The New England Patriots: A Love Story

The reason I started watching the Pats is a simple one. My father bet on the games. He would make bets at the bar, and then watch the games. I watched them too, because these were the days in which you had one TV for one house, and no way was your Dad going to let you watch Scooby Doo when the Pats were playing. Although let me be honest here, most games during this time were blacked out. Blacked out as in not enough fans came to Sullivan Stadium to watch the Pats play. Hard to imagine, I know. Also, I was in love with Patriot Pat. Dreamy.


My true fandom was not experienced until the magical 1985 Cinderella season wherein we started 0-3 and finished 11-5 but still 3rd in the AFC East. We beat the Jets, Raiders and Miami (all on the road) to reach Super Bowl XX against the Chicago Bears. This logo proved untrue.


Let us revisit the 12 year old me after that game:


This was a very painful year for my sports psyche as not only did the Pats have a humiliating loss (fine I said it), the Red Sox lost to the Mets in Game 7 of the World Series. Two words: Bill Buckner. I also turned 13 and still had no boobs. So yeah, it was a fucking hard year.

As time went on, there were lots of games and lots of coaches and lots of players. We even had a 1996 trip to the Super Bowl wherein we suffered a loss to the Packers. The only good thing about this time period is that I got boobs and I started drinking. As any true Boston sports fan knows, drinking helps ease the pain, that and swearing. Swearing is good.

Also Drew Bledsoe went crowd surfing at the Paradise during an Everclear concert (his favorite band). And that right there perfectly sums the 1990s.


The year 2000 began with the firing of Pete Carroll (thank fucking god) and the hiring of one Mr. Bill Belichick in scandal. Bill was the head coach of the Jets, but then resigned, to come to the Pats. Obviously, Mr. Belichick is smart. In the 2000 draft we drafted in the 6th round Thomas Edward Brady. We went on to finish last place in the AFC East. The following year, the Patriots were not expected to do much better. During the second game of the season, Drew Bledsoe was hurt and in came back up QB, Tom Brady. Although Tom lost that game, the Pats went on to finish the season 11-5 with Brady at the helm. We went on to beat the Raiders, Steelers and finally the St. Louis Rams in Super Bowl XXXVI on Adam Vinatieri’s final seconds field goal.



Chills. Anyhoo, the aughts were a fun time to be a Patriots fan. We won two more Super Bowls and then had an almost perfect season that was destroyed by one Mr. David Tyree. How the hell do you catch a ball off your helmet? Anyway, that was bad. Especially since I watched that game with my friend Grant, a Giants Fan. Yeah. Then there was this dude named Bernard Pollard whose main purpose in life is to maim Patriot Players - Tom Brady, Wes Welker and most recently Rob “GRONK!” Gronkowski.

But here we are a mere 5 days from another Super Bowl, Super Bowl XLVI. So that means 26 Super Bowls from my first Pats Superbowl (holy shit I am old). I am nervous, feeing a mixture of dread and happiness. Happiness that we somehow are having a great season with no secondary, dread because of the people named Hakeem Nicks, Mario Manningham and Victor Cruz. I am not going to jinx my team so the only predictions I am willing to make revolve around my beer consumption and cursing. (Over/Under: 5,258). But in the end, it always remains the same. I love me some Patriots football. Go Pats!