Debbie Field

She's watching you — she's been with you at nearly every Nashville Predators home game for the past five years, though she's not as flashy as the Rinne Wall guy or the woman who stands outside the Predators Team Store in head-to-toe glitter and gold.

For half a decade Debbie Field has been the friendly face stationed at the base of the giant escalator at Bridgestone Arena's main entrance, greeting seasoned fans and offering to direct new visitors to their seats.

If a drunken Blackhawks fan stumbles in off Lower Broad and needs to find a bathroom before the game begins, Field will kindly direct them. If a new-to-hockey Nashvillian is too embarrassed to ask their seatmates a question about the rules of the game, Field will answer without judgment. And if some pseudo-macho dum-dum attempts to run up the down escalator, Field will definitely ask them to stop — and she'll likely chuckle when they defy her orders but ultimately run out of steam two-thirds of the way to the top, having to make the ride of shame to the bottom. Field says no one has actually successfully climbed the escalator while going the wrong way. "And I don't want that to be a challenge to anyone to try it," she's quick to add.

Though she has a lot of fun at her current position — "I enjoy the customer service atmosphere," she says — Field's not just standing there to hand out programs, playfully tease you for your taste in jerseys and photo-bomb your selfies. She's also the person who has to take action if something were to go wrong on or with the escalator. She nods when asked if she's seen anything bad happen.

"I have. And that is a big part of why I am so adamant about making sure people are safe on the escalator, because I have seen people get hurt, and I don't want to see that. I don't like seeing that."

But so long as no one is dragging their feet — "It can trigger the emergency shut-off" — Field has just as much fun working as she does watching the game. The few times she gets a night off, that is. "Typically, if I get free tickets, I give them to my husband or people at my other job," says Field, who works for the state during the day. "I'm usually working, because why not? I'm here anyway.

"The times when I have come have been on my birthday or my anniversary — the last game of the season last year landed on my anniversary," she says. She and her husband have been married for almost 28 years.

She says the great Preds fans (and polite Canadians) keep the job interesting. "A couple years ago, we had a game against the Red Wings, and there was this little boy with his Preds jersey on, I think he was maybe 4 years old. He comes down with his mom — she's headed to the pro shop — and he walks right up to a group of Red Wings fans and goes, 'Red Wings suck!' And then turned around and took off after her. One of them just stopped and had this confused look on his face, and they all started laughing. And I went, 'We breed Predators fans down here.' "

Email editor@nashvillescene.com

More From the 2016 People Issue

The Celebrity Chef: Maneet Chauhan / The Gold Medalist: Scott Hamilton / The Perception Changer: Kent Wallace / The Blogger: Melissa Watkins / The Biker Chaplain: Allen Tanner / The Man: Charles Kaster / The Islamic Leader: Rashed Fakhruddin / The Tubatroll: Joe Hunter / The Dog: Doug the Pug / The Emancipator Impersonator: Dennis Boggs / The Booker: Kathryn Edwards / The Right Brain/Left Brain: Coke Sams and Clarke Gallivan / The Professional Ass-Kicker: Eric Young / The Watcher: Debbie Field