Patsfan Survey: When Did YOU Become a Patriots Fan?

[PatsWickedPissah]

It's off season. Worse yet it's in the dreaded Dead Zone after the draft, OTAs and before camp starts. It's time for another poll asking Patriots fan longevity. There's no wrong answer. Folks can't help when they were born or when they first became, shall we say "enlightened"? Tell us when and how you became a Pats fan. Overseas fans especially have interesting stories to tell. Fess up all you newbies and old coots wanting one more before whatever.

 

[PatsWickedPissah]

I was a kid growing up with the hated Giants and YA Tits Up televised in Boston. We also had the Browns on another of the 2 networks and I loved Jim Brown. When Billy Sullivan got the Pats franchise I became a fan abandoning the Red Sox but still loving Bill Russell and the Celts. Went thru decades of frustration but it was worth it.

 

[QuantumMechanic]

I started watching them in 1976. One of my fondest pre-SB36 memories was being in the stands for the game against Buffalo in 1978 when NE clinched the AFCE.

Buffalo took an intentional safety late in the game, but botched the free kick and/or gave up a good return and NE got decent field position. Posey hit a short FG near or at the final gun and the place went nuts!

 

[Brady_to_Moss]

About 1999 when i was 11..grew up in MA so of course i was going to be a fan. Non of this BS about being a yankee fan because they win

 

[Patjew]

Born in 1973 so early- to mid-80s.

Or maybe I should say 1973.

 

[Crazy Patriot Guy]

1994. I wanted to buy a jersey, but living in Texas, I was tired of seeing Aikman, Smith, Irvin and Moon jerseys and wanted something different. I saw a Bledsoe jersey and liked the colors and thought his name sounded cool. From then on through high school, my nickname was Bledsoe. I started keeping up with the team and have been die-hard ever since.

 

[IcyPatriot]

It's off season. Worse yet it's in the dreaded Dead Zone after the draft, OTAs and before camp starts. It's time for another poll asking Patriots fan longevity. There's no wrong answer. Folks can't help when they were born or when they first became, shall we say "enlightened"? Tell us when and how you became a Pats fan. Overseas fans especially have interesting stories to tell. Fess up all you newbies and old coots wanting one more before whatever.

I've been taking this poll every year since I came here in 2001 ... answer remains the same. When I became aware of the Patriots around age 8 in 1967 the year of the best Camaro ever.

 

[TheBeers]

Oh around 85 at the tender age of 10 I got caught up in squish the Fish, Berry the Bears..

 

[chicowalker]

late 70s, though not sure about the disco part... since I was a kid

probably '77, since that was when I went to my first Sox game -- but no real memories

I think I lost my first Pats bet in 78, when a friend of my dad took the Oilers

enjoyed a '79 drubbing of the Jets on the car radio when the family was going into Boston for I have no idea what...

 

[Joker]

I remember when Nick Bounoconti was the Pats MLB

 

[Avenger]

Probably around 1998-2000. I was a little kid, Bledsoe was my favorite player. I loved watching him win the AFC Championship Game.

 

[Patjew]

I've been taking this poll every year since I came here in 2001 ... answer remains the same. When I became aware of the Patriots around age 8 in 1967 the year of the best Camaro ever.

I love that Camaro! Firebird, too.

 

[PatsFanJess]

Born in 1973 so early- to mid-80s.

Or maybe I should say 1973.

That's the route I went. Born in '86, Pats fan in '86. I'd probably feel differently if I wasn't born into a family of crazed Pats fans. I was a Pats fan at birth, I just didn't know it yet (or have a choice, for that matter)

 

[Deus Irae]

I was young. It was the 70's. In a time of open marriages, I was following the Red Sox (home town team) and Astros (First game I ever saw on TV involved the Astros, and I stayed with them from then through the weird [and great!] uniforms to J.R. Richard [was the baseball equivalent to Tedy Bruschi with the stroke while still playing] through some of the Nolan Ryan era) in baseball, and the Patriots (home town team) and Oilers (from my first carnival prize which was a mirror with the Oilers Helmet on it through the Earl Campbell era) in football. Eventually, the Oilers, Astros and I parted on friendly terms, and my "big 4 sports" monogamy became total. I still feel the longings for those lost loves now and again, but now it's more of a saddened sympathy for the lost beauty that was a Richards/Ryan pitching gem or those ugly/beautiful uniforms, or an emotional pang of regret knowing that I'll never again see the Tyler Rose dragging half a defense down the field. I was always a one-team guy with basketball (Celtics) and hockey (Bruins), though.

I'm not proud of it all, and some today will judge those of us who lived back in those heady days of more forgiving relationships, but it was the times, and I refuse to be ashamed of my 'open' sports marriages. Damn it! I liked both Bjorg and McEnroe, too, and I refuse to believe that it was wrong...

I'm not ashamed!

 

[Nikolai]

1985-1986. I was a kid, and my father would watch them religiously on the rare occasions we got them on TV in Virginia. When they were destroyed by the Bears, I got kind of a chip on my shoulder about them and was a fan ever since.

 

[Patjew]

I was young. It was the 70's. In a time of open marriages, I was following the Red Sox (home town team) and Astros (First game I ever saw on TV involved the Astros, and I stayed with them from then through the weird [and great!] uniforms to J.R. Richard [was the baseball equivalent to Tedy Bruschi with the stroke while still playing] through some of the Nolan Ryan era) in baseball, and the Patriots (home town team) and Oilers (from my first carnival prize which was a mirror with the Oilers Helmet on it through the Earl Campbell era) in football. Eventually, the Oilers, Astros and I parted on friendly terms, and my "big 4 sports" monogamy became total. I still feel the longings for those lost loves now and again, but now it's more of a saddened sympathy for the lost beauty that was a Richards/Ryan pitching gem or those ugly/beautiful uniforms, or an emotional pang of regret knowing that I'll never again see the Tyler Rose dragging half a defense down the field. I was always a one-team guy with basketball (Celtics) and hockey (Bruins), though.

I'm not proud of it all, and some today will judge those of us who lived back in those heady days of more forgiving relationships, but it was the times, and I refuse to be ashamed of my 'open' sports marriages. Damn it! I liked both Bjorg and McEnroe, too, and I refuse to believe that it was wrong...

I'm not ashamed!

Nor should you be ashamed.

I too grew up a baseball fan in those years of terrible/wonderful uniforms. I have to admit that I miss them. Seeing that Astros uni brought me back to a simpler time and gave me some warm fuzzies. That's when I fell in love with sports. Things were easy then. Why, I barely got any emails back then.

 

[Ring 6]

1974. I was born in RI and we moved away in 72. By 74 I became an NFL fan. Since I was already a Red Sox (in NE that happens at about 1 1/2) Celtics and Bruins (in those days it was as popular or more popular than the Sox) fan, my first look at the NFL was to the Pats. They started well, I was in. In 76 I made my first trip to Smithfield and couldn't believe I was about to get Russ Francis' autograph when it turned out #88 was a black dude, named Willie Armstead?????????????????? Got Tim Fox after that, in a very good memory that no one attending camp could possibly conceive, as he told me to jog along with him toward the lockerroom because the coach doesn't like if they walk.
By 76 I was old enough to be really, really into it.

 

[reflexblue]

1974..............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

 

[Frezo]

My dad and I used to watch Providence College basketball in the mid sixties. I remember Jimmy Walker and Mike Riordan. Dad wasn't much of a football fan, but Uncle Joe had a color TV and we'd go over on Sundays to watch sports. My earliest recollection of the Pats is them playing at Alumni Stadium. From about 1973 and on I watched them whenever possible.

 

[Joker]

jeezus...one night downtown at the Prov Y, Jimmy Walker came into the small gym and started shooting around watching us hacks playing 4 on 4...it was like Moses parting the Red Sea...he played a little 1 on three against us and beat the bejeezus out of us raining down 35 footers from everywhere on the court...will never forget and to this day, still a huge fan of the Walk....grew up playing ball with Marvin BTW...went ot Lasalle, he went to Central...wasn't even the best player on that team either, the Washington brothers were...great days