I’m originally from Israel. Moved to the states when I was 22. Came here, following my back then girlfriend (who is now my wife of 17 years). Settled in Stamford, CT, which is pretty much Giants/Jets ground zero. I always liked American Footbal, even while living in Israel, but never had a team I rooted for until I got here. Upon arrival (early 2000), I started getting more interested in the NFL and tried to pick a team to start following and rooting for during that off-season. Even though I live 35 minutes outside of New York City, I never found a connection with that place. Till this day, if I had to choose a city to live in, I’d go for Boston over NYC any day. There’s something about New England, and more specifically – Boston, that I really like. That Celtic atmosphere… A lot of rich history and heritage that is rooted back to the first days of this great country. NYC to me is just a giant sewer...
Back to football…
Jets were totally out of the question. They just reeked of something foul, and their colors are awful. And the Giants? – meh. I’d be a dime a dozen around here, and I still couldn’t find any mental/emotional connection to them or that city. I wanted to root for something that was still somewhat local, a team whose games I can attend from time to time, a team that represented a lot of the values I believe in (e.g. the name… “Patriots”), or at least within the same time zone, and preferably a team that I can get locally on my market. Luckily Cablevision carries both CBS NY (Jets) and CBS Hartford (Patriots) so I get to watch the Pats whenever I'm not at Gillette
. I also liked how the Patriots were kind of a nobody back then, and were not tied to any particular city, and I still had a geographical connection by its mere name. Yes, physically I was MUCH closer to NYC, but technically, I was living in New England. Started following and rooting them in 2000, and the rest is history.
I also like how BB runs this team. I myself, is a no-nonsense, all business, person. No BSing under Belichick - I can appreciate that! Brady is a class act, and I can only strive to be the person and father he is. Brady is the ultimate role model to me as a person. Brady the GOAT QB, is just the icing on the cake.
Been to many memorable games, some of which include the 24-0 1st half comeback against Manning's Broncos, the 2014 AFCCG beat-down of the Colts (Deflategate), 2016 divisional against the Chiefs, 2017 divisional against the Titans, 2018 smack-down of Rodgers and his cheese heads, a few of Superbowl parades, a couple of SB rallies, and many more memorable experiences.
I now have 3 kids, and they are Pats fans for life too! That's us from a couple of Sundays ago at the send-off rally