Your First New England Patriots Game (Live)

[Ian]

Please take a moment to talk about your first Patriots game ever in person in this thread. I'll kick things off:

My first Patriots game came back in 1994 against the Indianapolis Colts at Foxboro Stadium. I bought the tickets at a Ticketmaster here in New Hampshire the day before (a Saturday morning) and was stunned that they actually had tickets available, and actually called in sick that Sunday (I work weekends) so I could go to the game.

So my best friend and I drove down to Foxboro and I drove down 495 to get there, and came off the exit and started heading up Route 1 to look for a place to park. Having never been there (and I didn't know anyone who had), I remember driving along and all of a sudden you look up and there's a football stadium that looked like it had been dropped in the middle of this quiet little town. I ended up parking in one of the lots up the road from the stadium off of Route 1 (I had no idea where the good lots were) and we parked the car and got out and ended up hanging out with some people and playing football. It was a blast.

Then we obviously headed off toward the stadium and went in and found our seats, which come to find out I had apparently purchased tickets from the team's family allotment that had been turned back in by the players. To our surprise we had seats next to Bledsoe's dad (Mac) and Ben Coates' brother.

The team went on to roll over the Colts, and it was an amazing game and a day I'll never forget. So here I am 14-years later with a website and hanging out with all of you fine people. Who knew?

Ian

 

[PATRIOT64]

Sounds like you had a great time Ian - Wish I could do the same but time off is the problem getting to Foxboro from here

Unfortunately for me I have never been able to see a game as I have never been up to the Boston/New England area from down here in Northeast PA

Someday I may try and see a game when the Patriots travel to Philly as I am only 2 1/2 hours north from there but I doubt my business ever gives me time to journey up that way.

 

[NJPatsfan26]

My first game was the infamous Snowbowl game in the old Foxboro Stadium on January 19, 2002. It was the last game in the stadium and it was packed. A friend of mine worked there as a volunteer and invited me and a few of our friends to help him. Our job was to serve beer to the masses. It was cold that day....very cold. Must have been about 20 degrees and of course it was snowing. So after serving beer for the first half, and almost loosing my hands to frostbite, we were let go and told to find a seat in the upper decks to watch the end of the game. It was amazing and then we went on to win the SB that year.

What a game and what a memory...

 

[CheerforTom]

It was in Buffalo, 2006. I'm from Canada so until then I didn't get much of a chance to head down to one. I went with a buddy of mine, a Bills fan, so we looked like quite the odd couple walking into the parking lot. I had my Brady away jersey (my only one, at that point) on and so I got a lot of catcalls and stuff like that directed my way (most of them calling Brady really inappropriate things) but for the most part the Buffalo fans were pretty nice about things. The only real exception was when we went into the Buffalo Pro Shop, where I received more dirty looks and remarks to my face than in the rest of my life combined. There were also a lot of Pats fans at the game tailgating and such who were vocal and really fun to interact with.

The game itself was great. We blew them out something like 35-6. The D didn't allow a touchdown. I remember Brady rolling out of the pocket, finding nothing and giving himself up only to be blasted by a linebacker and getting into a HUGE argument with the random Buffalo fans around me as to whether that was really roughing. I witnessed live the play that I suspect stole the hearts of this board, Chad Jackson catching a 50-some odd yard bomb for a TD. I remember thinking at the time "we actually have a reliable deep threat!". The Buffalo fans left fairly early in the 4th quarter and the groups of Pats fans were all yelling "go, we want your seats!" at them (we had really high seats). At the end it pretty much looked like a Pats home game, in line for the washroom were nothing but Pats jerseys. We discussed the game.

It was pretty great.

 

[PatriotNMP43]

December 13th, 1987, Patriots 42 Jets 20 at Sullivan Stadium, i remember it vividly because it was one of the worst wind chill games i ever endured, was a little icy snow covering everything and felt like 20 below, took me 2 days to thaw out. The Patriots cruised to a 35 to 6 halftime lead and 42 to 6 after 3, cold beer was not a problem that game lol, Grogan had 4 TD passes and we ran the ball well. Wow, i just found the boxscore, check this out.

New York Jets at New England Patriots - December 13th, 1987 - Pro-Football-Reference.com

 

[Delicate Genius]

October 5th, 2008: New England @ San Francisco

 

[fair catch fryar]

Sept. 22, 1991-Houston @ New England-Hugh Millen hit Greg McMurtry for a 20 yard TD to beat Warren Moon and a very good Houston Oilers team with 6 seconds left. **** MacPherson ran on to the field like they just clinched a playoff berth.

 

[Sean Pa Patriot]

Being form NE Pa its tough sometimes also, but I do make it to 3 games a yr.. But my first game was not at Foxboro Stadium..It was at Shea Stadium Nov 19th 1978.. Pats win 19-17 when Pat Leahy misses a fg late in the 4th... You see some of the highlights when Nellie pats him on the head.. I also saw my second game in Oct 1980, Matt Cavenaugh played hit Harlod Jackson on a td pass.. Grogan was hurt with bad knees ..


Was suppose to see the pats in foxboro 87 to see the bills, but that was a scab game and did not go..


Real first game in Foxboro 1994 Miami vs the Pats, the pats got killed 20-3..

All told been to about 36 pats games 6 road games in my life.. had season tickets in 96/97 but lost my job and had to give them up.. now i go to about 3 game a yr, already went to 1 this yr, will be going to the st louis game it looks like..

 

[richpats]

January 6, 2002 at Carolina - the Week 2 game postponed b/c of 9/11. Temps in the teens, attendance around 15,000, Panthers were awful (1-14) - Pats deliver a 38-6 spanking and clinch the AFC East title

Altogether been to 23 Pats games (27 counting preseason) - mostly road games (19).

 

[Mike the Brit]

We had this thread a year or so ago and there were some pretty good posts:

http://www.patsfans.com/new-england...triots-memories-your-first-patriots-game.html

Here's mine:

I can’t tell you how much I enjoyed the threads started by NoCalPatriot this off-season about following the Patriots in the old days. I bet you never thought when you were having all those wild times that, thirty years on, people would be so happy to relive them with you!

I can’t go back that far but I thought that it would be fun to start a thread for people to reminisce about their first Patriots game. Mine meant a lot to me. Though I’ve followed the Patriots since the 1981 season, it’s been at a distance. Last season, though, I came to New England and, thanks to some help, got the chance to go to my first game.

And what a game it was! At home to the hated and despised J*E*T*S, coached by the Perfidious Penguin himself, Eric Mangini. The day was one continuous downpour, soaking right through everything that I had on so that, by the time I got home, I was shivering from head to foot. Oh, and (in case you’ve forgotten) we lost!

I don’t have a car, so I had to take the train from South Station. I think that this was the slowest train I’ve ever been on that wasn’t in the Third World. Foxboro is, what, twenty miles from the center of Boston, but the train took more than an hour and a half to get there. At one point we seemed to go past the stadium and come back in reverse. Anyway, we were due to get to the stadium at 12:15 and I was to meet up with my companion by the pro shop at 12:30. But it was after 12:30 when we arrived and I had to make a dash through the rain. Fortunately, he was there and, having exchanged photographs, we had no trouble recognizing each other even though we already looked like drowned rats.

No time for tailgating and socializing but we did take the long way through the stadium to get to our (pigeon-perch) seats. I’ve been to some big sports stadia in my time (old Wembley, Olympiastadion Munich, etc., etc.) but Gillette feels the biggest. The impression is quite different from a European sports stadium – the fans are further back from the pitch and there isn’t the enclosed “bowl” feeling. I can’t compare it with other football stadia but however loud you shout from seats like ours (and shout loud I certainly did!) your sound doesn’t link up with what’s going on lower down or across the other side. Not like “You’ll Never Walk Alone” at Anfield. The whole thing seems incredibly spacious – there’s lots of room on the ramps and under the seats for concessions and so on. Of course, I couldn’t go to a football game without BEER. $7 for a Bud Light – but there you go. The best bit was that I was carded by the guy selling the stuff, to the great amusement of my companion (hint: I was born in the same year as our esteemed coach).

One thing that interested me all the way through was the crowd. The atmosphere on the train was very good – a bit less exuberant than I might have thought (it was raining so hard, of course, and I presume that most of these folks were season ticket holders who had been to plenty of games already) but friendly. The crowd was definitely well mixed socially and by age – predominantly “blue collar” (just my guess) and with more older folks than I’d expected. One kid had on a Harvard sweat shirt and a Patriots hat which I thought funny. I don’t imagine you get many Oxford University t-shirts at Chelsea games! At the stadium there were quite a few Jester fans but they behaved pretty well. Naturally, they were pleased with the way things went and let everybody know about it but the obnoxiousness was of the right kind, if you get what I mean – part of the craic, not the kind of threatening aggression you get at soccer. I stood in the queue for the men’s room behind a guy with a Jets Ty Law jersey on, which I thought was pretty funny (“Yeah. He screwed you – and he screwed us too!”, he said when I commented on it.) I can remember when going to soccer was like that – you could shout and cheer and have a laugh with the other team’s fans too. I thought it was great.

The less said about the game itself, of course, the better. Watching from such a high viewpoint, you can forget about understanding much about the line play but you can certainly see how the play develops with defensive backs and receivers in a way that you never can on TV (except when Mike Carlson does replays on British Channel 5). Given the way things went that day, this wasn’t altogether a good thing …

On the way back to the train, I had the great pleasure of being introduced to Big Al and Mrs B. They were as gracious as you would have expected, despite being somewhat occupied trying to dismantle a reluctant canopy in pretty dismal weather.

All in all, the occasion was great. The way I look on it is if you can go to the stadium in lousy weather and watch the team lose and still enjoy it then this is probably for you.

 

[NSpatsfan]

November 2001 Vikings at Patriots, first season with the new stadium, Superbowl banner hanging in the corner. My wife and I flew down from Halifax, NS, rented a car. I remember getting up that Sunday morning to drive to the game it was cold and I though we had left way to early (10am), when we got to the parking lot we were able to park pretty much in front of the stadium where the old pro shop was, but the place was filliing up fast BBQ's going, cold beers , flags flying truly awesome!! We were parked next to a large group of guys who were season ticket holders and when they found out we had come all that way they invited us to their spot, provided plenty of food and drink!! The Pats won, and I have lots of great memories!! Just recently I attended the preseasn game in August vs the Ravens (brough my 4 year old daughter!!)it was unbelieavable how much has changed with Patriot Place, pretty cool stuff!!

 

[muzz]

October 8th, 1995
2 of our friends took me and my brother in law to the Denver@Pats game(4 season tix), great time tail-gating, massive amounts of food, but the Pats got annihilated 37-3.
More great tail-gating after the game while the crowds sat in a mad traffic jam.

 

[Patjew]

The bold is copy and pasted from the old thread.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I think I popped my Pats cherry at a pre-season game in 1987 and then another in 1988. They lost both. All I really remember are the fights in the stands. We were behind the Pats bench and I remember they all turned around to watch a really good fight in the stands. The first game I vividly remember was against Miami in Dec 1992. That was the coldest game I've ever been to. The Pats were terrible that year (2-14) and Miami was good, but the Pats almost won, losing 13-16. My buddies and I had to leave before the end of the game b/c we got into a rumble and one of my friend's lips got all effed up and we had to take him to the Kent County E.R. I remember being drunk by 10 a.m. that day and frozen by noon.

Good times.

I only went to games sporadically from 1987 tol 2003 or so, basically because I couldn't afford it. I am trying to think of the first game I attended that the Pats actually won. I think it was the game in the snow vs Miami in 2003. Anyway, I aw the second half after being stuck on rte. 1 for 3 hours. Then I saw them beat Seattle the next week.

 

[BradfordPatsFan]

Pats vs Jags, week 4 1996. I went with my two cousins and our aunt. One person gave us one set of directions, another gave us a different set of directions. We got lost on the way down, luckily we found a state trooper and got there with plenty of time to spare. We parked where the new stadium currently stands.

We sat in the end zone behind the poles for the video board, but had a great view of the field. The Pats were up big and blew it, one successfull hailmary at the end of the first half and a near catch at the end of regulation by Jacksonville made it incredibly exciting. Some rookie kicker named Vinatieri missed a PAT and perhaps even a fg early on before kicking the winning fg in OT. Who knew at that time we'd be seeing a preview of the AFC Championship Game?

 

[Dfresh429]

Holy crap! I was at that game too, Ian! I was 13 years old. I remember Roger Clemens sitting up in Bob Krafts box, throwing hats out the window to people!

That game was awesome. Bledsoe throws a pick-six to Ray Buchanon, but then in the second half TD passes to Coates and to Lamont Thompson, as well as a TD by Marion Butts (OMG lol) help give the Patriots a win. Don Majikowski was the QB for indy. They had alot of good player. Marshall Faulk in his rookie year, Quintin Coryat, Jeff Herrod, Sean Dawkins, Tony Siragusa...That game was actually very good. I have been trying to find it on tape. Anybody know where I could find that game on tape?

Anyways, my first game was a Patriots/Oilers game. The field was still astroturf and Doug Flutie was the Patriots QB. I remember Warren Moon..I was real young at the time.

 

[Dfresh429]

Pats vs Jags, week 4 1996. I went with my two cousins and our aunt. One person gave us one set of directions, another gave us a different set of directions. We got lost on the way down, luckily we found a state trooper and got there with plenty of time to spare. We parked where the new stadium currently stands.

We sat in the end zone behind the poles for the video board, but had a great view of the field. The Pats were up big and blew it, one successfull hailmary at the end of the first half and a near catch at the end of regulation by Jacksonville made it incredibly exciting. Some rookie kicker named Vinatieri missed a PAT and perhaps even a fg early on before kicking the winning fg in OT. Who knew at that time we'd be seeing a preview of the AFC Championship Game?

I was at that game too. I was sitting next to the Jaguars seating section. You know, the seats that the away team gets. That was interesting. I miss Foxboro stadium. Overall, a much better ATMOSPHERE for a football game than Gillette.

 

[everlong]

November 10th 1985

Pats 34 Colts 15

A relative, I cannot remember which one, gave me 4 tickets so a friend of mine and I went with our girlfriends. I got them late Saturday night so we had zero time to prepare. We grabbed breakfast at Bickfords on route 1 then went to a liquor store. We were only 17 and were not carded, the glory days lol.

We got to the parking lot and parked next to some people tailgating who had some tunes cranking and were tossing the football. We played a friendly game of two hand touch with 5 on 5 and drank the beer. They were pretty cool and let us have some of their barbecue.

Headed to the seats which were nose bleeds. It was pretty warm that day for November which was nice. The first thing I noticed was the smell of pot coming from seemingly every direction. I was a little surprised that people were so bold about it.

The thing I remember most about the game was the first deep pass the Pats completed and the receiver was wide open and the entire crowd knew it. It seemed like the ball took forever to come down in his hands and as soon as Grogan released it the volume in the stadium just started going up and by the time he hauled it in the place was nuts.

I often think about that and wish the new stadium would hit that volume to support the team.

 

[nukin]

I have only been to a pre season game ... I'll post back here whenever I get enough cash to make it to the razor

 

[Dfresh429]

Interesting games that I have been too (all during my teenage years...damn my parents were generous!!)

1992 game vs. Jets - Monsoon game..i think the final was 6-3 or something..it poured so hard that game and my parents and I were sitting up in the very top row of the 3rd deck at foxboro..I remember Boomer Esiason QB'ing for the Jets.

1995 - I went to the Monday Night game at home vs. Bills. Pats dominated. That was Foxboro at it's finest..it was the best crowed I have ever seen a game with

1996 - Jax reg season game

1998 - Pats utter domination of the Chiefs at home and then the very next week the complete let down against the Jets.

I have been to a couple games at Gillette, and though the accommodations are so much nicer (seats vs. benches; great parking; more bathrooms/concessions) but the crowds were so much better at Foxboro. I think it was the closeness (no homo) of the stadium. Everyone was crunched in together. It was so much louder, and you were so close to the field.

 

[jsho]

December 7th 2008 vs the Seahawks

...If I actually do end up getting to make it down there for the game.