How did you become a PATS fan??

Redcell said:

My son is being raised as a Pats fan. Eight years old and he was letting the "dang it's" fly at the refs last Sunday. That's my boy!

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Attaboy! My oldest will be 10 in December. FYI-It won't be long before those "dang its" turn to something a little less mom-friendly.

I have been a fan since I moved to MA in 1978. My best memory was a game I went to vs. the Cowboys with my dad when I was 13. He got HAMMERED on Ginger Brandy with all his buddies in the stands (yes, you could bring in all you wanted back at Schaefer/Sullivan). We're on our way to the car after the blowout loss by the Pats (which I was very used to) and he throws me the car keys. "You drive....I can't"

So yes, I drove from Foxboro to Plymouth, MA at 13....what a fond memory not only of the Pats but what a great father I have.

born in mass...grew up in ny..always hated all the ny teams. became pats fan when we beat the raiders at schaeffer..was at game with cousins..jeez that must be....1971

It wasn't until 1993 that I started getting into professional sports in general. I had been to Red Sox games before that, and was aware of the Patriots, Celtics, and Bruins, but didn't really follow the sports much until '93. At that time, I was all about the Celtics and the NBA in general. That NBA Finals between the Bulls and Suns was the first and still the best I have ever seen. Getting back on topic though, in 1994 Drew Bledsoe set the record for completions and pass attempts against the Vikings, and kids all over school were talking about it. Someone had a Herald on them and I took a look at it, on the back page I think was Bledsoe running to the locker room after the victory or something like that. From that moment the Patriots had my attention, and I began to observe the NFL other than just the Super Bowl. I remember watching the Patriots lose in the playoffs that season to, ironically enough, Bill Belichick's Cleveland Browns. Little did I know at that young age the symmetry that would unfold years down the line. Then the following year the Patriots drafted Curtis Martin and he was awesome, then the following year they got to the Super Bowl, and I just kept following the team closer and closer, even when Pete Carroll's tenure and Belichick's first season didn't go so well.

My dad talked me into sitting and watching the Pats' first-ever game with him. They were laughable compared to my Giants. I wanted my Giants to crush them and show them what real football was like.

The next week I had forgotten about the Giants and was looking for a Joe Namath to lead us out of despair.

Actually, I thought Len Dawson or Darryl Lamonica might, but they got there just a little too soon - crushed by the NE Patriots of their day, the Green Bay Packers. And nobody complained about the Packers rolling up the score.

Men were men back then. Now mice and squealing piglets qualify.

I came to Canada from the Caribbean when i was 17.
Never seen football before. Loved the NFL only one problem no NFL teams in Canada. I chose New England because they were different that year (1977 i think). They would beat the best and lose to the worst. . They were a great ground team, with a huge offensive line including John Hannah and Leon Gray. And this little fire hydrant of a guy named Sam the Bam Cunnigham. Steve Grogan was an awful passer back then but man he could run that bootleg. Ran for about 600 yards one year which in those days was a lot.

Stuck with them ever since, suffered a lot especially since i moved to Miami, and had to endure the multitiude of beatings from Dan Marino, Clayton, Duper and company.

But its all good now .

I grew up in "Eastern" "Massachusetts". The Pats were my closest team by a couple of hundred miles.

gomezcat said:

I grew up in "Eastern" "Massachusetts". The Pats were my closest team by a couple of hundred miles.

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Plus the "England" in New England!

patchick said:

As a native of Western Massachusetts, I'm always amazed how many Bostonians think anyplace outside of Rt. 128 isn't actually part of the Commonwealth.

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We accept you.

Since BIRTH.

There are people past Rt. 128? I thought you'd just fall off a cliff. Kind of like when everyone believed the Earth was flat.

I'm probably the old man on the forum.

I lived in Massachusetts until I moved to Maine in 1976.

I grew up as a Detriot Lion's fan. My high school school idol

was Doak Walker when he was at S.M.U. I followed him with

the Lions.

I began following the Pats at the very beginning. It was a lot of

fun watching Mike Holovak assemble a team. Mike Holovak brought in

around 150 players that first year. If they made a mistake in a game,

Lou Saban would fire them the following Monday.

I too hated the Giants because I was afraid their vast TV following

would scuttle the Pats. The TV contract saved the AFL.

Growing up between 1st and second grade i had a real disdain growing up around eagle fans.
Living in PA, I hated the color of them I hated people bought me eagle clothes for holidays cause I lived in PA.
My Pop Pop was the only person in my family who liked football my dad was about as athletic as a Sloth.
He told me about Drew Bledsoe while he was still in college and how'd he be the best qb since Montana.
I use to like the detroit lions untill I started watching Drew play and I started keeping closer tabs on the Patriots.
I started to really like Ben Coates, Chris Slade, Chad Eaton, Vincent Brisby, Dave Megget and some others.
So from about 3rd grade on I been a huge Patriot fan.
It's funny cause I started trying to go against the grain I hate being involved in a trend or fad.
Now people see me with my Patriots gear on and if they don't know me assume i'm a fairweather fan.

Well that's the reason My awesome Grandpa god rest his soul.

GO PATS!

My father used to make us watch the Giants back in the sixties. He was such a fanatic I'm named after Charlie Connoly,my brother after Kyle Rote, he said if there was a third son his name would have been Yellington Abraham. Anyways I was a giants fan until seeing the pats go something like 6-0 in 1974. The Giants stunk,and I've been hooked ever since through thick and thin. And there was alot of thin for a while.

i grew up in Pa as an eagles fan and moved to Ma in '81 to go to college. I had no reason to change alliances because Vermeil and jaws had just taken philly to its 1st super bowl (loss to raiders).

none of the pats home games were blacked out at UMASS/amherst. There was something special about Grogan, Francis, Morgan et. al. Even though they got beat alot, there was always drama.

By the fall of '85, 2 housemates and i had a sunday morning ritual called throw/catch/defend. a QB with a WR and a DB. Whoever made the best play was QB on the next snap, worst play....DB. It was a great way to get pumped for the game.......and work off the inevitable saturday night hangover.

Then the wildcard run. On "Squish the Phish" Sunday morning we had a 14 man snow/rain/mud football game that destroyed a town field in Tewksbury.
The game and subsequent trip to warwick followed, where we greeted our conquering heroes debarking the plane at 2AM. After we punnched and kicked the german shepherds that "warwickis finest" had instructed to "kill"us, we high 5'ed grogan, tippett and the rest, who seemed astonishished that 1000 people were tere to greet them.

Anyway, thats how it happened, hope you liked the story.

Up until age 6, lived in Mass. I was a Pats fan, but it pretty much took off after I moved away (naturally, a 6 year old only knows so much... but much like our Pats themselves, team loyalty only grows stronger with ambient hostility.)

So let's see: I DO clearly remember Plunkett. I don't remember Parelli. I do clearly remember Sam Cunningham. I have a vague memory of shouting "I'm Gino Capaletti" in a backyard game, but that's pretty much who everybody was claiming to be.

My most vivid memories are from the 70s onward... I remember a quite heated argument in which I insisted they were the Boston Patriots, when some kid told me they were "New England" that year. I just knew that would never last...

PFnV

I'm no veteran but don't call me a "fair weather" just because I haven't lived to see my team lose. I'll probably end up like one of those dolphin fans in 10 years after the Brady/Belichick erra, sinking deeper and deeper into depression eachday and constantly reminiscing about glory days.

Im from the Philippines... i was 17 yrs old, The first nfl game I saw was the 2001 superbowl.. pats vs rams, david vs goliath, it intrigued me... the pats were the ultimate underdog, with a worn down defense because of injuries, and an unknown starting quarterback tom brady.... i dont know any football back then because here in the philippines , basketball is the main sport... then the drama of the game kept me watching... im routing for the pats in that game, hoping for them to overcome an insurmountable feat... to my amazement, they won... i have been a fan ever since...
honestly, i dont like football and im not familiar with some of rules... basketball and soccer is my sport... but i dont follow any team whether in basketball or soccer than the pats... i follow the patriots religiously..
i love the pats for what they represent, solidarity and overcoming the odds... even though we are winning right now, i still see them as the underdog team that won the superbowl in 2001...

Hey. Nice thread. Good reading through these.
I'm here every day looking for the latest news on the team and players.
Thanks to all who contribute the good stuff.
Too much negative posts and whining for the sake of it it seems lately.

I grew up as a good Canadian boy and hockey fan in the early 70's.
I don't remember who gave me the Bobby Orr LP record "The Two Sides Of Bobby Orr" http://www.lordsoftherink.com/orr/album1.jpg
but I became an instant Bruins fan.

In the mid-late 70's I started watching football and wanted to pick a team.
I wanted the NFL team from Boston. It took me while to figure out that was the New England Patriots.

It wasn't easy following them back then. No Internet, I was out of the TV market, just reading box scores mostly in the newspaper. Even harder sticking with them through some of those rough years.

Night and day those days to the the way things are today.

1974...home opener...pats knock off the defending SB champion Fins in Foxboro...never looked back, though there were some baaaaaad years in there....

I was born in Boston but when I was little kid I was kinda messed up.

I liked the Raiders because of Jim Plunkett for some reason and I liked the Dolphins because of Marino. I just loved watching him play. I followed players more than teams. I loved Walter Payton but somehow hated the Bears. I always hated the Redskins, 49ers and Giants

When they signed Parcells and drafted Bledsoe in 93 I started really rooting for the Patriots and have become a diehard more and more every year. I was crushed in 96 when they lost. I used to watch that tape every once in a while and get depressed thinking we would never get a chance like that again. I remember thinking that just once I would like to know what it felt like to win a championship.

I will never forget January 19th, 2002, the Snow Bowl. I left the house halfway through the 4th quarter to go to a club and they had a bar downstairs where I watched the last few minutes. I will never forget that 45 yard field goal by Vinatieri that just disappeared into the night. When he won it later that was one of the best nights of partying in my life.

I still remember something this hot bartender said to me a couple weeks later. She said the Pats were going to win the SB because the first time they were in it they wore red, the second time white and this time it would be blue. Made sense at the time, LOL. When they won the Superbowl I drove into downtown Boston and celebrated with all the nutjobs.

That was the only celebration I would ever participate in Boston because I moved to Tampa Oct 18th, 2003. I drove out of town about 36 hours after Wakefield gave up the ALCS ending HR to Aaron Boone.

Since I've been down in Tampa the Pats and Sox have both won 2 more each. My parents moved down in October 2004 right in the middle of the ALCS. So my Dad who is 81 now never got to be in Boston when the Sox finally won. I still tell him to this day that he was the jinx.

So I catch the Pats whenever they play in FL and on TV or Sopcast when I can. The one thing I really miss about Boston is my Pats and Sox.