Last Friday night, I had a chance to visit the Prudential Center to see a Devils home game for the first time. Okay, so it took me 12 games to get my act together. Sue me. It would help, however, if Jersey didn’t have to play on every single NFL Sunday this month except for the 30th.

For some reason, the hopelessly devoted Jet fan in me is going down with the ship, which will just about be blown to smithereens when The Death of Sportsmanship In Football As We Know It kicks off in New England on Sunday. If only Scotty Stevens could take the field for the Jets and deliver one of his trademark bone-crushers to the Pats’ pretty-boy quarterback…

Oh right, Scott Stevens Hall of Fame night! Let me tell you, I was at the Meadowlands when they retired his number last year, and it was quite an emotional night. Granted, the circumstances were a little different this time around, but I would have liked to hear ol’ No. 4 say something in person instead of watching the recording of his HOF acceptance speech. (Not that it was a bad speech. Please, Mr. Stevens, sir, spare my life!)

Actually, the center video board/scoreboard was one of the most impressive features of The Rock. You could basically walk the concourse, peek in through any opening and see it know exactly what’s going on, even as you attempt to purchase $8 of Macho Nachos — which, incidentally, were a pretty decent value.

The walk to and from Newark Penn Station was about as safe as everyone promised. And let’s be honest, there are other NHL cities where walking five or six blocks in the wrong direction puts you in a not-so-nice part of town, so let’s take it easy on the Brick City. Rome wasn’t transformed from down-in-the-dumps into a sparkling metropolis in a day, and that area of Newark has undergone a significant renaissance over the last decade. Let’s hope Barry Melrose noticed the same upon his visit that night (and no, The Mullet Man was not shown on the video screen).

One more thought: the Prudential Center is probably not the first place to be dubbed “The Rock” — especially considering where the Pilgrims landed — but it’s still one of the coolest nicknames ever. Plus, ever since the movie of the same name came out in 1996, I always liked mimicking the way Sean Connery’s character said it onscreen.
The fact that the pre-game video board showed that exact clip of Mason creaking open the steel door to Alcatraz and intoning, “Welcome to the Rock”…well, that just made me feel right at home.