Open House on Saturday

There's a cool event at Paul Brown Stadium this Saturday from noon to 5. It's time for their season ticket and 4-game pack Select-A-Seat Open House. You get to show up, walk around the entire stadium, go through the gift shop (which is running some pretty decent sales for a store that makes you sign over your soul for a jersey) and pick out the seats that are open (last year they were marked yellow) for season tickets. Even though being in Paul Brown Stadium is awesome, especially when you get to go wherever you want, that's not the reason I go. I go because while all those suckers are looking at the open seats, I'm sitting ten rows back from the 50 yard line, watching the Bengals practice. That's right, during the open house, you can sit and watch the Bengals, including the new draft picks, practice.

Last years open house was great. It was a typical practice. The team split up into very position specific drills and eventually got into some 11-11 awesomeness. It's the first chance for all of us ridiculously, borderline insanely, devoted fans to see Antonio Bryant, Jermaine Gresham, Adam Jones, Carson Palmer and others in action for the first time this year before they head south to Georgetown. Oh, and did I mention, it's FREE? It is completely free so unless you plan on trading your car for a Bengals hat or buying a $47 hotdog, the entire day is free of charge and when it comes to the Bengals, or the NFL in general, that's a rarity.There's even free parking in Lot-D.

So if you don't have anything to do Saturday and you feel like seeing how good the Bengals will be this year instead of reading about it, come downtown and check them out in person. I'll be there on the 50.