How did you become a Pats fan?

I grew up in Foxboro, but didn't become a Patriots fan until Parcells came to

town. I actually started watching the NFL in 1988, but mainly just watched

whatever was on TV. My interest grew from ~1994 - until 1998 - the year I briefly

attended college in Jersey. This was the first time I didn't have the option of

watching every game, and I vowed to NEVER miss another game. I have

succeeded with 3 exceptions:

The 9-3 field goal contest vs. Cleveland in 2003

The first half of the Brady comeback vs San Diego in 2001

1 quarter of a Chargers games in 2007 or 2008 due to a rookie DVR mishap

archstanton543 said:

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

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Welll the OAkland game was in 76 and there were 2 horrible calls, the one on P Villapiano on Russ Francis allowed the Raiders to get the ball back, if the PI had been called the PAts run out the clock.

in 78 the Sullivans drove Fairbanks out the team was nchaos at the end of the year. from wiki:

In 1977, contract squabbles between the Sullivan family and offensive linemen John Hannah and Leon Gray led to discord within the team. The incident soured Fairbanks on Chuck Sullivan, who as the eldest son of team owner Billy Sullivan controlled the team's finances and had forced Fairbanks to renege on his proposed contracts with Hannah and Gray. Hannah, denied Fairbanks' promised contract by the ownership team, later contended that the Sullivans "took Chuck's authority away and turned him into a liar." [6] The Patriots narrowly missed making the playoffs on the last weekend of the regular season.

The following year in 1978 tragedy struck during the preseason as Stingley suffered paralysis following a violent hit by Jack Tatum at Oakland; Fairbanks had worked out a contract extension with Stingley before the game but the following Monday Chuck Sullivan reneged on the deal. Fairbanks was livid and resolved to leave the team after the season.

The Patriots raced to an 11-4 record and won the AFC East title. They seemed poised to challenge for a Super Bowl berth, but just prior to the final regular season game Sullivan suspended Fairbanks for again breaking a contract by agreeing become head coach for the University of Colorado in 1979. Fairbanks was reinstated for the team's first playoff game (and the franchise's first-ever home playoff game), but the second-seeded Patriots were upset 31–14 by superstar running back Earl Campbell and his fifth-seed Houston Oilers.

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The team had a couple of great years under Fairbanks and the Sullivan's screwed it up.

NYPatsFan said:

I was a young child in the late 70s and I observed my father yelling at the TV each weekend. I was curious to learn why someone would yell at the TV so I started watching games with him. It didn't take long before I, too, was yelling at the TV.

Young Patriots fans today have no idea what it's like to watch your favorite team struggle and underachieve week after week, year after year. In many ways, the pre-Kraft Patriots were a lot like the Jets today, only without the memory of a Super Bowl victory.

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I believe your experience is illustrative of the present split in Patriot Nation. There was definitely frustration over the years, supported and occasionally made worse by poor ownership decisions.

But no one here can be blamed for December 18, 1976. Nor for what happened to Darryl 21 months later on the same field.

It may be hard for some people in this region to understand and accept, but winning, and winning championships, is not easy and often requires good fortune as well as effort and investment. Imagine if Tom Brady had met a girl or something, and decided not to pursue pro football after graduating and instead got married and started a family then.

No matter how much Kraft or other locals despise Billy Sullivan, all those players, coaches, staff, families and loyal fans of the team for thirty-three years simply cannot be ignored and made accountable for the owner's behavior and poor financial management. To love the team is to understand this and them, to celebrate their ultimate personal sacrifices and accomplishments, and to expect them to look on the field as they did since the early sixties, just like in Green Bay, Pittsburgh, Dallas, etc.

To have nothing to do with affection or emotion, and demand and expect success on the field period, like Yankees fans or something, is completely different - and thanks to Kraft, what we have today. But even the Yankees (and Rangers and Jets) have their traditional, classic, recognizable and attractive uniforms today [unlike us]. There are those who argue that it's good to emulate the Yankees. Why suck? If we had, I never would have rooted for us all those years. And the NFL, and the national media, did and do completely hate us, and they concocted the insulting things the players have been wearing now unfortunately, for nearly a quarter of a century, thanks to "I Love The NFL" Kraft.

Thelonious said:

Probably not relevant, but I said above I had always depised the Giants, and I think there was an exception to that. I remember seeing a photo - or did I actually see it on tv? - of Y A Tittle bleeding during a game. As a kid, I thought that was pretty cool. You didn't used to see people bleeding on tv nearly as much as you do now! (That's progress, I suppose.)

Update: found it! (From a game in 1964)

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Classic. Y.A. was the real deal, nevermind what team he was on. That's football.

patsfan13 said:

Welll the OAkland game was in 76 and there were 2 horrible calls, the one on P Villapiano on Russ Francis allowed the Raiders to get the ball back, if the PI had been called the PAts run out the clock.

in 78 the Sullivans drove Fairbanks out the team was nchaos at the end of the year. from wiki:




The team had a couple of great years under Fairbanks and the Sullivan's screwed it up.

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Thank you. The phantom roughing the passer was one in a series of fantastic one-sided calls and non-calls throughout the game. The Patriots were the best team in football, and kept kicking the Raiders' ass until the officials amped it way up and over the top in the fourth quarter.

For people who insist on hating the pre-Kraft Patriots and Billy Sullivan, that's perfectly okay; but Kraft needs to simply rename the 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.)

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Heh, I understand what you're saying. When I called those years "bleak," I probably had in mind that they "had a lot of dumb **** happen to them." These days, the dumb **** happens to the other team(s). It's a big difference and no accident: Kraft (foot-in-mouth moments notwithstanding), Brady, Belichick. I rooted for those teams at the time, started every year thinking this is gonna be it, and I still remember Grogan fondly, but at least compared to now, it was kinda bleak.

The low point for me was probably 1985, when they really jacked my hopes, then in the SB looked like they didn't even belong on the same field as the opposition. If THAT didn't bleak you out for a moment or two, you've got a world-class cheerful temperament going on.

Up till 2 months ago I had never watched a minute of football and knew nothing about anything of NFL. I read a novel set in the football world that I loved, and learned about the game along the way. So I thought I’d take a look at the Super Bowl and … that happened.

When I heard Kraft’s speech about it being unequivocally the sweetest, I had no idea what he was talking about. Then I looked up SB 49, and I thought it was the sweetest because it was a big comeback, and this one was sweeter because it’s a bigger comeback…

“A lot had transpired” since then. Now I spend much of my spare time daily on youtube watching videos of the Patriots’ glorious history and keeping up with the offseason developments. I marvel how a wonderful world has existed unbeknownst to me, and I now get to live through history as if it just happened, and look forward to a future with promises of more greatness.

I was aware of football through American culture in the 70s: movies like M.A.S.H., novels -- e.g. Semi-Tough, Doonesbury (B.D. and Zonker play football) -- and then from having American friends. I remember watching a Rams game on a trip to the U.S. with a guy who had played as an RB at USC. But I only started to watch regularly after I moved to Cambridge for a year in 81.

The Pats were not a good team then (British understatement) so it seemed like a good way not to look like a bandwagon fan to my friends (who were, as I recall, Raiders, Cowboys and Rams fans). I loved the players I knew (Grogan, Morgan, Nelson) but soon came to despise the ownership. I thought they would be a basement team that would occasionally have a short, deceptive spike of near-success. Imagine my surprise when they actually WON in 2001. And just kept on winning.

mosslost said:

Pats fans don't call them Patsies.

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That one did.

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 became a fan from the beginning and saw my first live Pats game with my dad at Fenway from the temp seats along the wall. I'm not sure of the year or the final score but they played the Chargers. I can still see Ernie Ladd banging the goal post in warm-ups.

Fanfrom1960 said:

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.

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I know of one. Richard. He was a very nice opposing fan that I cybermet during my days as an AOLe. He made the huge mistake of following Tuna Sh!t out the door and became a Jets fan. Yeow!

Started watching football in the mid 50's my Dad was a Giants fan, I remember seeing condensed games on Saturdays, being 5 I had no idea the games weren't live.

I do remember watching the Colts Giants championship game since my Dada was so amped up for it. Saw all the Packer Championship games woudl watch the Patriots when they were on locally. Became a big fan when they started building the Schaeffer Stadium, bought season tickets with a friend when in HS, $45 fo an End Zone seat. Voted in the Superfoot competition, I voted for John Smith, who became the Pat's kicker.

Imagine BB allowing the fans to vote for a kicker to get a TC invite.

1960Pats said:

I know of one. Richard. He was a very nice opposing fan that I cybermet during my days as an AOLe. He made the huge mistake of following Tuna Sh!t out the door and became a Jets fan. Yeow!

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Thanks for relating that. I fugured somebody here would know at least one. My brother in law gave up on the Red Sox after the WS in 1986. At least he stayed with the Patriots.

I love reading this stuff. I've never posted, but have been reading, for years.

I was born in Boston, but was always a basketball fan. I watched the Celtics with my grandfather and uncle, all the time. I was super young and a girl and loved that they didn't give me a hard time. My uncle used to always take the boys in the family to Red Sox games, but never us girls, so I was always thrilled when they were cool with me watching.

Moved out of Boston at 15 and then didn't really follow anything. Moved to Alaska at 19 and met my now husband. We worked night jobs, went to school and didn't have time to watch much sports. Then he got a "real job" and so he had time to watch football, again. We were married for only 3 years at the time and I didn't want to lose him to the tv so I figured I'd give it a shot and I watched with him. I fell in love with it...and of course, being from Boston, I rooted for the Patriots and that was the year we went to the Super Bowl against Green Bay. I was hooked. I lived in Alaska for 16 years and there was a huge group of us that met at the bar for Monday night football, I was always the only Patriots fan until my brother moved up there with me, so I had some company, finally. Hubby was a Miami fan, well really a Marino fan...and boy did THAT lead to some heated moments over the years...hahaha. He gave up on Miami when they gave us Welker, (ha!) but he wouldn't be a Patriots fan because he felt like he would be being a bandwagon fan. He waited until we moved back to New England and now he's a fan.

I always say I've had a very, very charmed sports fan life....lol

mosslost said:

not fans of the team, nope.

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Wrong. If you didn't do it, fine, but we were the joke of the league (and many times not because of the team, but because of the ownership, the cheap stadium or the antics of fans) and many folks used the term, even affectionately.

1960Pats said:

I became a fan from the beginning and saw my first live Pats game with my dad at Fenway from the temp seats along the wall. I'm not sure of the year or the final score but they played the Chargers. I can still see Ernie Ladd banging the goal post in warm-ups.

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For $2 a ticket, sat in the end zone, Fenway bleachers with my date (my wife today) on a Friday night. Billy Joe, the Denver RB, bounced off the pileup of the Patriots DL like a big rubber ball (he was almost as wide as he was tall) and ran over 50 yards for a TD. Guys behind us in the bleachers were having a broken beer bottle fight. Good times!

Saw the Pats play the Houston Oilers in Hahvid stadium. You could come down onto the field and walk off with the players. Houston's guys were tall and huge. Ends Hennigan & Groman were well over 6'. They smoked us. Many Pats players were small. I figured Tony Romeo our TE to be maybe 5' 10" or 11" 210 ish LBS. I was shocked.

fgssand said:

Same here.....I was at that very first game, with my father, at BU Field, 9/9/60 -- they lost to Denver but I was hooked because my Dad was hooked.

One day he came home with season tickets to Fenway Park and we have had them in the family ever since, continuously, since Schaefer Stadium opened. I have seen the Pats play in every single home stadium they played in except one (they played one home game in Birmingham, Al - 9/22/68 VS Jets). I was at BU Field, Fenway, BC, Harvard and of course Schaeffer / Sullivan / Foxboro / CMGI / Gillette.

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Big thanks to the OG!

50 of us were thrown into an arena. Only I came out alive. My prize was infinite knowledge of the universe for 5 minutes, and Patriots fandom for life.

The gods can be kind.

I'm a woman and no one in my family was into sports so I never paid attention to football growing up.

I came on board in the '93 season with Parcells and Bledsoe in an odd way; I just had my first child that fall and he NEVER slept. Because I worked full time, 6 days a week and brought the baby with me to say I was exhausted would be a major under statement. Miraculously, I discovered that if I laid down on the couch and held him while I watched TV, the baby slept... for hours. Since Sunday was my only day off and the only thing on TV on Sundays (at least in those days) was the NFL, so I watched football while my little guy slept and was in heaven! I lived in CT and because my family wasnt into sports I could have easily followed the Jets or Giants but Parcells charisma lured me, thank God. I was hooked after that season and bought a friends season seats the next year. Sidenote: the rest of my family became huge fans too. It's been a great ride!