Aloha, Nfl!

Not Counting The Pro Bowl, It’s Been More Than 40 Years Since The Nfl Played In Hawaii. But With The Outpouring Of Fan Support This August From Islanders And Mainlanders Alike At The Preseason Cowboys Vs. Rams Game In The Aloha Stadium, You’d Wonder Why.

- Jane Ehrhardt

“I came out of the stadium after dropping off my equipment before the game and the parking lot was completely covered in those different-colored tents. It was the most impressive thing. You never see that at NFL stadiums,” says staff photojournalist Ashley Landis with the Dallas Morning News. She’s covered at least 25 NFL games in her nearly five-year tenure. “It was more tailgating then I’ve seen at any other stadium. It was like a blanket, a quilt, of colored tents.”

The packed lot, though, shouldn’t have been a shock to anyone, considering tickets to the game sold out in March within 24 hours—the fastest sell-out in the 44-year history of the 50,000-seat arena.

The heat that day, though, was a shocker. “I work in Texas where it’s 100 degrees every day in August,” recounts Landis. “It was in the 90s, but the way the stadium is situated, inside it was brutally hot.”

Tailgating in the parking lot never wavered. “The fans didn’t stop for anything,” Landis says. “The heat didn’t faze them at all.” Except for their team attire.

When she asked some of the tailgaters for permission to take their photo, “they all wanted to pose for pictures, they all wanted to represent,” she says. But first, they would run and get their jerseys. “Because it was warm out, so they weren’t wearing them all the time.” But they had them on-hand. Along with cowboy hats, cowboy boots, Cowboys jewelry and Cowboys tattoos.

The parking lot, it seems, teemed with Cowboys fans. “It was 85% to 90% Cowboys fans,” recalls Landis. “Which was crazy, because it was a Rams home game.”

SO WHY HAWAII?