Do Not Adjust Your Sets - Ford Field is Purple

Do you know who Charlie Coffin, Ken Davidson and Jason Meister are? Until this morning, neither did I. But as I'm watching highlights of the Giants-Vikings game, played last night at Detroit's Ford Field as a result of the Metrodome in Minneapolis collapsing under snow, I'm impressed with what those guys did. This was to be a home game for Minnessota, but Sunday it was determined that the game would have to be played in Detroit, and Detroit rolled out the purple carpet to make it seem like home for the Vikings.

I'm guessing the three gentlemen named in the opening paragraph are responsible for the quickest transformation of a football field ever. They make up the groundskeeping crew at Ford Field. Gone was the blue lion in profile at midfield, replaced by the Viking mascot. The end zones now displayed the Vikings script.

Now I know many college teams share a field with a pro team, but those logo packages and field graphics that are swapped out between a Saturday college game and a Sunday pro game are stored in the back somewhere, easy to roll out and replace. They've got the templates for spray-painting memorized. Charlie and his crew had to make Detroit look like Minneapolis in 24 hours, and they did an excellent job. I'm guessing they worked closely with Minnesota's groundskeeping crew. The technical crew was involved as well, with the Detroit scoreboard and sound system loaded with Minnesota graphics and songs.

The stadium transformation did not sit well with many Detroit fans, as they are age-old rivals with the purple ones. They need to shut up. A rival city lost it's stadium and Detroit opened theirs. This was a very kind gesture on the part of a city that has been beyond down on its luck, a city with a football team as poor as its recovery prospects. I'm sure there's a lesson or two in there somewhere.

Nice job, Detroit.