When/Why did you become a Patriots fan

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Born and raised and still live in Cleveland. Was a Browns fan when I was a kid, and was very excited when they hired Belichick as HC because I loved to watch the NYG defense (LT was one of my favorite players then). Kind of lost track of the NFL for awhile when in college, and was later just more of an overall fan of the sport itself, no team loyalty. When the Pats hired Belichick in 2000, I started following them because I realized what a raw deal he got from Modell ("Modell" is still a 4-letter word in Cleveland-:) ) and I wanted to see how he did in NE. Though I admit I was upset when he cut Kosar, I realize he was 100% right. That's why when he picked Brady over Bledsoe in 2001 and he cut Milloy in '03, I never thought either was wrong...I had precedence to believe Belichick was right.
 
Born to it as a native New Englander. Started paying attention in '73, loved them ever since. Anybody who hates them now because of their success obviously has no idea how long this is in coming.
 
Football fan by birth, Patriot fan by the grace of God.


(I was born in Mass, moved to SC when i was six)
 
I don't remember. Seriously, I don't. I was raised on Boston Sports and that's just how I am. I don't remember the first Patriot's game I watched on TV but I know I watched both The NE/Miami playoff game in '85 and the SB in '85. I remember my mother bought me a "We've Squished the Fish--Now Bury the Bears!" T-shirt. Wish I still had it.

I remember being less than excited when the Pats went 1-15. I don't remember seeing many games on TV for obvious reasons. I remember thinking Leonard Russell was at least entertaining. I thought he was good but what would I know, I was very young and impressionable. And maybe he was, I still haven't really found out :shrug:

I remember the tide turning vaguely. Personally I was excited when the Parcells/Bledsoe era began. I bought into the hype immediately and was hooked. I've followed as much as possible ever since.

I can't claim hardhsip like many folks here but I've witnessed this team play miserably and seen some low points. I love the current run of success and try to cherish it as much as possible because it ain't gonna be here forever. All good things must come to an end.

:pat: :pat: :pat: :pat: :pat: :pat: :pat: :pat: :pat: :pat:
 
1978....Started playing football that year. One of our coaches told us to watch the Patriots to learn more about the game of football. (never liked watching football before then) He told us to watch the guys playing our positions. Watched them play for a few weeks and got hooked.
 
this a great thread for my first post:D
I moved to the US in 1998, and since I was a sports freak, I began to study American sports( the world doesn't really know american football or baseball), a friend of mine who was a huge Red sox fan introduced me to the sox, which led me to read about the tortured history of the NE sports teams( not the celtics of course..but I never really liked basketball:eek: ).

I am also a history geek, and after reading about the history of both the sox and the Pats , I felt empathy and a connection to both teams, so as I was starting my new life in the US, i decided to adopt these two teams. The hiring of BB only enforced my infatuation with the Pats, because I respected the man and his football knowledge, and I though he got a raw deal with the whole Jets fiasco( Parcells..you idiot!), and since then my experience has been so fulfilling, even with the last couple years exits of the playoff, following the Pats has been an honor, they play the game right, the organization is smart, they take the right decisions, and they are gutsy.....and they have the best coach of our era and the best QB( yes Colts fans..the best QB:p )
 
When I was a kid, I remember getting hooked on the Pats when they had Jim Plunkett as their QB. I had a big poster of him. I remember listening to them on the radio too. Sam Bam Cunningham and tiny Mack Heron. They got me interested in football enough even play it in HS and eventually make all-conference. I have suffered through many long seasons with the Pats and have savored that last few years so much. It's a reward for all the bad years.

Of course being a Red Sox fan too, I knew how to handle the yearly disappointment at an early age.
 
I just want to say that I am still proud to be a Patriots fan. I don't really need any koolaid at the moment....

I've been one since the end of Plunkett's reign, and the days of Mack Herron (a good quick runner, and an excellent return man). I believe Herron at the time broke the record for most total yards in a season (2 thousand and something....since broken by Marshall Faulk, I think, and possibly Mitchell the return man from the Redskins past).
 
grogsox on 01-26-2007 at 09:39 AM said:
When I was a kid, I remember getting hooked on the Pats when they had Jim Plunkett as their QB. I had a big poster of him. I remember listening to them on the radio too. Sam Bam Cunningham and tiny Mack Heron.
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Boy, I wish I was a fan of the Patriots during Plunkett's first season. It must have been great to feel the excitement of a bright Patriots' future...no matter how it turned out. I've seen that he had 19 td's against 16 int's....not bad for a rookie!

Grogan was my favorite, though....I guess they were on tv more when he started playing, and he was so great in 1976.
 
I was a military brat born in Texas (Ft Hood) but my dad got assigned to Ft Devens for much of my formative years. My folks were Cowboys fans and tried to raise me that way, but I loved Pat Patriot and the Pats unis in the 1970s.

Even though the Cowboys were the more successful team, I made a point of rooting for all the Boston teams, so it's always been the Pats for me. Unless you count the fact that I actually wore a Roger Staubach t-shirt when I was 3-4 years old.:cool:
 
When I was younger I didn't really understand football, but I was eager to learn. Living here in Nova Scotia, all of our U.S. TV networks come from Boston (Except FOX which is from Rochester NY, but they didn't have the NFL back then. It's kind of a blur, but I imagine I got in to the Pats because they were always on my TV every Sunday so it was easy to follow them. My first real solid memory of Pats football was the fog bowl playoff game at old Foxboro against the Steelers, that was the Superbowl XXXI run that got ended by that ass clown Desmond Howard. I'll never forget that name as long as I live. I was really pissed at the Tuna for how horribly he handled the time between the AFCC and the Superbowl. With all the rumors he was leaving and shit, how could any team prepare properly with a distraction like that? But still I was just proud they had made the Superbowl. My fav old time (well, old time to me) Patriot was Ben Coates.
 
My Dad gave me a pat patriot mini helmet. It was also a radio. 1975. I was five years old. I remember watching that LA Rams gave versus new england with my dad and Irving Fryar ( caught the pass on the tip) amazing streak for that team. Favorite Patriots players in no order, Grogan, Clayborn, Hannah, Nelson, Tippett Brown to name a few.
 
the NFL 'arrived' in Italy beginning '80 - the first Super Bowl showed 'alive' was Iggles-Raiders and was seen by a large number of people - it was a big success - many young students, young people started to get info about NFL and i remember that one evening they showed also 'NFL week in review' (the actual 'NFL game day') with the highlights for half an hour...

i saw for half minute Pat Patriot on the helmet and the red uniforms plus a beautiful name New England Patriots...
it was love since that moment...

only after, i discovered that the Pats were a 'loosing team' but i was not interested about it...i loved the name , the logo, the uniforms...

the first beautiful moment was our 1985 run...
the way i was able to follows the run was buying newspapers from Us and giving a phone' the morning after the game asking results...incredible...it was all...

i was able to see the Super Bowl (terrible loss) against CHI on tv
but i was happy to SEE the Pats playing (ok...not so well...)

but i loved the 3 wins on the road also if i was totally unable to see anything at all; i was impressed that Tony Eason was bringing us with those 3 wins at Super Bowl

that was more or less 25 years ago...

now it is different - with pay tv, with internet, etc etc

and finally last year i was at 'The Razor' and i saw finally two games alive !

' in between' i could write an enormous post with the great moments (Vinatieri kick in the snow against Oak one of the best ever moments together with the final drive made by Tom Brady against the Rams)...

:thumb:
 
I cannot believe I sat here on a Saturday afternoon and read the previous 8 pages. (Of course I am suppose to be working.) They were all great!

As NC Patriot said...I was born in to it. Unfortunately I do not remember specific dates...never have, still don't. Right from the beginning of the AFL, Sundays in my house meant large family gatherings, big dinners, two TVs going because the AFL and NFL were on at the same time. WE had to watch both. Sundays would start with family and friends playing touch football at the "Meadow". Some times I would watch; sometimes they would let me play.

At the center of it all were the Patriots.

My father and uncles were passionate about the Patriots and it rubbed off on me. At some point, my father got season tickets. He would let me choose two games a year to go to...the first one I actually remember was the Patriots-Vikings game...I believe it was at Harvard Stadium and the Pats had just traded for Joe Kapp. It had snowed the night before and I mean it had snowed. Of course, it never occured to anyone to clean the seats or stairways at the Stadium.

There were no locker rooms...I have no idea where they came from but the Purple People Eaters walked right by me heading to the stadium. There was nothing like going to a game and the closeness of the players in those days.

I went to as many games as I could and eventually I took over the tickets from my father. Family events always include some story about watching the Patriots or something that happened at a game.

As much as I have enjoyed the Super Bowl wins and the excitement the currrent team generated, the excitement of 1985 was over the top incredible for me. It was unbelievable what that team accomplished. I really believed they were going to beat the Bears.

It has been a passion that has never died. What developed from my early exposure to football was not only a love of the Patriots but a love of football.

I do have to admit to also being a fan of the Raiders during the days of Darryl Lamonica. I loved the mad bomber. I did eventually learned that they were the enemy.
 
italian pat on 01-27-2007 at 09:21 AM said:
the NFL 'arrived' in Italy beginning '80 - the first Super Bowl showed 'alive' was Iggles-Raiders and was seen by a large number of people - it was a big success - many young students, young people started to get info about NFL and i remember that one evening they showed also 'NFL week in review' (the actual 'NFL game day') with the highlights for half an hour...

i saw for half minute Pat Patriot on the helmet and the red uniforms plus a beautiful name New England Patriots...
it was love since that moment...

only after, i discovered that the Pats were a 'loosing team' but i was not interested about it...i loved the name , the logo, the uniforms...

the first beautiful moment was our 1985 run...
the way i was able to follows the run was buying newspapers from Us and giving a phone' the morning after the game asking results...incredible...it was all...

i was able to see the Super Bowl (terrible loss) against CHI on tv
but i was happy to SEE the Pats playing (ok...not so well...)

but i loved the 3 wins on the road also if i was totally unable to see anything at all; i was impressed that Tony Eason was bringing us with those 3 wins at Super Bowl

that was more or less 25 years ago...

now it is different - with pay tv, with internet, etc etc

and finally last year i was at 'The Razor' and i saw finally two games alive !

' in between' i could write an enormous post with the great moments (Vinatieri kick in the snow against Oak one of the best ever moments together with the final drive made by Tom Brady against the Rams)...

:thumb:
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Italian Pat, I think your picking the Patriots over all the other NFL teams, all the way over there in Italy, is awesome. Sounds like you could just as easily have picked the Eagles or the Raiders. As a proud member of Patriots Nation, I'm glad you picked the Pats and are with us on these boards. As for me, I go back all the way to 1960. It was easy for me, living in the heart of New England (southern New Hampshire :thumb: :) ). I now live in Northern California, and greatly enjoyed the long 49ers run with Joe Montana and Steve Young, but I remain Patriots #1 for life.
 
Vito Babe on 01-27-2007 at 07:40 PM said:
Italian Pat, I think your picking the Patriots over all the other NFL teams, all the way over there in Italy, is awesome. Sounds like you could just as easily have picked the Eagles or the Raiders. As a proud member of Patriots Nation, I'm glad you picked the Pats and are with us on these boards.
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thks my friend

now you understand 100% why i so love the throwback uniforms...;)

i can tell you that i was the only one picking New England...and on the shop in the '80 in Italy there was nothing with Patriots logo...zero...

you could have found Redskins, Raiders, Cowboys, 49ers, Steelers...Patriots ? who were they ?

now they know 100% - you can find Patriots things here too...
 
As a kid, I didn't really have an NFL team. I cheered for the Raiders in the Bo Jackson years and the Redskins off and on. It wasn't until high school that I really took a serious interest in the NFL and decided to pick a team and really follow them.

Living in Kansas, it was almost a requirement that I cheer for the Chiefs but I flat out refused. Tecmo Bowl was HUGE when I was in high school and we played it all the time. I used to absolutely own my friends at it so they finally got fed up and demanded that I let them pick my team. I agreed and sure enough, they gave me the Patriots. I continued to dominate my friends using quite possibly the worst team in the game. I soon took a liking to them and decided they would be the team that I picked as my own and the rest is history.
 
My wife actually got me into it in a way. I've played fantasy football for about 4-5 years and I was a Broncos fan since the mid-late 80s with Elway. Two years ago, my wife suggested that we get into a local sports team as I'm not really a fan of any local teams. We decided on the Pats and so I slowly started watching the games. My wife fell through on her end so it was usually just me. This past year I became more of a fan and got a Maroney jersey and watched most of the games...(when I could). My wife also bought me a $100 suede Pats jacket and gave it to me "To make up for all of the games she won't be watching with me". Now she's getting into it also and we watched all of the playoff games together. I'm glad I have become a fan and look forward to watching them for years to come. By the way...I'm no longer a Broncos fan.
 
Harrison37 on 01-26-2007 at 02:37 PM said:
Unless you count the fact that I actually wore a Roger Staubach t-shirt when I was 3-4 years old.:cool:
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Funny... I never liked the Boys but Staubach was my first favorite football player, back about the time I was five. :shrug:

Also back in the 70s, I wanted to be a Dallas Cowboy cheerleader. :rolleyes: Yeah, I was actually a little bit of a girlie girl. Course, at that same time I also wanted to be the first female professional baseball player. Okay, I was never a girlie girl. I have no idea why I wanted to be a Cowboys Cheerleader, I just did. :shrug:
 
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