How did you become a Pats fan?

mosslost said:

Grogan was excellent. It really urkes me when people call those years bleak... 76-89 they were mostly good to great teams, they did under achieve.. and they had one horrible year 1981. They had a lot of dumb **** happen to them too. (1978 playoffs, that team was jacked and loaded.. best Running offense in NFL history.. STILL.. and the coach gets fired before the playoff game. I think 76 and 78 could have SB years.)

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Yup! Totally Agree! And got robbed in '76 Playoffs vs Raiders on a BS Call.
When I talked to Grogan a couple of yrs ago he said it himself to me about that BS Call. He also said that his '78 team was stacked and had best chance to win a SB.

Fanfrom1960 said:

I saw one game at Fenway. Our seats were facing the Green Monster, across the field. I could have sworn a couple of high punts might graze off of it. Weird place to watch a football game. All part of the maturation of the Pats though.

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Nice Avatar, Wonder where you got it? lol

DaBronxPats14 said:

Yup! Totally Agree! And got robbed in '76 Playoffs vs Raiders on a BS Call.
When I talked to Grogan a couple of yrs ago he said it himself to me about that BS Call. He also said that his '78 team was stacked and had best chance to win a SB.

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If it were so stacked then why couldn't it overcome one horrible call?

archstanton543 said:

If it were so stacked then why couldn't it overcome one horrible call?

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When I see Steve this year I'll ask him for you lol

Fanfrom1960 said:

I saw one game at Fenway. Our seats were facing the Green Monster, across the field. I could have sworn a couple of high punts might graze off of it. Weird place to watch a football game. All part of the maturation of the Pats though.

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I think we were up on the roof.

I did see one game before that at Braves Field/Nickerson Field. I remember thinking, who are these guys?

I remember me and my father were watching and I loved the helmets but here losing big. I asked him who they were and stated that they were our team. He said be proud of were you live and rout for the teams that represent the area.
The 1974 team was when I became a big fan. They began that year 6 and 1 with wins over the Dolphins, Rams and incredible win against the Vikings. Injury's killed them the rest of the season though.

Born into it ... it's in my DNA.

Here are some great videos of the 1974 Pats.

mosslost said:

Pats fans don't call them Patsies.

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They did in those days.

don't remember.....they've just always been there

I was a kid and read in the newspapers* that Boston was gonna get an AFL franchise. I hated the NY Giants on TV and all things NY, so I became a fan when the team started.


* Aside from television news, newspapers were just about THE main form of news. There was no sports radio.

A lot of cool reasons for people becoming Pats fans. I was just thinking, I wonder how many fans gave up on them because of the 40 years without a title, picked up on another team and missed out on all this glory.

Living in Toronto, in the early 70's I wasn't really into the NFL all that much, but then I started watching it. My uncle in Miami tried to turn me into a Dolphins fan, but I didn't really like them much. All my friends were Steelers or Raiders fans, but I liked Boston teams in general (the Bruins, the Red Sox and the Celtics), and I loved the Patriots uniforms. So I just started watching them and rooting for them. I was laughed by my friends because the Pats could sometimes get close but never win the big one. Well who's laughing now.

I am from Maine. My father and grandfather are/were Patriots fans. The games were always on. I enjoyed playing football, but I was young and never really had the attention span to sit and watch it. Until the 1985 season. Partway through I got hooked. Just in time to see the Pats on their run to their first Super Bowl. Sure, they got crushed. But I was hooked. I suffered through the late 80s and early 90s, always thinking this was the year they would turn it around. Grogan can get them back, right? Ok, maybe Millen then. This Hodson guy, he's the one for sure. Secules? Zolak?

And then, Bledsoe. I knew he was gonna be the guy. And he was for the most part. The Parcells/Bledsoe years were the best Pats football I had ever seen as far as year to year success went. Then the Parcells/Martin/Jets BS, Pete Carroll and his rah rah regressing every year. And then...the real golden age.

I know at some point, possibly sooner rather than later, the Pats will suck again. But Belichick and Brady have given us a hell of a ride. Here's hoping it lasts several more years.

archstanton543 said:

If it were so stacked then why couldn't it overcome one horrible call?

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It wasn't one horrible call.

It was about a dozen or more calls and non-calls.

Ben Dreith robbed the Patriots of what should have been their first Superbowl victory in 1976. Billy Sullivan's cheapness and ego in regards to Chuck Fairbanks was too much for any team to overcome in '78.

Grew up in Dedham and spent a lot of time on the river canoeing and fishing when I wasn't playing football in a park pickup game or baseball. Used the river for our hockey games in winter.....not our thumbs against a screen on our phones texting... Was a Giants fan back then as the Patriots were a half dozen years in the future. Gifford, Robistelli, Huff...all tough as nails.....But I was a Patriot fan from Day one....It was OUR TEAM......Boston......

Go Pats !!

PatsDeb said:

They did in those days.

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not fans of the team, nope.

Patjew said:

My dad is a Pats fan so I have been too, right from the start.

I really got into it during the 1985 playoff run, especially the AFCCG. I was 12. I remember watching it on the ****ty little TV in our kitchen for some reason.

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It is shocking to think just how small the TV set we had was then - carried it between dining room and bedroom...it was a Sony.

Two big plays: at home against the Fins, when Grogan took the flea flicker back from Mosi, I commented to my Dad, "Yes. Doesn't matter if this works, good call." Greg Hawthorne caught it for the big TD. [I remember the TV play-by-play call vividly: "And, it is...a trick play...uh...Touchdown!" He sounded as surprised as the Dolphins]

Later in January at the Mausoleum, when Mosi knocked the ball out of Sam Seale's hands on the kickoff after a Tony Franklin field goal, I think they heard me yelling from Waltham to Newton, all the way until Jim Bowman recovered it in the end zone for the winning TD.

BlueThunder said:

Grew up in Dedham and spent a lot of time on the river canoeing and fishing when I wasn't playing football in a park pickup game or baseball. Used the river for our hockey games in winter.....not our thumbs against a screen on our phones texting... Was a Giants fan back then as the Patriots were a half dozen years in the future. Gifford, Robistelli, Huff...all tough as nails.....But I was a Patriot fan from Day one....It was OUR TEAM......Boston......

Go Pats !!

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Yeah, nothing against those G-Men, they just weren't OUR team.

mosslost said:

Grogan was excellent. It really urkes me when people call those years bleak... 76-89 they were mostly good to great teams, they did under achieve.. and they had one horrible year 1981. They had a lot of dumb **** happen to them too. (1978 playoffs, that team was jacked and loaded.. best Running offense in NFL history.. STILL.. and the coach gets fired before the playoff game. I think 76 and 78 could have SB years.)

Click to expand...