Younger generation Pats fans please share (20's, 30's)

[Actual Pats Fan]

Now anything short of a Super Bowl championship will feel like a failure in these days

It was like that when Bobby was with the B's and when Larry was with the C's

I felt more confident about our winning the Super Bowl in '76 than any other year...we were healthy and playing on the road was no problem for us.


The most popular albums of my generation were Tapestry and Dark Side of the Moon...and I listened to both

 

[Actual Pats Fan]

34 years old.

I'll repost what I wrote in a previous thread regarding whether anyone remembers "the dark ages":

Even when we were losing, it was always fun to be a Patriots fan. I wouldn't trade it for anything.

Our players typically comported themselves with class, often in direct contrast to players from other teams. Yeah, that includes the 90's.

 

[deroc5050]

Well I'm 27. Started really following the Pats after the 1st SB. When we win in 03 and 04, l thought we would keep winning championships. Unfortunately that wasn't to be. I learned it's difficult to win. The good thing about not winning titles every year, is l learned to be a true fan. Meaning l didn't waver during the title "drought".

lol drought .. like going to 7 Super Bowls in 16 years. Every year except 2002 and 2008 we have been in the playoffs. And both of the seasons that the pats didn't make the playoffs still had a chance in week 17.

 

[brdmaverick]

It was like that when Bobby was with the B's and when Larry was with the C's

I felt more confident about our winning the Super Bowl in '76 than any other year...we were healthy and playing on the road was no problem for us.


The most popular albums of my generation were Tapestry and Dark Side of the Moon...and I listened to both

Bobby was before my time and I was too young to appreciate Bird (age 4 when he won his last championship) so I had never REALLY experienced a championship until 2001. So when the Past lost the Super Bowl against Green Bay I was still thrilled. A championship felt like some mythical thing that other teams experienced but would never be in the cards for us. I was happy with Super Bowl runner up.

 

[Actual Pats Fan]

lol drought .. like going to 7 Super Bowls in 16 years. Every year except 2002 and 2008 we have been in the playoffs. And both of the seasons that the pats didn't make the playoffs still had a chance in week 17.

True; but coming up just short so many times is Red Sox-like.

 

[Actual Pats Fan]

Bobby was before my time and I was too young to appreciate Bird (age 4 when he won his last championship) so I had never REALLY experienced a championship until 2001. So when the Past lost the Super Bowl against Green Bay I was still thrilled. A championship felt like some mythical thing that other teams experienced but would never be in the cards for us. I was happy with Super Bowl runner up.

Yeah, the last one in Boston was the Celts' in '86...

 

[Mogamedogz]

Utterly impossible to be spoiled with all those miserable losses in winnable games during the 10-year drought, all while still dressed in Kraft's ugly disguises.

This is a joke, right? :unsure:

 

[Brick27]

27 now and have always lived in NE. My first "real" memories of the Pats was the 96 season, and somehow it just seemed inevitable in my small mind that the Pats and Packers would meet in the Super Bowl. At that point, obviously Favre had become a star, and the playground was pretty split between Favre jerseys and Bledsoe jerseys.

Watching the Pats is all I really remember, but it wasn't until I started playing football in 5th grade (2000) that I really began to watch the game with a somewhat more educated eye. By 6th grade I was hooked, and the Super Bowl sealed it.

I feel that throughout middle school and high school, watching the Patriots helped shape my own high school and college football career. Oh by the way.. I went to college in New York, and had to deal with 2010 being surrounded by Jets fans, only to have to deal with Giants fans the following year. While some of them were true fans, others were simply NYC hipsters that somehow felt the need to celebrate even though the playoffs were the only games some probably watched all year.

But anyways, I feel fortunate to have grown up through the Brady and Bill era..beginning when I was learning/playing the game myself and extending to my adult life. I also realize the inevitable, and how when this run is over, it will likely never be this good again in my lifetime. Whatever happens, I'm simply happy to have been able to experience it.

 

[meatface]

Utterly impossible to be spoiled with all those miserable losses in winnable games during the 10-year drought, all while still dressed in Kraft's ugly disguises.

Those two years when we didn't make the playoffs this millennium were devastating

 

[thecore762]

I am 26. Everyday I think in horror of what is to come. The run has to come to an end eventually and will probably never be repeated. I have never known a bad Patriots team. Oh and the Redsox are now the previous generations Yankees.

I'm in the same boat as you, I also grew up during the Dynasty era, Red Sox winning the WS, the Celtics winning the NBA finals, and the Bruins winning the Stanley cup, so yeah...

I am not a huge Baseball or Hockey fan, my main sports are football, soccer and basketball those I watch religiously.

 

[DarrylS]

69 years old and after years of taking **** about being a Pats Fan this never gets old..

During the 90's I used to work on Sundays... and would come to work and the Giants, Jets and Miami fans would all be there in their puke colored "puff coats" and none of those luxuries were available to us.. it was also the days of "TV black out" after "black out". So I would have a walkman with earphones, other guys thought I was a "degenerate gambler", I used to tell them I was just a "fan"...

Cherish every minute of this younger fans.. this is beyond my wildest dreams..

 

[primetime]

I'm 30. Grew up with season tickets. I have vague recollections of the red uniforms as a kid. I specifically remember one Jon Vaughn touchdown return against Cleveland, maybe? Otherwise it's mostly a blur thanks to childhood and time.

The most vivid memories I have of early seasons include the Patriots beating the Bills soundly in Marion Butts' only good game, the Bledsoe comeback against the Vikings (I wanted to leave at halftime), the Patriots losing to Belichick's Browns in the playoffs, and Curtis Martin beating the Browns with a touchdown in his first game. Martin was my favorite player and I couldn't have been angrier when the Jets stole him. Still remember the first Tuna Bowl.

First jersey I ever owned was a Tedy Bruschi jersey in his rookie year that we picked up at a mall in Springfield. That draft was good to me, I was obsessed with the 1996 Ohio State team with Eddie George and Terry Glenn, and we used to get the Kiper draft guide and I wanted Lawyer Milloy and Tedy Bruschi (my father declared the latter too small to make it in the NFL, whoops).

I was there for Brady's first start. I was there for the Tuck Rule game, but - and this is my worst sports memory - I had the flu and we left and headed to the warm safety of the train when we thought the game was over. We heard the stadium erupt as we walked, must have been the Tuck Rule call. Listened to them win the game over the radio.

Got rid of our season tickets when they built Gillette, as the drive wasn't worth it with Sunday Ticket available and they had moved our perfect 50 yard line seats to the corner since we were in the spot where the red seats were going in and the price doubled. Also thought they were a fluke. Probably a bad decision, since I went to college in Boston and with the team's popularity you can make money off season tickets.

Every year thereafter, we'd go to usually two games on bus trips, usually to Buffalo and New York. In college I'd sometimes be able to get tickets at face value the week before the game and I'd go to those. Last game I went to in person was when they were in DC four or five years back.

Nowadays I find myself losing interest in football except for the Patriots. Too many ads and too much else to occupy my time. I wonder if, when they eventually are bad again, I'll care enough to keep watching. Probably.

 

[mosslost]

This is a joke, right? :unsure:

no he is serious. He is a clown.

 

[mosslost]

Even when we were losing, it was always fun to be a Patriots fan. I wouldn't trade it for anything.

Our players typically comported themselves with class, often in direct contrast to players from other teams. Yeah, that includes the 90's.

Early 90's was abysmal joke, not just the losing either. We had a QB who once hitch hiked on Root One from practice because his car would not start in his gear. 1976-1988 the Pats were actually a pretty good (underachieving) team. I had season tickets in the 70s (my dad did). I went all the time back in the day, and they were never on TV except rare occasions. Though I am a huge fan who lives down the street from Gillette I have been once to a pre-season game.

 

[Mogamedogz]

no he is serious. He is a clown.

Oh dear lord, I was REALLY hoping for sarcasm there. Jesus. And then we wonder why everyone hates us.

 

[Petersen23]

I am 32, grew up watching the Pats at the old Foxboro stadium freezing my ass off on the bleacher seats with all the blue collar fans... a lot of losing I witnessed but loved watching the likes of these guys: (i can go all day with these photos but I won't)

 

[Actual Pats Fan]

Early 90's was abysmal joke, not just the losing either. We had a QB who once hitch hiked on Root One from practice because his car would not start in his gear. 1976-1988 the Pats were actually a pretty good (underachieving) team. I had season tickets in the 70s (my dad did). I went all the time back in the day, and they were never on TV except rare occasions. Though I am a huge fan who lives down the street from Gillette I have been once to a pre-season game.

Yes, early 90's were a tough time, but not tougher than Clive Rush years...after Berry got fired he wasn't replaced with anybody comparable; several veterans were lost to retirement and also not replaced; and front office and ownership were in turmoil--but not as bad as Celtics' in the late 70's.

That whole time - three seasons - spanned twenty-eight months. Green Bay's status as the Siberia of the NFL lasted twelve years, until Lombardi arrived. After he left, they were lousy for decades.

As for Orthwein, once the league sent him here-with the sole intention of moving to St. Louis-he did follow the standard, generic American cookie cutter formula for a struggling product: First, make sure it's nothing you're personally attached to or have any affinity for; Second, totally buy into any and all baseless criticism especially from those who are mortal enemies of said product; After five minutes here slap something inferior to predecessors together and totally rebrand the name-quickly in this case, so you create an excuse not to ask the Super Bowl-winning coach you just hired or anyone else who knows anything about football or the Patriots their opinion; And proclaim your product New, Improved, Better, Different, all the things that get people's attention.

So you sell out the stadium because of the coach; and people with money buy merchandise with the new branding on it because they have money and will buy whatever is sold by the local professional football team, often for their kids. This is the demographic that matters to ownership, NOT longtime/lifelong supporters from the beginning-because long-term faith and loyalty mean nothing and, according to the marketing experts you're paying a ton to, they do not translate into profits.

There's nothing wrong with Glenn, Slade, Law, Bruschi, Coates et al. and it's certainly not fans' fault, but the Celtics climbed right back to the top without trashing their look and heritage-because people who actually cared about the team were in charge.

 

[Free_Pacman]

I'm 25.

My dad got season tickets for the first time in 2001. My earliest Patriots memory was watching the opening game of that season where a Jon Kitna-led Bengals team beat the Pats. Our next game- our home opener against the Jets- was the first game I attended. Needless to say, that game ended up being the catalyst for a near-two decades of unprecedented dominance.

As someone who first started following the Pats in 2001 as a 10 year old, I'm pretty much one of the luckiest people in sports fandom. In addition, from 2001 until I left for college, I attended pretty much every Patriots home game and got to experience every incredible moment at Gillette stadium first hand. The Tuck Rule game against the Raiders, the opening of Gillette, the 0-degree playoff game against the Titans, Ty Law's three-interception AFC Championship game against Manning, that special 2007 season, the Bernard Pollard game the next season, 2015's AFCCG against the Colts- all legendary games and all games I saw in-person, mostly as just a kid. These will all be some of my most special memories and memories I'll be able to share with my kids and grandkids. I have got to be one of the luckiest fans in the history of sports.

 

[RayClay]

Bobby was before my time and I was too young to appreciate Bird (age 4 when he won his last championship) so I had never REALLY experienced a championship until 2001. So when the Past lost the Super Bowl against Green Bay I was still thrilled. A championship felt like some mythical thing that other teams experienced but would never be in the cards for us. I was happy with Super Bowl runner up.

Yeah, we were really in that game until the kick return. Nucleus of our great defense on that team.

 

[mosslost]

Yes, early 90's were a tough time, but not tougher than Clive Rush years...after Berry got fired he wasn't replaced with anybody comparable; several veterans were lost to retirement and also not replaced; and front office and ownership were in turmoil--but not as bad as Celtics' in the late 70's.

That whole time - three seasons - spanned twenty-eight months. Green Bay's status as the Siberia of the NFL lasted twelve years, until Lombardi arrived. After he left, they were lousy for decades.

As for Orthwein, once the league sent him here-with the sole intention of moving to St. Louis-he did follow the standard, generic American cookie cutter formula for a struggling product: First, make sure it's nothing you're personally attached to or have any affinity for; Second, totally buy into any and all baseless criticism especially from those who are mortal enemies of said product; After five minutes here slap something inferior to predecessors together and totally rebrand the name-quickly in this case, so you create an excuse not to ask the Super Bowl-winning coach you just hired or anyone else who knows anything about football or the Patriots their opinion; And proclaim your product New, Improved, Better, Different, all the things that get people's attention.

So you sell out the stadium because of the coach; and people with money buy merchandise with the new branding on it because they have money and will buy whatever is sold by the local professional football team, often for their kids. This is the demographic that matters to ownership, NOT longtime/lifelong supporters from the beginning-because long-term faith and loyalty mean nothing and, according to the marketing experts you're paying a ton to, they do not translate into profits.

There's nothing wrong with Glenn, Slade, Law, Bruschi, Coates et al. and it's certainly not fans' fault, but the Celtics climbed right back to the top without trashing their look and heritage-because people who actually cared about the team were in charge.

silly