Are you ready for some football?

I refuse to apologize for it anymore. I'm a New England Patriots fan. I'm sitting here on the family room couch wearing my Tom Brady jersey waiting for the second half of the first playoff game to begin against the Jacksonville Jaguars.

I started learning about football in high school. We had a pretty good football team and it was fun going to games on Saturday afternoon with my girlfriends and then later going to games as a Bisonette, a member of our school's dance/kick-line TOUCHDOWN NEW ENGLAND!! (Sorry for the interruption but I needed to update you on the score). Anyway, I also became a Jets fan thanks to my BFF, Barbara who LOVED Joe Namath. Yeah, I know I'm dating myself but what the heck.

Fast forward to college. I went to school in New Hampshire. One weekend during our freshman year Norman's RA got tickets to a New England/Jet game in Foxboro. We traveled down to Boston in a school van with about 10 other people, in the pouring rain. Not just rain, but a consistent, heavy, unrelenting rain. Our seats were in the corner of the end zone on folding chairs and we stayed for the entire game. I got to see Namath in the twilight of his career - on the sideline for the whole game and I believe New England won. At the time I was not happy with that outcome, but the experience was remembered more for the weather than anything else. We were soaked to the skin and then some.

The rain was so heavy it backed up in the aisles and you had to trudge through a foot of standing water. Foxboro Stadium back in the early 70's was a cement pit. Parking was in sandy, muddy fields and the stadium itself showed what happens when you take the lowest possible bid and don't really care. We got to go the stadium several more times and it was as bad on a dry day as it was on that rainy day. I hope to one day see Gillette Field and experience a decent stadium for my Pats.

I remained a Jets fan throughout college but I was warming to the Pats. I was stopped from changing my allegiance by Jim Plunkett, the quarterback for New England. I couldn't stand him but I was beginning to like the team. I'd go over to Carle Hall (Norm's dorm) on Monday night to watch football and on Sunday afternoons. You see, I had learned in high school that if you could talk sports, it helped meeting and talking to boys!

So here I am 30+ years later a Patriot fan and proud of it! I suffered through the years they were a joke in the NFL, the years they made it to the Superbowl and were embarrassed by humiliating losing scores and I've been proud during the Superbowl years where they have won led by Tom Brady. I hope this year will be ring number 4 and I'll be doing my happy dance. All these years through it all I've remained a Patriots fan.

P.S.- about my BFF who got me hooked on football in the first place, that Joe Namath Jet fan. She's now a New England fan too having lived in New Hampshire for almost 20 years. NEW ENGLAND TOUCHDOWN!!