What was it like after the Super Bowl 36 kick?

[Crazy Patriot Guy]

A few months back I posted the story of what I went through around Super Bowl 36 with the passing of my grandmother. I mentioned how I watched the game alone.

Recently, during some youtube surfing, I watched a lot of videos of Saints fans at bars or their homes or even the game and seeing their reaction to the INT.

I was hoping everyone could tell their story of what it was like as the Vinatieri kick went in. With me watching the game alone, I didn't get that chance to go nuts with my friends.

 

[PatsFanSince74]

I was in my living room in Manhattan with my wife.

A couple of days earlier, I had bumped into my neighbor from the same floor of our New York apartment building. He was off to New Orleans to cover the Super Bowl game. **** Stockton and I had developed a fairly typical Manhattan "elevator friendship" around our common connection to Boston, chatting with each other and our wives from time to time. **** told me he was off to do the game and I remember asking him, "Hey, ****, what do you think. Can our Pats beat the Greatest Show on Turf." I'll never forget his response: "If they come out and punch them in the mouth, the Patriots will win." With that, the elevator door closed and **** had, of course, just described the essence of Belichick's strategy that day.

I remember watching play after play when the Pats stifled the Rams' backs and receivers on the Line and applied relentless pressure to Warner. So, I'll never forget the minutes from when John Madden (showing his true stripes as the mentor of Jack Tatum and Coach of the hated Raiders...John Madden, a guy who owed his only SB ring to Ben Dreith's lousy call) when he said said that the Patriots should hang it up and play for overtime, from that statement to Madden's realization that he had blown it by saying that "What Tom Brady just did gives me goosebumps" to Tommy's calmly spiking the ball with seven seconds left to Adam's kick splitting the uprights with a winning kick that was a piece of cake after his Snow Bowl line drive to send that game into OT.

Those are moments that are still frozen in time for me. I can still hear my scream reverberating in our living room when I realized that my Pats, after 27 years of following them, had finally done it!

 

[TruthSeeker]

This is a great thread. Grew up in NY as one of the few Pat's fans, and became a fan in 1975. In 2001, I was living in California with my wife. Living in the San Francisco Bay area, I was still in shock by the win over the Raiders (as was the local press), as well as euphoric over the win over the Steelers. I watched the Super Bowl with my wife, who really could care less about the game. As the game unfolded, I was always on edge, even with a 14 point lead. When Tebucky Jones ran that fumble back to give us a huge lead, and it was called back because of a penalty, I got a very sick feeling in my stomach.

The words Patriot Fan, was usually superceded by the words "long time suffering". When the Rams tied the game late, I was in shock. What happened after really was surreal. Watching Brady guide them down the field, I was in awe. I remember thinking during the Raider's game, we may just have something special in Tom Brady. And he was reinforcing this feeling.

That last drive just brought back a lot of feelings and memories. Memories of excitement, like the few times I got to watch the Pats every year on TV. Being a huge fan, it didn't matter if the Pats were 1-15, I still got a thrill just getting to watch them.

When the kick went through, there was a big moment of silence, I remember saying "It's good", but honestly I was in disbelief, utter shock. After 26 years of being a Pat's fan, my favorite team was a champion. After that moment of silence, I remember screaming a primal, guttural scream. Then watching the postgame, and seeing Tom Brady's reaction to being named MVP, and Belichick receiving the Lombardi trophy, I realized my cheeks were wet, I had been crying tears of joy. One of the best days of my life.

 

[PatsWickedPissah]

Day zero Pats fan. Got forced to watch the SB at wife's sister's house where she was hosting a SB party. Those of us actually watching the game went downstairs to the basement which had a decent TV for that era. As the Rams came back to tie, of course visions of Bill Buckner and the Red Sox flashed thru my mind but I said, 'No, not this time. Not with Belichick & Brady". I was a bigtime Brady's Lady right from 2001 summer training camp as the term went for those who were not Bledsoe Krishnas in 2001/2.

Earlier in the season my daughter got married and commited the sin of doing so during the Pats-Atlanta game. No problem as I'd just bought a SONY HDTV and a TiVo so my wife and I went home late after the wedding reception and watched TBKY and the Pats harrass Vick. Anyway point being that the son-in-law was NOT a sports or football fan at the time. Being married to my daughter, that would change.

So I'm watching Brady's drive with him, enjoying each chess move like play while nervously watching the clock. Troy Brown of course comes through bigtime. Finally, TFB spikes the ball and catches it on the rebound and the pre-traitor money kicker walks out and cooly nails it. Great way to start a football relationship with my new son-in-law. Best sports moment evah and one of those savored lifetime brilliant memories.

 

[brdmaverick]

I went home for the game (was in college at the time) to watch it with my family. My girlfriend (now wife) was there.

I can recall never watching the halftime show. I was too busy pacing back and forth, wondering if the score could possibly hold up (as you know, the Pats were up 14-3 at halftime). Despite the constant reminders on TV that the largest blow halftime lead was ten points, I felt really uneasy. I mean, could this REALLY be happening.

On the fourth down play where Tebucky Jones recovered a fumble and took it to the house, my brothers and I took off outside running and hollering. Unfortunately for us, we took off screaming when he was around the Rams 20 yard line, so at this point we heard no mention of a 'yellow flag'. Of course, my opened the door to tell us to not only 'shut up' but that the TD would not count.

I'm usually the optimist, but at this point, I thought, 'oh geez, is this where our luck finally runs out?'

Sure enough, the Rams come back with a vengance. I'm going through a plethora of emotions at this point (but mostly frustration), just thinking back to a few moments ago when we were running outside thinking the game was clinched. Now, it's a tie game, ANYONE's game.

When Vinatieri trotted out onto the field to take the kick, I had absolutely no doubt in my mind that he would make it. Even though I was absolutely sure he would make it, when he finally did put it through the uprights, a surreal feeling passed through me. I saw MY TEAM out there celebrating a world championship. I was 19 at the time, and never really experienced a championship (too young and didn't care when the Celtics last won it).

Before I did my customary victory celebration, I actually soaked in the moment and shed a few tears of joy. My wife still gives me a hard time about it to this day. She mentions how I cried when the Pats won but not on our wedding day or the birth of my child. Really, though, who cries on their wedding day? As I tried to explain to her, I was convinced that she would show up on our wedding day, but the good guy doesn't always win in sporting events.

It was a great time. I ended up doing the whole nine yards (going to the victory parade, buying the championship hat/t-shirt/dvd).

 

[TrueBeliever]

Bump! Actually I love telling this story but I don't get a lot of chances to tell it where anyone cares.

I was at my parents' house here in Wisconsin; I hadn't intended to but we had just found out my aunt (my mom's sister) had breast cancer and I think my mom wanted to be able to watch the game with me, even though at the time I wasn't too fond of hanging out with my dad.

Anyway... needless to say, my nerves were shot by that point. I had thought the game would belong to the Rams in the first half with the Pats narrowly keeping up, but BB would make halftime adjustments and the Pats would pull out a squeaker in the end. I was sorta right, since the Pats dominated the first half but the Rams were coming back in the second, and it came down to a squeaker.

But here's the thing that sets me apart - I thought the clock didn't run during field goal attempts, so while I was very, very relieved when Adam's kick went through... I was literally on my knees in front of the TV as they lined up, and when the kick went through I bowed down and let out a long sigh of relief. And then I said, "Okay, now we've just got to make sure the Rams don't pull off a miracle on the kick return and this baby's ours!"

And then I looked on the screen and the Pats players were running on the field, and I freaked. "Get off the field you guys! You're going to get an excessive celebration penalty and they'll move the kickoff back!"

And then my dad said, "What are you talking about? It's over, they won!"

And by the time I looked back at the screen the confetti was flying and everything else, and I realized the game was over, and Jesus H. Christ, the Pats had won the friggin' Super Bowl, over one of the best friggin' teams in recent memory.

To quote Peter Griffin, "Freakin' sweet!!"

I went to give my mom a hug, I didn't see that she had a bowl of chips and darn near knocked it all over the floor.

P.S. Didn't the NFL change the rules after that Super Bowl so that now the clock doesn't run during FG attempts?

 

[BradfordPatsFan]

I remember passing the day doing school work, I was a grad student at UConn, and watching the Celtics-Clippers game. At half time of the C's game I went to pick up my girlfriend (now wife) and we took off to a party where everyone was a Pats fan, at least for that evening. However, I cannot say anyone expected the Patriots to win.

There were a lot of nerves from the start. Every time the Rams shifted formations, I got anxious. I felt a moral victory on holding the Rams to an early field goal.

When Ty Law took the pick6 to the house, the apartment we were in exploded.

When Patten caught the touchdown just before halftime we were euphoric, yet no one was comfortable.

We all just sort of waited for "the moment". Two of us were born and raised in Massachusetts and had seen it all too often with all of our teams from Reggie Lewis collapsing on the court to signify the end of the Celtics, to Buckner, to Desmond Howard...It always happened. We just waited for it.

Then Tebucky Jones happened. He took the fumble back 99 yards or whatever it was, and the apartment shook. Then, the flag...there was silence. I broke it with, "Well, there it is." There was silence right up until Ricky Prohel danced into the end zone.

You would have thought it would have been silent after that, too. However, my buddy Jim, the other Mass native, said, "Time to shock the world" just as he did when we watched UConn beat Duke (the unbeatable team) for the National Basketball Championship three seasons before. That got us all fired up.

Then we got quiet again as the drive started. There was a calm, quiet, unspoken understanding that all would be ok.

In my mind, the final drive went like this:
Brady to Redmond---Ok. Easy does it.
Brady to Redmond again--Easy does it but hurry the heck up!
Brady to Brown--Holy $#!& Is this really happening?
Brady to Wiggins--This IS really happening!
Spike--Oh...my...God...

As AV walked onto the field I thought, "he's been perfect indoors...After the snow and Heinz Field, this is nothing." But I did let my mind wander over to a game against Miami about four years earlier where he missed a critical late fg and a game against KC where he missed in the closing seconds...and the games early in his career where he seemingly had to throw the ball to get it through the uprights.

As the camera panned out, and the room went silent, I waited for Summeral to give us the perfect description. He too, was silent when the ball went through the uprights...so I gave the only description I could...a primal scream. We were jumping, laughing, crying, yelling but then I recognized that there HAD to be time left on the clock. No way did that take 7 seconds. My girlfriend grabbed me and said, "No stupid, the clock says 0:00". I grabbed a beer and waited for the trophy presentation.

The worst part of the night was there was no radio broadcast available in CT where we were. The drive back to my place was so frustrating. However, I got home and just sat at my computer all night, reading messageboards, online articles, watching ESPN, NESN, whatever I could. I didn't sleep. I showered at like 5:00AM and went to my internship nearly two hours early. I was still floating. I only worked half days on Monday's and had class at 3:30. People both in my classes and at my internship knew how much I love this team and just kept congratulating me and smiling when they saw me. I wore my Patriots sweatshirt and hat everywhere all week and the smile never left my face...kind of like the one I have now as I type this.

(As an aside, everyone who was there married their date from that night...coincidence?)

 

[Patjew]

Immediately after the kick went through, I hugged my father for the first time in more than 10 years.

It remains a top-10 moment of my life, maybe top-5.

 

[signbabybrady]

Here comes the spoiled brat to chime in....

I was very very very lucky and My father took me down to see the game.

the whole weekend was amazing and I have told many stories on the subject but sticking to the question here goes.

The Kick is Good.

Followed imediately by a small leap(large by my standards) and yell. Then a moment of pause is this real then I practically tackled my father. Then we jumped up and down like little school girls. Then as we calmed slightly we began to take it all in. Watching the players run around, watching the confetti fall, watching the Rams fans leave, watching the on field workers get the field ready for our trophey celebration.

Then we realized there were very few left in the upper decks especially on our side as we were on the Rams side. We also realized the losing fans left behind the swag that is on your seat when you arrive so we grabed a bunch of extra's for my brothers and grandfather.

Then we calmed again and watched the trophey presentation. Which listening to Krafts speech almost brought a tear to my eye. The speech was good but that wasnt what almost caused the tear it was just seeing this happening to our guys finally.

After that we decided to head down to the lower bowl but by the time we got there most of the party had moved to the locker room. So we headed out for Bourbon St.

Two pit stops first one at a pay phone to call the grandfather and brothers and mom too. Papa Joe gave out the roar of a lifetime and to talk to him at that moment was one of my favorite things ever he is the man responsible for my craziness, my brothers, and my fathers and the Patriots have really kept us all extremely close.

Second pit stop - We Needed a Championship shirt - we found a store selling some in a commeritive cup. My dad bought like 10 of these things. We quickly realized we needed another bag to get all this crap home with us luckily the store had a duffle bag. We bought that 10 shirts in cups and we loaded the bag up with 8 of the shirts 10 cups we put the shirts on mine barely fit because the biggest they had was XL.

Now off to Bourbon st with a large duffle bag in tow and for anyone who has been to bourbon st you can imagine how easy it is walking down the st with a huge duffle bag.

We found a few beers (the best tasting beer of my life). Next we found some victory cigars. And what happened next is almost unbelieveable. We lit up the cigars, got a refill on the beers and than found a nice spot to relax and enjoy the victory cigar. With in five feet of this spot we notice a familar face. It is the guy who sat in the row behind us for at least like 15-20 years and his father who also sat back there often.

The whole time we are high fiving anyone who walks by.

We wound up leaving after the cigar because we wanted to go back and watch primetime and all the other highlights we could. Probably didn't go to sleep until well after 3 and after watching the highlights a few times.

absolutely one of the greatest moments of my life. DAD THANK YOU AGAIN AND AGAIN AND AGAIN AND FOREVER.

 

[SoCal Bong]

I was in Las Vegas. Back in those days, Super Bowl parties were huge. About 6 years years ago they actually started enforcing some laws about charging admission to watch an NFL game and limiting the size of the TVs the game can be show on to 40" or something. A great tradition ruined but I digress.

Super Bowl weekend was one of the toughest times to get a hotel so we were staying at Binions in Downtown and the room we got was tiny and old. I had been looking into SB parties all over but a friend was pretty sure that he could get me and my girlfriend (now wife) into a comp party at the Fremont. I didn't like the uncertainty as I didn't want to get denied at the door and have to scramble to find some other place to watch the game but I had faith and sure enough we got in.

I put down a bunch on the Patriots Moneyline at +600 and convinced some of my non-Pats fan friends to do the same. In fact I probably had 20 different tickets on the Super Bowl for bets by the quarter and plenty of props.

There weren't many obvious Pats fans at the party, but then again it didn't seem like there were many Rams fans either. Just people there to watch the game and root for whatever they had bets on. When the Pats were doing their famous "being introduced as a team" intro, the party host/emcee was on a microphone giving out door prizes and I was completely appalled . I actually ran up to him and angrily asked him to finish doing that during a commercial break but it was of course too late to hear that famous intro.

I have to admit that all game long, even with the lead, I was skeptical that they would actually win. I had been scarred too many times in the past to really believe it could happen. When they lined up for the kick, the thought in my head was "why can't this kick be good? just let a break go my way for once please!". Even as the ball flew high and straight, I wasn't believing that it was really good until the officials put their arms up.

I celebrated the field goal but restrained myself as I was certain that there was time remaining and we'd still have a kick off. Even after everyone rushed the field I still believed they would have to clear it and kick off so I waited and watched. "Really?! Is the game over?! We really won?!!". It was quite a delayed reaction but that's just how apprehensive I was that the Pats finally achieved what I wasn't sure I would ever see in my lifetime.

I don't remember much about how I reacted except that I was shocked. The attached picture was taken in front of the screen that we were watching.

Later that night we went to NY NY and I cashed all the winning tickets and held more cash than I ever had before.

It feels like a lifetime ago now and some memories are crystal clear while other recollections are totally hazy but it was most certainly one of the greatest days of my life.

 

[Joker]

I felt overwhelming joy for Steve Grogan and Nellie and Stanley Morgan...great Patriots who were robbed by that idiotic decision to start Eason. They deserved to be the first Patriot cinderella and should have had that chance.

Understand..Willie got in Faulk's head but the key in that game was Warner got knocked silly for two quarters. When his head cleared, the Rams went through us like butter.It was Bill Belichick and his vision that allowed Brady to do what EVERYONE,even a John Madden said shouldn't be done. The Rams were far better...the Pats were far smarter.

 

[fgssand]

Here comes the spoiled brat to chime in....

I was very very very lucky and My father took me down to see the game.

the whole weekend was amazing and I have told many stories on the subject but sticking to the question here goes.

The Kick is Good.

Followed imediately by a small leap(large by my standards) and yell. Then a moment of pause is this real then I practically tackled my father. Then we jumped up and down like little school girls. Then as we calmed slightly we began to take it all in. Watching the players run around, watching the confetti fall, watching the Rams fans leave, watching the on field workers get the field ready for our trophey celebration.

Then we realized there were very few left in the upper decks especially on our side as we were on the Rams side. We also realized the losing fans left behind the swag that is on your seat when you arrive so we grabed a bunch of extra's for my brothers and grandfather.

Then we calmed again and watched the trophey presentation. Which listening to Krafts speech almost brought a tear to my eye. The speech was good but that wasnt what almost caused the tear it was just seeing this happening to our guys finally.

After that we decided to head down to the lower bowl but by the time we got there most of the party had moved to the locker room. So we headed out for Bourbon St.

Two pit stops first one at a pay phone to call the grandfather and brothers and mom too. Papa Joe gave out the roar of a lifetime and to talk to him at that moment was one of my favorite things ever he is the man responsible for my craziness, my brothers, and my fathers and the Patriots have really kept us all extremely close.

Second pit stop - We Needed a Championship shirt - we found a store selling some in a commeritive cup. My dad bought like 10 of these things. We quickly realized we needed another bag to get all this crap home with us luckily the store had a duffle bag. We bought that 10 shirts in cups and we loaded the bag up with 8 of the shirts 10 cups we put the shirts on mine barely fit because the biggest they had was XL.

Now off to Bourbon st with a large duffle bag in tow and for anyone who has been to bourbon st you can imagine how easy it is walking down the st with a huge duffle bag.

We found a few beers (the best tasting beer of my life). Next we found some victory cigars. And what happened next is almost unbelieveable. We lit up the cigars, got a refill on the beers and than found a nice spot to relax and enjoy the victory cigar. With in five feet of this spot we notice a familar face. It is the guy who sat in the row behind us for at least like 15-20 years and his father who also sat back there often.

The whole time we are high fiving anyone who walks by.

We wound up leaving after the cigar because we wanted to go back and watch primetime and all the other highlights we could. Probably didn't go to sleep until well after 3 and after watching the highlights a few times.

absolutely one of the greatest moments of my life. DAD THANK YOU AGAIN AND AGAIN AND AGAIN AND FOREVER.

Although we have been lucky enough as a family to go to the "other" two superbowls (AZ never happened) and celebrate together....................this moment has to go down as my #1 all time sports thrill. So glad you were there11 We had a blast the entire weekend!

Every single time I watch the replay - "THE KICK IS GOOOOOD"

 

[patsfaninpa]

I watched at home. Usually go to a party. But, not that year. Had custody issues and 7yr old daughter was living with me at time. Mom not around. I thought we had no chance going into the game. So, I didn't have big expectations headed into the game. Daughter fell asleep in living with me watching the game. I probably woke her up during the last drive. Watched the kick from my knees. She didn't understand sports at the time. And, still teases me about it. Why was I watching from my knees? Why did I jump up and scream after it went thru?