Just turned 25 today and was wondering

[Patjew]

Happy birthday to all of you!

I was 12 and the year was 1985. Grogan was my favorite player, obs.

 

[Patjew]

No but talk to @mosslost because he doesn't think everyone is strange.

I'd kinda like to know.

 

[Mike the Brit]

I was 29. I spent a year in New England in 81-82. Pats were 2-14, so no one could accuse me of being a bandwagon fan. And my favourite Pats player was ... Don Hasselbeck (always loved watching tight ends!)

 

[RobertWeathers]

How old were you guys when you became Patriots fans? Kids? Teens? 20s? 30s? Etc? Turning 25 made me curious about age and fandom and never saw this question asked here when I was here.

Also: When do the body pains begin?

I was born in 1971 and my dad took me to my first game in October of 81. I was 10. They played HOU. Killed 'em. I played Pop Warner, little league & hockey so I was football/sports aware. I didn't really start being a true fan until '82 then the league went on f-ing strike.

Figures 1st two seasons as a Pats fan they go 2-14 and next year a strike. LOL.

 

[Lansdowne]

Turned 35 last week. I didn’t really dip into pro sports until about 1993, or about the time OP was born.

So while I’ve rooted for Boston sports teams to win my whole life even as a casual, I didn’t pay close attention to the Pats until Bledsoe was drafted.

 

[Dagg]

I was about 7..body pains start early 40s ( but i am out of shape and an ex college RB) so I have some mileage.

 

[Joker]

yeah.. a fan since 1960...I'm 32 now...(I was born on half a leap year)

 

[qbno12]

Also: When do the body pains begin?

At 25 unless you are pliable

 

[Actual Pats Fan]

I went to a handful of games with my dad in the 80's. I was 12 when the Pats were in SB 20 against the Bears. I was rooting for them and I liked them and all but I don't think I was a true fan. In late 1990 I would play Tecmo Bowl with my buddy after school and that's where I learned the basic rules of football with downs and distance and it finally made sense to me. I really got into the NFC Championship game that season between the 49rs and Giants and then the Super Bowl with Giants and Bills. I decided to really get into football and follow it so I hopped on the Patriots bandwagon on the ground floor right after their 1990 1-15 season (My avatar is Rod Rust who coached that one terrible season and my username is because of him) and have been hooked ever since.

Rod was in fact a very good coach, our DC in our playoff runs in the 80's.

 

[Actual Pats Fan]

Around 8 or 9 (RI'er) and I was watching a Giants Pats game with my Dad and Uncles who were all Giant fans and I heard the name Randy Vataha and for whatever reason bucked the trend and was hooked on the Pats.

I must point out that I despise the Giants. If somebody likes them, fine, get out of my face and move to New York where you belong.

 

[Actual Pats Fan]

I was 29. I spent a year in New England in 81-82. Pats were 2-14, so no one could accuse me of being a bandwagon fan. And my favourite Pats player was ... Don Hasselbeck (always loved watching tight ends!)

Had our best uni's then.

 

[jri37]

I must point out that I despise the Giants. If somebody likes them, fine, get out of my face and move to New York where you belong.

Yeah, tough to evict my Dad and Uncles.

 

[DaBronxPats14]

16. Became a Pat's Fan because of Steve Grogan In '76. Proud to still be one after all these years.

Cheers!

 

[PatsDeb]

Happy Birthday! I am 53 (gulp, I am still surprised when I have to write that) and have been a Pats fan all my life, having come from a stereotypical New England all sports, all the time family! I became a more rabid fan in the 1980s and have been a season ticket holder since 1993. What a great ride we've been on for the last 18 years!

 

[Actual Pats Fan]

In the mid 70s when I was a teen. I used to watch the games and drive my dad crazy with questions. He's now 84 and we talk after every game. The last 17 years have been a dream and I savor where we are.

The morning after the last game at old Foxboro Stadium, I greeted my ailing dad, who said, like always, "Well, the Patriots tried their best...it just wasn't quite good enough..."

I then rewound and played the tape on the VCR of the rest of the game, after he'd turned off the TV when the Raiders recovered the ball after the Woodson hit.

 

[meatface]

My first football memory was Super Bowl 31, Bledsoe vs Favre. I was in third grade and it wasn't a great year consider the Pats lost and then the Whalers left Hartford and my grandma died.

 

[Hammer of Thor]

I was a pink hatter who jumped on the bandwagon at age 9 in 1985. But I didn't do it right because I forgot to jump off thereafter, and followed them through thick and thin ever since. I remember being 16 years old at a friend's house for this game, being able to watch it because it was a road game, thinking Indy's possibly a team they could beat, and desperately cheering/screaming at the TV screen during the game because I was so afraid they'd manage to do worse than their 1990 season.
New England Patriots at Indianapolis Colts - November 15th, 1992 | Pro-Football-Reference.com
I finally made it to a game for the 2015 Jets game, still the only one I've ever been to.

I always loved sports but never really followed the local teams until that fall 1985 / spring 1986 timeframe. I picked an interesting time to jump aboard, and was fortunate to get an immediate Celtics championship out of it.

 

[PatsDeb]

The morning after the last game at old Foxboro Stadium, I greeted my ailing dad, who said, like always, "Well, the Patriots tried their best...it just wasn't quite good enough..."

I then rewound and played the tape on the VCR of the rest of the game, after he'd turned off the TV when the Raiders recovered the ball after the Woodson hit.

My 85 year old fan Dad left my brother's house in disgust during the last SB when the Falcons went up 28-3. He only lives about 5 minutes away and couldn't resist turning the tv on after a while to see "how much the Patriots lost by." The Pats were tying the score when he turned it on.

Edit - he also tried to leave when the Steelers apparently scored to win the most recent Pats/Steelers game. My brother yelled at him to "take off his coat!" You think he'd have learned by now, LOL.

 

[TommyD4207]

I was 7 or 8 (it was around my birthday), and Mosi Tatupu ran for 3 TDs against the Rams.

 

[Actual Pats Fan]

At birth .........

After '67, the Red Sox were always in the spotlight. The Bruins went through the most glorious, spectacular run this city, and maybe this country, has ever seen, even though it was relatively short. The Celtics were and remain the standard for success and commitment.

But the Patriots were always the comedy relief, the butt of jokes, the cause of instant eye-rolling...but they were always ours. No franchise, anywhere, ever, went through the nomadic, unique, sometimes comical, always interesting travails of our lovable Patriots.

I used to watch with my dad in '72, when we'd hope they'd get behind enough to put Brian Dowling in the game...everybody, on both sides, from the '68 Harvard-Yale game were heroes forever to us. Some (like Calvin Hill) were easier to keep track of than others.

Chuck Fairbanks was hired to coach the Pats on January 26, 1973, five days before my tenth birthday. Unlike my older siblings, I was sick all the time growing up. In and out of the hospital. I wasn't exactly the superstar of the family. Maybe that's how I related to the Pats.

But even as more and more excellent players joined the team, as the Pats in four years climbed all the way to the cusp of the world championship, local and national media took every opportunity to mock them and make fun of their checkered past, always putting a dig into every backhanded compliment or grudging acknowledgement of each exceptional on field achievement, including winning. It's not hard at all to identify the origins of the insane national denigration of the franchise today.

So yeah, I've always been a Pats fan. And no, I will never accept denigration and belittlement of them. With the exception of some mistakes by ownership, it's all bullsh*t.