

It has been several years since I tried to catch a pass, let alone do it in full stride, such as my full stride is these days. But as I extended both arms, the ball came down in my hands, and even more amazingly, I managed to hold on. It was only a brief pickup game among a random group of boys and men who happened to be on a tour of the stadium, but before I realized what I was doing, I spiked the ball.

Although Ben and I had driven to Detroit last July to attend the All-Star Game at Comerica Park, we had signed up for a one-hour tour of nearby Ford Field that morning, knowing it would be the venue for Super Bowl XL. We were, of course, hoping that the Steelers would make it that far, but mostly we were curious to get an inside look at this unique venue. There happened to be a football in the back seat of the car, and Ben had decided to bring it along to the stadium, even though the whole city was then in the midst of baseball frenzy.

Ford Field was completed in 2002; in fact the Steelers and Lions inaugurated it with a pre-season game that Aug. 24. Situated on the edge of Detroit's new entertainment district, the stadium was grafted into the side of a six-story red brick building built in the 1920s as a warehouse for J.L. Hudson's Department Store. The stadium's ambience tries to echo that sense of history, giving the new structure a venerable feel.

Two city streets that once flanked the warehouse have been incorporated into the design and now serve as concourses leading away from the soaring, five-story glass atrium that is its main entrance. These concourses are lined with all manner of food and concession shops, which were all shuttered during the off-season. The whole stadium had a big empty feeling, which, of course, will be quite different today.

These concourses open on the main field area, which is set into a huge bowl 40 feet into the ground. A series of spidery steel trusses support the great arching roof, which soars 170 feet above the field surface. Giant glass walls frame the upper stories at either end, providing bountiful natural light as well as a panoramic view of the city skyline. Each end of the field features a video board 27 feet high and 96 feet wide.

Our tour guide first took us on one of the elevators to the upper stories. Interestingly, several floors of the old warehouse have been redesigned into office space, ready to be leased now after the Super Bowl.

On the field side of the warehouse, three levels of luxury suites have been fitted in, under the press and media aerie. These luxury suites, as well as the two levels of club seats below, are all palatially cozy, furnished with plush Lions-gray leather seats 21 inches wide and big-screen TVs. Seats in the 41 field-level sections that surround the playing field are hard plastic and two inches narrower.

After touring the boxes and seating areas, we were led down into the team locker rooms which, although well appointed, seemed surprisingly plain. Apart from the fact that it was the off-season, our guide reminded us that the Lions use Ford Field only on game days. The team has its headquarters in its new practice facility several miles to the west in Allen Park. That's where the Seahawks have been centered this week, while the Steelers have been practicing in the Silverdome, the Lions' old stadium in Pontiac.

Public tours of Ford Field are normally offered twice each weekday (at 11 a.m. and 1 p.m.). But because it was off-season and most of us were media, we had obtained permission to try it out, having, of course, to sign liability releases.

So for 20 minutes, we got to run around and pretend we were pros. It was a blast. We'll remember it as we watch the game tonight.

And considering the cost of $600 Super Bowl tickets, our $7 tour was a bargain.

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