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!