I am a New England Patriots fan.
I love NFL football, but i dont spend all day every Sunday watching all the games. I dont care about the other teams or players for the most part. But i do care about the Patriots. My love of them isnt like a normal run of the mill fan, i will admit. But i will explain so i dont come off as a nutjob.
I started religiously watching football in 1990, and the Patriots which were the only team regularly broadcast locally (remember we only had 28 channels and WLBZ out of Bangor had the Pats every Sunday) so out of convience they became my team. It wasnt a bandwagon jump, they were coming off a 1-15 season and had the first pick in the draft which they used on Drew Bledsoe from Washington. He became my "guy". I started getting into them more and more even though they had little success. Over the next 10 years they really only had one great season, losing in the Superbowl to the Packers (coincidently in the night i had my first "date" with my ex wife to a Superbowl party through work)
I didnt love them because they were great (they werent), the popular choice (most people loved the cowboys and locally hated the Patriots, because they felt they were forced on them), or any other normal reason. the 90s were a tough time. University came and went, falling out with my folks, trying to figure out what to do with my life etc...but no matter what problems there were, every Sunday 16 times a year at either 2 or 515 they were there. And in the last 20 years I have been a fan, one game got postponed, and you know what they did? they made it up...
They were always there for me over the last 20 years whenever i was going through a rough time. The Patriots didnt divorce me, they didnt make me feel like a disappointment to them, the patriots never compared me to their friends kids and loved me based on my career success. Love is supposed to be unconditional regardless or outcome or performance, and so i supported them....through all the losing. Even in the offseason, i knew they were out there trying to get better. And that is the thing they always did. They didnt win much, they didnt always make me happy...but they always tried their best. When other teams would coast through the rest of the season once they were out of the playoffs they always played hard. But because of the players they had, and the coaches at the time, it wasnt meant to be. Did i love and support them. Yes. My first trip to see a game live is still one of my top memories....but i was resigned ot the fact that i loved a team that lost all the time. That to ask one team to win out of 30 trying for the same goal, well the odds were so far...so i was happy just being a fan.
Then 2001 happened. And Drew Bledsoe got hurt in the 2nd game. And a quarterback that no one wanted when he was in the draft, who was passed over 198 times until the Patriots finally stepped up and drafted him with the 199th pick came in the game.......and over the next 18 weeks this happened....
This team that never won, started winning....and i felt a part of it. I liked being part of something bigger than me. Its good for your soul to invest in something you have no control over. Their coach became one of my heros, who i steal liberally from in my day to day work. He took a sport where atheletes sign endorsement deals and tweet ego driven thoughts and preached team. And they bought into it. People in the league started calling it the "Patriot Way". the moment that made me love them the most?
Right before a Superbowl starts, the players on each team are introduced one by one. They run out one at a time from the tunnel their moment in the sun...jumping and chest thumping and excited for that moment, on the biggest stage in American Sports all eyes are on them. They have always done it this way. So i sat there on my couch and watched the Rams be introduced one at a time. They did dances as they came out, waved towels, ran up to the camera and shouted sayings of bravado...they were the favorites that game, experts said they would win by at least 14 points. I sat there and watched them one by one and finally it was time for the Patriots.
But a funny thing happened. At this moment that they all dreamed of, their chance to be recoginzed individually the PA announcer spoke words i will never forget "Choosing to be introduced as a TEAM, the New England Patriots"...i was floored. Veteren NFL players have said they instantly called their agents and told them they would take less money to play in New England. That a superstar like Tom Brady or Lawyer Milloy would be willing to share his moment with guys who would never see the field that day, with trainers and equipment men whose names no one but their families knew...flew in the face of everything sports had become. An ego driven me first industry was shaken by 53 guys who didnt consider themselves anything but a Team. And they won the Superbowl...and 3 times out of 4 seasons they won...they were the most successful team of the 2000s, and all because a coach no one wanted, a quarterback no one wanted, players cut from other teams because they couldnt perform well enough to keep around, became Champions. And 10 years later they havent changed. There are only 5 players left from that first team. And the coach...but the "Patriot Way" is still alive.
Before everygame they always have an intro song. Sunday night football is Faith Hill, Monday night football is Hank williams jr., the early sunday games are just music. All of these "videos" have star NFL players in them. They stand there looking cool, posing with the football, looking tough....and not once in 10 years has a Patriot player ever been in one. Not because they arent wanted...they are truly the stars of the league...but because that celebrates the individual and not the team. and they refuse to do it.
I dont always enjoy football...i stress out before games, sometimes to the point i just want it to end...but that is the thing. I could turn on the tv right now and watch a hockey game and not care. But when you care about something, you want it to succeed, you worry about it, worry abou the players health, miss them when they move on, appreaciate what they did for you....
I last went to a game in 2007. the first for me in 10 years. when we got there the guys i travelled down with wanted to tailgate so we got there 4 hours before kickoff. Not me, i walked to the stadium, walked around it, touched it. I felt what the bricks i saw on tv felt like. What the view was from the bridge by the endzone. Touched the lighthouse....touched the field after the game. smelled the smells, saw the people, saw the players i had spend 16 years to that point supporting right in front of me. Saw the coach who i have learned so much from reading standing there in his hoodie with the cut off sleeves...and i looked up and saw the three championship banners...i walked around concourse of this beautiful stadium, up two levels and the next thing i knew there they were right in front of me...the three banners. I reached out and touched them....maybe this seems extreme, but i had spent hours reading about these teams, countless hours thinking about their next opponent, dying with every injury they suffered.....i felt a part of these championships..
so im not a sports fan....but i support my family. And i consider them to be a part of it. They have been there for me and in my life so long. Think back to 1990...think of the music you listened to (song of the year was Hold On by Wilson Phillips, The Cosby Show was the top rated TV show, and Home Alone was the top grossing movie) the TV you watched, the movies, the friends you had, the relationships....how many of them are still in your life. I have cared for 21 years now.....Wilson got a talk show, Phillips married a Baldwin, Cosby ended up being a creepy old perv and that show and its stars haven been heard of in a long time, MacCauley Culkin, disappeard for the most part..but the Patriots roll on. Every Sunday 2 or 515........and it all started
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| With a Coach |
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| With a Blizzard |
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| With a "Tuck" |
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| With a kick AND with a team...  |
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