Belmont Henry
Practice Squad Player
- Joined
- Dec 23, 2014
- Messages
- 122
- Reaction score
- 95
This is my first post here, but I feel like I know most of you guys like you were my friends, as I've been addicted to this forum every NFL season for the past few years now. I know many of you by your avatar pictures and just by looking at them I know - or at least have a pretty good idea of - your opinions and preferences. I hope this didn't sound too creepy, lol.
I'm from Brazil, so I'd like to share a quick story about how I became a Patriots fan and consequently a football fan in general for anyone who might be interested. As you guys probably know, our national sport here is soccer (I'm a Corinthians fan by the way) and I had no knowledge of American Football (as we call it here) whatsoever until the day of Super Bowl XXXVIII in 2004. I was 17 back then and I remember I was casually surfing the web that evening when I accidentally stumbled upon an article about that Sunday's Super Bowl. It was very interesting and it mentioned a lot of curious facts about the event, and I was impressed with the importance of the game and how much money and media it seemed to attract every year, so I just decided to watch it, even though I had no idea what was going on at first. I remember it all seemed so confusing at first, but for my surprise it just took me one half to understand the basics and be absolutely hooked! That game winning Adam Vinatieri field goal in the end was so exciting that I remember I got a little sad after the game ended because I loved it so much and I wanted more, but the season was over! I ended up thinking about what I had just seen for the next few months and inevitably I found myself in love with the Patriots, a passion that I carry within me for over 10 years now. I consider myself extremely, unbelievably lucky to be able to witness Brady, Belichick and this Patriots dynasty. I had some wonderful moments, like the third Super Bowl against the Eagles but also some devastating, heartbreaking ones like that 2008 Super Bowl defeat that left me crying like I never cried before, not even for my soccer team Corinthians over here. They were all very intense moments though, and it has been a great ride!
I love Brady, he's my personal idol. I take every opportunity I have to watch him play, every single game like a real privilege. I want to enjoy his last seasons as much as possible, and then, as much I hate to think about it, be excited to see what's gonna happen to our dear Patriots after he retires. Also, I can't help but feel like Brady's at least a little bit Brazilian too since he's married to Giselle and he comes down here every once in a while.
In 2004, when I first became a football fan, not many people here were familiar with the sport, but recently it's become huge in Brazil. Every new season the number of fans gets bigger and the media coverage gets better. The last five or so Super Bowls ESPN Brazil (which has exclusivity of the rights here) has sent a team to cover the games in loco, and it's been fun to watch the sport grow in popularity over here over the years. I've even heard that there might be plans of bringing a preseason game to Brazil, what with the new, modern stadiums that were built here for the 2014 soccer World Cup, so it would be a dream if I could watch an NFL game here, even if it's just a Jets x Dolphins preseason game (lol), it would mean the world to me!
Anyway, that's what I wanted to share with you guys. I hope I can bring some good discussions and points of view to this forum and just have fun talking about the Pats! I apologize early for any English mistake and for the long post!
Thanks and hope to see you around!
