OT: This was not the Patriots year. We knew that.

[upstater]

We knew this wasn't their year? Kind of a bizarre excuse to throw out there minutes after the conclusion of a Super Bowl when you're team held a lead towards the end of the 4th quarter.

It wasn't the Giants season. They sucked and went 3-13. Not sure the same thing can be said about the Patriots.

When your defense has sucked all year, it's not your year. Can't name a team to win it with a sucky D.

 

[HuskyHawk]

Up until 2004, none of them were.

I went to UConn for four years and didn’t meet a single Patriots fan.

Nonsense. I grew up in CT and everyone I knew was a Patriots fan. 70's and 80's. UConn mid 80's was about 40% Giants, 35% Patriots and the rest Jets and other. Memo: Fairfield Cty. is not "Connecticut". It's in it, but it's the part least representative of the rest of the state.

 

[Excalibur]

Nonsense. I grew up in CT and everyone I knew was a Patriots fan. 70's and 80's. UConn mid 80's was about 40% Giants, 35% Patriots and the rest Jets and other. Memo: Fairfield Cty. is not "Connecticut". It's in it, but it's the part least representative of the rest of the state.

Grew up in eastern CT in the 80's and early 90's. Pats fans were hard to come by.

 

[Adios]

Yankee fans are front runners hilarious coming from a fan base who started wearing their stuff in 2004 again in both football and baseball lol..... rough night huh. Love it

Yankees fans ARE front runners. You kidding me? Compare the number of Yankees fans to Mets fans. Is it just because the Yankees are in the AL and the AL is more popular???

 

[Adios]

Nonsense. I grew up in CT and everyone I knew was a Patriots fan. 70's and 80's. UConn mid 80's was about 40% Giants, 35% Patriots and the rest Jets and other. Memo: Fairfield Cty. is not "Connecticut". It's in it, but it's the part least representative of the rest of the state.

I've been in Fairfield County my whole life. Yes, it is Connecticut. We make sure the rest of CT has money.

 

[Palatine]

When your defense has sucked all year, it's not your year. Can't name a team to win it with a sucky D.

The Eagles gave up over 600 yards last night.

That is the most yards ever given up any an winning team in NFL history, not SB history, the history of the entire league, or so I have read.

 

[8893]

We knew this wasn't their year? Kind of a bizarre excuse to throw out there minutes after the conclusion of a Super Bowl when you're team held a lead towards the end of the 4th quarter.

He had two different posts prepared before the end of the game. The other one provided the basis for Brady to be canonized.

 

[upstater]

He had two different posts prepared before the end of the game. The other one provided the basis for Brady to be canonized.

Err no, I said this before the game. Mentioned Barnwell on the Boneyard as well. In fact, it's in the Brady GOAT thread.

 

[HuskyHawk]

Grew up in eastern CT in the 80's and early 90's. Pats fans were hard to come by.

I grew up in Manchester in the 70's and 80's and literally never met a Giants fan. Not one. It was all Patriots with some Cowboy and Steeler fans mixed in. Didn't meet a Giant's fan until I went to UConn in 1984.

 

[gtcam]

I grew up in Manchester in the 70's and 80's and literally never met a Giants fan. Not one. It was all Patriots with some Cowboy and Steeler fans mixed in. Didn't meet a Giant's fan until I went to UConn in 1984.

You must have lived a sheltered life
Ive lived in Manchester since 1977 and have had family there since 1923
I am and know a ton of Giants fans who have lived there and still live there
IMO it were the Pats fans that were far a few
But then again maybe we all stick together
Anyway, as a Giants fan - I do support and like the Pats - despise the Eagles and Cowboys

 

[Mazhude]

This seems like fake news. No connection to the Pats down there for any reason.

Actually, I'm from New Haven and I've always been a Pats fan too... so two pieces of fake news, I guess.

 

[Lefty2one]

Depends on NY traffic and the GW Bridge. 1:40 to Foxboro.

My old man had Jets season tickets at the Meadowlands from '77 to '06. There was never traffic in the morning heading down from greater New Haven, Sunday morning at 9 AM. Not surprisingly, the morning drive with a car full of donuts and coffee was the best part of being a Jets season ticket holder.

 

[August_West]

t's in the Montana is the GOAT thread.

FTFY

 

[Excalibur]

You must have lived a sheltered life
Ive lived in Manchester since 1977 and have had family there since 1923
I am and know a ton of Giants fans who have lived there and still live there
IMO it were the Pats fans that were far a few
But then again maybe we all stick together
Anyway, as a Giants fan - I do support and like the Pats - despise the Eagles and Cowboys

The short answer is he's lying. Like many Pats fans, despite all of the recent success, there's a major sore spot over the fact that for 30 years, the Patriots were a minor league team that nobody cared about.

 

[mauconnfan]

Confirmed ****head now! Congrats

 

[jibsey]

Well, the Patriots year next year just got iffy because Gronk is reevaluating. I think he wants a somewhat functioning brain to go forward with in his life and that last concussion might have been the cherry on the sundae. Most football players are too gung ho to evaluate this but it seems likea moment of clarity for him. The Patriots would have had no second half at all without him yesterday.

 

[upstater]

I grew up in Manchester in the 70's and 80's and literally never met a Giants fan. Not one. It was all Patriots with some Cowboy and Steeler fans mixed in. Didn't meet a Giant's fan until I went to UConn in 1984.

What I'm getting from this thread is that football is everything in life and that friends, girlfriends, boyfriends, etc., all depend on what team you root for.

 

[jcaprio90]

Saying 32nd ranked defense is a convenient excuse, sure they gave up a lot of yards all year but also gave up the 5th fewest amount of points. So 5th ranked defense where it actually matters

 

[BlueDogs]

Strange take given that the Patriots were favored to win the Super Bowl from like last February, but all right.

And Tom Brady is still pretty good. Yes, he’d be the third-best quarterback on the Eagles and he’d have to play blocker or something at the Manning family flag football games, but there’s no shame in that. He’s still the best Tom Brady.

I don't know about that. He put up huge numbers last night. The Pats D was pathetic last night and shaky all year. They were paying better the last half, but still it was a vulnerable D. They got man handled last night. Part of the blame goes on Patricia who clearly had one foot out the door, the rest goes on the players who just were outplayed.

 

[BlueDogs]

Well I can’t speak for everyone, but some of us grew up 75 minutes from Foxboro, have gone to Pats games all our lives, and didn’t grow up rooting for New York sports teams. Other than that, yeah, it makes no sense.

If you live east of the Connecticut river, you've always identified with Boston more than NY.

 

[mauconnfan]

Yankees fans ARE front runners. You kidding me? Compare the number of Yankees fans to Mets fans. Is it just because the Yankees are in the AL and the AL is more popular???

Guess you don't know what front runners are ay Butch? We all have them I agree, but Yankee fans are ripped (only now) by Sox fans because we have so many WS rings. You know what take them all away and just give me the ones I've seen I am still a Yankee fan through and through while having more. There are plenty like me in CT unlike the Pats who just showed up on the early 2000s. Never saw a Patriot hat or jersey growing up in the middle of the state form the late 60's through the 90's never. There are bandwagon/front runners and there are just fans, Pats fans are the perfect meaning to either of those Yankee fans, for the most part, ARE NOT.

 

[HuskyHawk]

You must have lived a sheltered life
Ive lived in Manchester since 1977 and have had family there since 1923
I am and know a ton of Giants fans who have lived there and still live there
IMO it were the Pats fans that were far a few
But then again maybe we all stick together
Anyway, as a Giants fan - I do support and like the Pats - despise the Eagles and Cowboys

May have been my neighborhood. But people didn't talk about it as much back then either. So perhaps my friends were just Pats fans. One was a Steeler fan, and still is.

I moved there in 1971 from KC (age 5). The 1976 Patriots were 11-3. 77 9-5 1978 they were 11-5. 1979 9-5. 1980 10-6. Those were the teams that built up fans in the area. Lots of great memorable players. The Ray Berry teams were good too, and that was while I was at UConn.

 

[Husky25]

The Patriots bandwagon got rolling in 1993 when they hired Parcells and drafted Bledsoe. It accelerated with earnest when Kraft bought the team. It wasn't 2001 or 2004. It was 1993.

The late 80's/early 90's Patriots were the Cleveland Browns of their day. It was an investment and the owners (Victor Kiam, and then James Orthwein) looked to get the biggest return for the least amount of money they could, and the product reflected that.

The fact that they played in a stadium unfit for a Texas high school didn't help, nor did the Lisa Olson scandal, but the Patriots were often blacked-out in the local demographic back then. The blessing in disguise was that Victor Kiam could not buy the stadium with the team. Kraft out bid him and got the lease rights with the Patriots. So when Orthwein (a Busch, of Anheuser-Busch notoriety) was exploring moving the franchise to St. Louis, Kraft wouldn't let them out of the lease.

"Following the NFL's approval of the sale, the Patriots sold out their entire 1994 season..."

 

[mauconnfan]

The Patriots bandwagon got rolling in 1993 when they hired Parcells and drafted Bledsoe. It accelerated with earnest when Kraft bought the team. It wasn't 2001 or 2004. It was 1993.

The late 80's/early 90's Patriots were the Cleveland Browns of their day. It was an investment and the owners (Victor Kiam, and then James Orthwein) looked to get the biggest return for the least amount of money they could, and the product reflected that.

The fact that they played in a stadium unfit for a Texas high school didn't help, nor did the Lisa Olson scandal, but the Patriots were often blacked-out in the local demographic back then. The blessing in disguise was that Victor Kiam could not buy the stadium with the team. Kraft out bid him and got the lease rights with the Patriots. So when Orthwein (a Busch, of Anheuser-Busch notoriety) was exploring moving the franchise to St. Louis, Kraft wouldn't let them out of the lease.

"Following the NFL's approval of the sale, the Patriots sold out their entire 1994 season..."

Accelerated is a good word to use although it still didn't catch on for a few years. But yeah Parcells did get the train moving a bit. The Lisa Olsen scandal wow, forgot about that.

 

[ConnHuskBask]

What I'm getting from this thread is that football is everything in life and that friends, girlfriends, boyfriends, etc., all depend on what team you root for.

Confirmed.

Growing up in NJ every single buddy was a Giant and Yankee fan, except one guy who was born in Florida and liked the Marlins.

No further dissension was tolerated.