For Pats fans outside of New England

[Tb12goesinya]

31 years old in NJ here. I grew up a Raiders fan as a child. I am a perfectionist in a lot of ways. Leading the league in penalties every other year, and having brute head hunting safeties isn't my cup of tea for a football team. After 2011 I started to hear a narrative questioning the Pats ability to get the job done, and knew it was BS. I loved how BB handled the media, and I loved how Tom and the whole team was always so precise. I don't consider myself a bandwagon fan because I came in middle of the draught lol. This will never be done again, and no other team will ever satisfy me. Man do I love this football team, what a ride it has been so far! Pats fan for life

 

[Nikolai]

Grew up in Virginia Beach but my parents were from Connecticut so we watched the Redskins, Cowboys, and Steelers most of the time, but once or twice a year, the Pats would come on TV and it was a big event in our house. Then we got good in the 90s and the Pats were on 5-6 games a year plus playoffs. It was awesome!

I moved to Maritime Canada for college/hockey and all the Boston channels are available up there so I got the Pats every weekend. It was a dream. Of course, that was when Pete Carroll ran the team into the ground, but I was also there for the 2001 season. Amazing.

I lived in CT for a few years, but I've mostly been everywhere else; Arizona, North Carolina, Maryland, Virginia, Afghanistan. I still try to catch them whenever I can. Sling box is my friend when I'm in the states, but overseas, it's tougher. PatsFans gives me my daily Pats fix.

 

[juxtapoz15]

Growing up in Central Pennsylvania I grew up hating the Pirates and Steelers. Their uniforms were ugly and the Steelers were especially bad during the Bubby Brister/end of Chuck Noll era. I was watching the last game of Bledsoe's rookie year (week 18 of the 1993 season) against the Dolphins and he was just slinging it all over the field. From then on I was hooked. Not many of their games were televised in my area, but I do remember the 1994 playoff game against the Browns where they lost to BB's Cleveland Browns. And I also really enjoyed gloating after the 1996 fog bowl playoff game against the Steelers.

 

[condon84]

Grew up in MA, live in MD surrounded by Ravens fans and work in DC, which is a transient city so i'm surrounded by every other team fans.

The CEO of the company I work for is a big Steeler fan so he gets on my case all the time. I ****ing love it when the Pats win the SB. Between the CEO crying and hearing all the Ravens fans cry on the radio, so ****ing awesome.

 

[dannydyn]

I’m originally from Israel. Moved to the states when I was 22. Came here, following my back then girlfriend (who is now my wife of 17 years). Settled in Stamford, CT, which is pretty much Giants/Jets ground zero. I always liked American Footbal, even while living in Israel, but never had a team I rooted for until I got here. Upon arrival (early 2000), I started getting more interested in the NFL and tried to pick a team to start following and rooting for during that off-season. Even though I live 35 minutes outside of New York City, I never found a connection with that place. Till this day, if I had to choose a city to live in, I’d go for Boston over NYC any day. There’s something about New England, and more specifically – Boston, that I really like. That Celtic atmosphere… A lot of rich history and heritage that is rooted back to the first days of this great country. NYC to me is just a giant sewer...

Back to football…

Jets were totally out of the question. They just reeked of something foul, and their colors are awful. And the Giants? – meh. I’d be a dime a dozen around here, and I still couldn’t find any mental/emotional connection to them or that city. I wanted to root for something that was still somewhat local, a team whose games I can attend from time to time, a team that represented a lot of the values I believe in (e.g. the name… “Patriots”), or at least within the same time zone, and preferably a team that I can get locally on my market. Luckily Cablevision carries both CBS NY (Jets) and CBS Hartford (Patriots) so I get to watch the Pats whenever I'm not at Gillette . I also liked how the Patriots were kind of a nobody back then, and were not tied to any particular city, and I still had a geographical connection by its mere name. Yes, physically I was MUCH closer to NYC, but technically, I was living in New England. Started following and rooting them in 2000, and the rest is history.

I also like how BB runs this team. I myself, is a no-nonsense, all business, person. No BSing under Belichick - I can appreciate that! Brady is a class act, and I can only strive to be the person and father he is. Brady is the ultimate role model to me as a person. Brady the GOAT QB, is just the icing on the cake.

Been to many memorable games, some of which include the 24-0 1st half comeback against Manning's Broncos, the 2014 AFCCG beat-down of the Colts (Deflategate), 2016 divisional against the Chiefs, 2017 divisional against the Titans, 2018 smack-down of Rodgers and his cheese heads, a few of Superbowl parades, a couple of SB rallies, and many more memorable experiences.

I now have 3 kids, and they are Pats fans for life too! That's us from a couple of Sundays ago at the send-off rally

 

[BTTA]

After 3 decades in New England, I'm finishing my first decade in DC. Get a lot of pressure to switch pro sports allegiances. When this happens, I just look at them and say, "Why, exactly, would I do that? I get a parade every other year, and a legitimate chance at one twice a year. What can you sell me other than proximity?" People just smile and admit that they wouldn't do it, either.

 

[Palm Beach Pats Fan]

I have a weird path to being a Patriots fan. I grew up in Indiana, before the Colts moved there, so there was no NFL team at all. I saw Larry Bird play in high school. I guarded Scott Skiles in high school. I wasn't really much of a fan of the NFL, but I really liked the Patriots uniforms and the first player I followed was Sam Cunningham in the mid-70s.

I say "followed" because in the 70s if you liked a team out of market, you really just kept in touch by reading the box scores in the Sporting News. They would never be on TV. MNF was the very best teams only, and the only other game IIRC was Sunday at 1, and in Indiana it was Bears or Bengals.

In 1984 I went to school in New England. My roommate at Yale was a die hard Pats fan. I was there for the 1985 run and so I became a little closer, but I still wasn't a live-and-die-with-them guy. The Colts had just moved to Indiana, but I wasn't there and so I didn't care. But at least in school I saw the Patriots play on TV and got to know the team and the franchise.

After some time in the midwest, in 1996 I moved to Massachusetts for a job. I followed the last Parcells team and went to some games, loved the super bowl run, shared season tickets with guys at work 1996-2000, and I became fully committed. I changed jobs in 2001 and so I lost the work-related season tickets, had 3 small kids, and didn't go to games....so oddly I have attended more games in Foxborough pre-Brady than post-Brady!

In 2005 I moved to Florida, but I stayed loyal to the Patriots.

People I grew up with in Indiana, even family members, think I am crazy for following the Pats rather than the Colts, who I have come to despise. I have had facebook friends from high school "unfriend" me because I mentioned (with no trash talking) that I was for the Patriots. Good riddance.

Many people around me in Florida also hate the Patriots, but there is a large contingent of people who moved down here from New England, so there are a lot of people like me here.

 

[wheresmosi]

As a follow up,

I grew up in Toronto. I love the Raptors, Leafs, Jays. I love all my Toronto teams. I never watched football until I moved to Northern Virginia around 2002.

Where I live is Redskins country because it’s a suburb of DC. I effing hate the Redskins and their owner. So while getting into the game I just loved how Belichick was and the Pats style and I knew about Brady’s story. I also hated Peyton Manning because even back then everyone was slobbering all over this guy and I never understood why. I started to root against Peyton and loved how the Pats crushed him every single time so I became a fan. I’ve been to many Pats games at Gillette and other cities and I just love them. I grew up on other sports but they all take a backseat to the Pats.

Well, as you might or might not know, the Redskins were originally from Boston--not sure if that invalidates or validates your decision to root for the Patriots. lol

 

[wheresmosi]

I am from Poland so the begining of my adventure with football is a bit weird because in my country football in 1990's was a totally anonymous sport. Everyone hearing I was watching this "football" looked at me like a weirdo. First I was a huge fan of Bills in Kelly and Thurman Thomas' era but since Brady has entered the NFL you know what happened next . He "bought" me and has converted to a Patriot fan. I am lucky I have been a witness of the great story has been written by this amazing team and organisation.
BTW footbal is getting more and more popular. Of course it is far away from being at the same level as soccer,volleyball or handball but many people are asking about the rules, are curious "what it is",why the Americans are crazy aboit it. I am glad I am on this board, I have opportunity to get much useful information about my favourite team and football itself.

I personally think team handball is cool to watch!

 

[BronxPatsFan80]

I grew up in the Boston area and have been a fan all my life, actually had season tickets from Pre-Parcells Coach Macpherson days (very rough) through 2007. Now live down in Austin Texas and have found a strong core of Pats fans down here.

We took some video of the Pats pub on 6th St in Austin where we watched the Super Bowl. What an awesome time!!! Go Pats!!!

 

[SHOWTIME15]

I grew up in NY but close to the CT border and just hooked up with NE once Bill Parcells came on board.