I have had several oppertunities to be inside Neyland Stadium in my life. First off I got to go as a fan. I went while my mom was enrolled in college at UT. I also got to go to a game last year with my wife, , and my daughter. That was fun!

Secondly, I got to go to the all the home games in 1998, the National Champions year. I got to go a security officer for the University of Tennessee Police Department (UTPD). I helped a Knox Count Reserve Officer pregame for bus parking around to the baseball field. Then, at kick-off we had to go to the stadium. At the stadium, they paired me off with a retired UTPD officer. They told us both to stay out of trouble. So we stayed in the A/C first aid lodge area. We got to watch the game on TV. Walk around at times and such.

The one expereince I won’t forget is the night I had to stay the night at Neyland Stadium. It was just after the Florida game, we beat them Gators. Everyone flooded the field and tore up the turf and the goal post. UTPD locked me inside, alone! So all night I had to walk around the whole stadium. I will say this, I know Neyland Stadium is huge, try being in it by yourself, it looks much bigger when no one else is inside it. I would walk toward the gates and people begged me to let them inside, the only thing is, I didn’t have a key. I was like sorry man, I don’t have any keys, I couldn’t even get out of this place, just like no one can get inside. I would walk around the field, I would go up to the very top and look over the side of the stadium to the Tennessee River.

Finally, I got to go as a member of the media. I got to be on the field taking pictures for the game for the paper I work for. That was really fun. The treat the media really well. If you are on the field taking pictures they have hot dogs and coke in the transfer room (where you can transfer the pictures previously taken to your work). They also give you a ticket to go up inside the Media skybox for a nice meal. I never had time to go up there, but according to what I heard they give you, it is almost what they would give the football players, I nice hearty meal.

So I got to have several sides of being in Neyland Stadium. Fan Side, Security Side and Media Side. Of course there are several other sides of being in Neyland Stadium.

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