How did you become a PATS fan??

[italian pat patriot]

Then the wildcard run. On "Squish the Phish" Sunday morning we had a 14 man snow/rain/mud football game that destroyed a town field in Tewksbury.
The game and subsequent trip to warwick followed, where we greeted our conquering heroes debarking the plane at 2AM. After we punnched and kicked the german shepherds that "warwickis finest" had instructed to "kill"us, we high 5'ed grogan, tippett and the rest, who seemed astonishished that 1000 people were tere to greet them.

Anyway, thats how it happened, hope you liked the story.

yes, i liked it.

it must have been a beautiful experience to gave high 5 to that team after that great win

1000 fans there; not bad at all considering the period

i would imagine that if we should have beated Chicago there would have been really a big party all over NE

 

[Oswlek]

The first football game that I watched with any rooting interest was SB 20. I was watching it at the Blue Ridge Rehabilitation Center where my father was getting treatment for his alcoholism. I can still remember how excited everyone was when NE kicked the FG to go up early in the game.

At the time, my oldest brother was a big Patriots fan and my dad was a convert (for the postseason) from Giants fandom. I really knew nothing about the game, just that I wanted the guys in red to win. Since I was in my football infancy I wasn't crushed by the loss, but there was a palpable disappointment.

From then on, I started to pay attention to the game a little more, but it was still slow going. It was probably another year or two before I even understood what "first and 10" meant. For some reason Mosi Tatupu was my favorite, but I really had no idea why. Frankly, my understanding was so infantile that if I hadn't learned that he was a FB since then, I wouldn't even know what position he played. I just remembered him being a tough, almost superhero type guy.

My fandom went to another level once Bledsoe came in. There was an excitement about the team that just wasn't there at the time. It was during the Bledsoe years that I actually began to understand what the difference between a defensive LINEman and a LINEbacker was. The only positions I really understood before then were QB, RB and WR, mostly because those are the ones that I played in the backyard.

I must admit that I took another leap into the Patriots during this recent run. Prior to the middle of the 2001 season, I had no need to go to places like this. The games and newspapers were more than enough. I can still recall a conversation with a good friend of mine after the Saints game in 2001, though. We agreed that, no matter how that season ended, it was just nice to watch a team that didn't get pushed around and that made adjustments. It was from that point on that I began checking online sports pages. Fan sites and MBs were the next progression after the 2001 SB as I needed an outlet for my joy and most of my friends were burnt out on talking about football.

In my family, I am the remaining carrier of the Patriots torch as my two brothers stopped caring a long time ago. My Dad and I have had numerous times since the Bears shelacked NE where football was the only subject that we were comfortable talking to each other about, but much of that has passed and now we use football as part of a (comparably) healthy relationship.

Alright, is ther anything else you want to know?

 

[Dragda]

I asked my older sister about which football team I should root for. She said the Boston Patriots were the closest, but she liked the Browns because of Jim Brown. I was actually hoping it was the Dolphins because I loved the show Flipper. I was a five year old drawn to football like it was my calling.

 

[italian pat patriot]

I was crushed in 96 when they lost. I used to watch that tape every once in a while and get depressed thinking we would never get a chance like that again. I remember thinking that just once I would like to know what it felt like to win a championship.

i felt the same way. i have seen many many times the tape of that game till the moment we were winning and always 'stopped' it after...

i still remember the beautiful reception made by Terry Glenn on Drew pass...

a game that crushed me was when we lost a play-off game @ PIT when Vrabel stripped the ball to Bledsoe (was a 7-6 game the final result ?)

i was hoping that he was able to give the try to Adam but...we know...

the first full Patriots game i saw on tv was the Pats playing the Super Bowl against Chicago

when we started 3-0 thks to Franklyn FG i had for some moment an hope...
only a moment infortunately...then CHI destroyed us...

then when we beated STL i was happy like a kid at Christmas

Finally we were winning a Super Bowl - was a real dark night here approx 4 am (my wife, of course, sleeping like all the 'normal' people here) and myself in front of the tv...alone (one of the few probably all over Italy)

i did not slept a moment after it as i was too happy and too excited

finally we were number 1 !

when Adam made it i simply was not yet believing...what a moment it was !

 

[Dragda]

Born in Maine in 1965. So I grew up a Pats fan. Started paying attention to the team during the Grogan era. Even when I went to college in Arizona and eventually moved to Tennessee, I still always supported the Patriots. Always will. My 3 year old daughter, 7 year old son, and 11 year old daughter each have Pat jerseys and love to shout "Go Pats!" during the games.

They're going to grow up to be Titans fans if you aren't careful. I moved out west and started a family. I ended up with a Colts fan son and a Raiders fan son. And mercifully tow kids who don't care about football. You need to find out how to brainwash these kids. It may be too late for the 11 year old. She is probably secretly discussing her favorite Titan player at school. Get the teachers involved. Have conferences with the school board. Lock them in closets. You have been warned.

 

[italian pat patriot]

My fandom went to another level once Bledsoe came in. There was an excitement about the team that just wasn't there at the time.

true; the Bledsoe arrival gave us something we totally missed.

the first Pats jersey i bought was of course # 11 (white)

 

[LiveShot]

I was a fan of the upstart AFL, particularly the Boston Patriots. Attended games at Fenway Park, Harvard Stadium and had 6 season tickets to Schaeffer Stadium for 8 years. I recall many excellent cookouts in the parking lot that went on until 9 or 10pm. We used to bring wood to make a bonfire and cement 6 cement blocks to make a cooking fire.

 

[nukin]

I'v like the pats ever since their 2nd super bowl vs Green Bay. I liked the jerseys (so shoot me, I was a kid.)

 

[PatriotReign720]

I was in my early teens watching the NFL network do a show on the big tuna drafting drew bledsoe.

It is very good to be a pats fan right now.

I became really involved when they went to the Superbowl for the 2nd time
(1996 seson). Now that I am older and understand the game better it is a lot of fun and great to watch such an amazing team as the Patriots are.

 

[oldskool138]

when Adam made it i simply was not yet believing...what a moment it was !

Italy is my second favorite European country (next to Hungary...I have friends there). I'd love to go back one day....

 

[zadnor]

I moved here for a couple years in 94-95, then, moved back in 99 to stay. Boston is my adopted home. I've grown to love it and, as a big sports fan, the teams here, as well. I first caught on to football watching AFL games back in the 60's (NBC was the only VHF channel in Columbia, SC and we didn't get UHF) and sorta liked the Pats then even though they had a pretty boring (Nance and Taliaferro) team. Probably because they were getting beaten up a lot--root for the underdog. So it wasn't to big a leap for me to adopt them when I came here.

 

[harrylime70]

Started following them in 1985 when NFL was being shown in the UK. A mate of mine I used to play tennis with was a Pats fan so I just decided to follow them as well, as I really enjoyed the game. Turned out my Dad was a bit of a NFL fan, and had been following the Bears for a few seasons. As it happened our teams met in the SB that year but that is something I prefer to forget :snob:

Coverage in the UK dropped off in the 90's and I moved to Australia where I proudly watched all of our SB victories at 6am in the morning.

Finally getting over to my first game in December when I see them play the Jets and the Fins

 

[FFTWENTYTHREE]

Back when shaefer stadium was built my father bought 2 season tix in section 205 front row on the metal bench.I was about 8 years old I think it was 1970,I have been a rabid fan since,suffering through many losing seasons but he kept adding seats my first super bowl I went to was 1997 Pats Packers I got a hole new respect for those packers fans nice people.next one I went to was 2001 SB36 I'll never forget that feeling Hugging My Dad both in tears at the conclusion Finally world Champs,We now have our seats in section 129 And boy do we have a Dynasty or what..Last super bowl 39 went with my wife to Jacksonville I have to keep reminding my kids that we had to suffer many cold long seasons as losers before we got to experience this.So Am I a fan you bet your ^%$ A true DIE hard and the best part is it's been a family affair passing down the tradition GO PATS this pic is the wife and I at the pats jets game in the Meadowlands this year it was the first game of the season

 

[FrontSeven]

I ate a Pats fan a few years back. Ever since then, can't help but root for the Pats.

Can you post her picture?

 

[gomezcat]

Plus the "England" in New England!

It's true! The irony of it is no longer lost on me, although the whole Patriots thing didn't register at the time.
My friend had a Pats Jersey (I think it was Tony Eason's #11 Jersey) and as we were both fans of Manchester United (who play in red), I got persuaded to accept the Pats as my team. Left to my own devices, I would probably have picked a team like Cleveland, Minnesota or New Orleans (who were on UK TV highlights quite a lot, but weren't too big a team to put me off like SF, the Giants or Redskins). I still have a soft spot for Cleveland.
It's rather fortunate, but is a reason for all those people who support teams currently at the bottom of the NFL tables not to give up. Unlike soccer, teams like the Pats just can't stay at the top for ever. The salary cap and the draft are some of the best things about the NFL, IMO.

 

[italian pat patriot]

Italy is my second favorite European country (next to Hungary...I have friends there). I'd love to go back one day....

yes...we have some nice places: Siena, Assisi, Rome, Florence, Venice only to name a fiew

+ beautiful sea (Sardinien Isle) and-or mountains (Alps)

we miss only the New England Patriots !

 

[Vern]

I was born in '68 in the distant suburbs of LA. I was an LA Rams fan as a kid, and this fostered an intense hatred of everything Raiders. Also, I was (and still am) a huge college football fan - "Bruins" still mean UCLA to me! College ball was more important than the pro game, except to my brother and I.

Anyway, hating the Raiders got me attached to the Pats. Then Daryl Stingly was paralyzed by the Raiders, and then the Ben Dreith thing too, I just had to adopt the Patriots as my "AFC Team." Somewhere in there was also the snow plow game, which you have to understand, for a Californian kid, watching a game played in snow was like some kind of magic. I'd never even touched snow until some time in the 80s. I rooted for the Pats in that horrible loss to the Bears in 86, hoping against hope.

Then in 1990 I moved to MA, first to go to college here, but within a year I was engaged and looking for a house too. Of course, that was the Rod Rust 1-15 season, but the Pats were still my team. Also, just about then I started to hear from relatives about the Rams possibly moving out of LA - which was doubly maddening because the Raiders were interlopers there at the time still (imagine the Yankess moving to Brookline and claiming to be New England's real team, just as the Red Sox start looking for a new stadium who knows where).

In 92 I was married and moved in permanently. Bledsoe and Parcells were at least making Football respectable in town. I got to a couple Pats games in that era, the metal bleachers and all - plus a game down at the Meadowlands. Sometime within a year or so the Rams left LA and I formally renounced them. The Pats were no longer my AFC team, but just MY TEAM period. How sweet it was when 2001 rolled in and it was the Rams we got to undress!!!

Now I have two kids and am firmly implanted in N.E. Also, thanks to some luck with my brother-in-law and a friend of his being the right place in the wait list, I've had season tix since 2003!

 

[OldEnglandPatriot]

Plus the "England" in New England!

That was basically the reason, for me. Like many UK Pats fans, I got into the sport when it began appearing on our Channel 4 in the mid-80's. I was fifteen and simply picked the team that had 'England' in its name and wore red, white and blue.

I never imagined that twenty years later I would be living in New England, even if only just. (It's really more Giants territory where I am, but hey I'm in CT and get a channel that shows all the Pats' games, it's good enough).

 

[Bostonian1962]

I was born in MA, in 1962. So, the Patriots, Red Sox, Bruins, and Celtics are all I've known. Sports has been my passion since the beginning of my life. When I went to the bulk of my Patriots home games, the stadium was cold, and mostly empty. If the games were televised, they were on a small T.V., with rabbit ears, and a snowy picture.

I've travelled to many opposing team stadiums to watch them, because getting to a game at Gillette is tough to do, with the games always sold out.

Isn't it ironic, that a hardcore fan like me and many others are the ones that should be able to watch their team at the Super Bowl, but can't afford the $5000 tickets?

 

[Ace]

In the middle of the 90s (around 95/96) a few NFL games where shown on German TV. And this was the first time when I saw the Pats playing. And I became a fan fastly.