No more Jags games for me

I'm done with the Jaguars. Not because the team is so bad on the field. It's because the team working the concessions stands is so bad.

I attended my first game of the season yesterday and I was expecting a good gluten-free experience, based on what they told me before the season. However, it was just awful.

First of all -- and this is a minor issue in the greater scheme of things -- there was no gluten-free beer available in the Bud Zone.

But even worse was the hot dog situation. Hot dogs with gluten-free buns are supposed to be available at the Stadium Classic concession stands around the stadium. I stopped off at the stand in the Southeast corner of the lower deck and immediately got a hot dog.

I asked for a gluten-free bun and when I got the hot dog, I asked again, "is this a gluten-free bun?" and was told yes.

The hot dog was very good and that made me want another one, as I was walking around the corridors of the lower deck. I stopped at another Stadium Classic stand at the Northwest corner. The people there had no idea what I was talking about. Finally, they found someone who said they were out of gluten-free buns.

I wish that was the extent of my problems. I kept walking around and checked again at the Stadium Classic stand in the Southwest corner. Again, the people there didn't know what I was talking about when I asked for gluten free. Finally, they gave me a hot dog and said "all our buns are gluten free."

Now that's ridiculous. I know that's not true. I started arguing about this when my friend standing behind me in line said she would take the hot dog. She also noted that  while she couldn't hear what I was saying to the concession people, it was clear to her that the concession people just considered me a difficult customer and were trying to get rid of me.

I ended up back at the Southwest corner, where I had received my first hot dog and ordered another one. Again, after much discussion (I went to a different line), they produced a gluten-free bun that was clearly different than the bun I got the first time. It was more like a gluten-free bun should be.

So now, I am convinced I was glutened on my first visit to the stand. Sure enough, I found myself with an upset stomach by the end of the game.

As I've said before, I don't get the extreme symptoms that other celiacs get and I shudder to think what would happen to some of you if you tried to get a gluten-free hot dog at a Jaguars game. I feel terrible because I wrote at the beginning of the season that the Jaguars seemed to have a good gluten-free program, and I hope nobody went to a Jaguars game on my recommendation.

Whatever you do now, don't go to a Jaguars game. Unless you don't want to eat. And you
don't mind bad football.