NFL kickoff at the Clydesdale

Pocatello is more than 500 miles away from the nearest NFL stadium, still, fans came out to watch all 13 games on this first Sunday of action at the Clydesdale in Pocatello.

“Well I’d hope we’d get all the sports and NFL fans out here to enjoy the day together and to have some friendly competition and to make it lots and lots of fun,” bartender Lisel Hoskins said with a smile.

But in a state with no professional sports teams, who are people rooting for? You’d probably be expecting the Broncos and Seahawks since both play within 800 miles of the Clyde, but actually more people were supporting the 49ers and Cowboys. Some even divided their support into thirds.

“I have three teams, first is New York Giants, Seattle Seahawks and then Dallas Cowboys,” bar marketing coordinator Juan Pablo explained.

Juan also noted that while business is usually slower on Sunday’s, the start of the NFL season changes that.

“We see more people coming in and enjoying the games, their favorite teams and meeting other NFL fanatics at the same time so we see a lot more people coming in,” he said.

And these Sunday’s really do bring people together.

“I think it’s an American pastime, you know, it gathers people together, it gathers strangers together to have a good time to put away, kind of, their differences unless you’re rival teams or rival fans,” Juan said. “But it’s all about getting people together and having a good time.”

While this is the only kickoff weekend of the NFL season, the bar plans to continue hosting events for games all season long.