People often ask me how I became a New England Patriots fan living in New Jersey. Many times I've been called a bandwagon fan, a front runner fan, a fairweather fan, and anything else you can think of that will disregard me from being a true fan. I love telling the story, and I personally love shutting people up who use the term "bandwagon" fans as a reason to discredit their loyalty and love of their team.
This is how it happened.
I can't exactly pinpoint the date of when and how it all started, I just know it was towards the mid 90's. I remember it was around the time kids were starting to wear Starter caps, and wear fitted baseball hats. I had seen kids wearing all kinds of sports teams from all different areas in the country, and I took it as a trend of what the cool kids are doing. I had seen Florida Marlins hats because they were a new team. I had seen kids wearing 49ers hats, Cowboys, Raiders, the really old school gross orange Buccaneers logs, and this was something that I wanted to pick up on. In my childhood pictures it showed me wearing New York Giants, and New York Mets uniforms. Looking back I might consider this child abuse haha. Of course when the Cowboys were the best team in the NFL I'd watch the Super Bowls and rooted for them (I mean who didn't?). It was at the point where I wanted my own. I wanted to buy a hat of a team that no one else had. Remember, I was only 9 years old at the time haha. You see where I'm going with this?
One random night my mom went shopping at a place called BJ's Wholesale Club on Route 1 in Edison, NJ. Towards the back right of the place they had a sports section, and they had a wide array of white capped NFL team hats. I had picked the best looking hat they had not knowing exactly who the team was. I was unsure if it was either the Seahawks or Patriots. I was a dumb kid and confused the shape and colors of the logo, but never the less my mom bought the hat, and I wore that damn thing everywhere I went. I guess my family started to take notice. A good portion of my family members are big football fans, and they were the one's who clarified the team on my hat. I remember my Aunt Jo telling me about this young Quarterback the Patriots had, and how he was going to be the next great thing. Some guy named Drew Bledsoe. I think she even got me his 24kt gold rookie card and I still have it somewhere still in it's wrapping and box. From there on out I was showered with Christmas and birthday gifts that were all Patriots things. I had these cool little figurines of both the Packers and Patriots from Super Bowl 31. I had a Patriots helmet lamp, and rug. I had like 3 Drew Bledsoe jerseys that made me seem dirty in middle school because that's all I wore lol. It just kind of came about, and I stuck with it. We were a pretty crap team, and went through so many coaches after Parcell's left (even Pete Caroll). One of the biggest things that upset me was when Curtis Martin left to become a New York Jet. That's where I lost all of my respect for the guy, and still haven't found any to give to him this very day.
When 2001 rolled around, I kind of gave up on the Pats after Bledsoe went out. I had no idea who Tom Brady was because I wasn't a college football fan at all. I just assumed that if he were good enough he'd start over Bledsoe, but that wasn't going to happen. I was surprised every time they won a game, and when they maid the playoffs I wanted to cry. Between the heartfelt emotions from 9/11, to a team that no one would ever pick to be in the playoffs, I was proud of my team, and the only team I wanted to see in the playoffs that year were the Packers. I wanted Drew to come back, and I wanted REVENGE! When Brady went down in Pittsburgh, and Drew came in I thought that was the greatest thing haha. It was impossible for a Green Bay/ New England super bowl rematch at that point because the Rams had slaughtered the Packers the week before that. When it came time for the Super Bowl and Belichick picked Brady over Bledsoe for the Super Bowl I was dumbfounded. I was like HOW THE HELL DO YOU PICK THE NOBODY KID OVER DREW?!?!??! Well Tom Terrific played and the rest is history. I still consider Drew to be a Patriots over teams like the Cowboys, and Bills. Those were filler teams that he played for just because he was good enough to be an NFL player, but no longer good enough to be the Patriots quarterback. I was ready for the same thing in 2008 if the Patriots were to keep Cassel over Brady if we won the Super Bowl. It's just how it goes. As great as Brady is, we felt the same way about Drew Bledsoe. If the Pats didn't win with Brady, I thought that Bledsoe would've eventually gotten a ring on his own. Our defense was just that good that any team would have a hard time beating them.
Well that being said, that's my story. I've seen my team play live over a dozen times, and I make sure I go out to Foxboro every single year to see them play a game. Sometimes I see them away.
I take full pride in my team, and I'm more passionate about my team than any person I know when it comes to their sports teams. I'm Patriots fan 24/7 365, it doesn't stop for me. When their season ends, I'm already counting the days til team workouts. Of course we have all the fun things like Free Agent signings, Trades, and the NFL Draft. This is the love of my life so this technically means I'm married to Giselle Bundchen (did I find a loophole to that lol? not really? okay then haha).
I love this team.
Go Pats!
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