I don’t know if you remember me, but in October I was looking for a ticket agent to get Patriots tickets for a 40th birthday gift. My friend has been a fan since she was little of course but has never been to a game. I got 2 tickets in Row 10 of section 107 for the SquishTheFish game on New Year’s day. The seats were awesome, right behind the bench and we could almost touch the players, esp. the big names who spent most of the game on the bench! Too bad it was used as a practice game for the rookies, but nothing could have spoiled it for us, not even the freezing cold.
We left NYC via Amtrak on New Year’s eve to spend the night in Providence then took the Pats fan train to Foxboro, $10 round trip, not bad. I wore my brand new Vinatieri shirt up on Amtrak, and my friend wore her SquishTheFish shirt. We squeeled “Squish The Fish” every two minutes we must’ve made people crazy. A couple of the conductors passed us and yelled out too and we reminisced about the game in ’85. My friend was chatted up by the food service guy about it too. We don’t get that kind of attention for being Patriots fans in NYC! Ok so got out at Providence, staying at the Westin. I knew it was within walking distance but I didn’t check out in which direction to go, silly me, so we took a taxi. The hotel was ok. We went to the hotel’s restaurant but they wanted $125 each for New Years fixed menu, no choice of entrée at all…sorry, but not in Providence would I pay a price like that. So we made our way to a couple of restaurants downstairs at the mall. I thought this would be pretty sad to eat at a mall on new Year’s but it wasn’t a food court like I expected, there were a few proper restaurants there to choose from. Anyway who cares about all that, we got up the next day to catch the Gillette stadium train at 11am. It was FULL of fans just like us. It took just over an hour to get there, and we took photos of the stadium when we got off. I have never seen tail-gating before. There were folks making barbecues and braziers and some guys had tv’s in tents, all in the car park! Mostly they were packing up tho to go to their seats. Some trucks had giant patriots flags etc all over them it was amazing. There were about 12 gates for men to go through and 2 for the women, they said there were a lot of women at the game and we all complained about discrimination because it was taking us much longer to go through the few women’s gates compared to the mens lol! So we made our way to our seats, I’m glad I splashed out, I could’ve got cheaper seats but for a first time special occasion, this was the way to go. I put my Brady shirt on over my jacket when we got to our seats. I had a furry patriots helmet-type hat and flashing 2006 glasses. My friend had a tear in her eye, (I did too, I’m embarrassed to say) esp when the ’85 team were introduced. I thought it was wild when the guys who were dressed as olde-worlde Patriots fired their muskets. Oh plus I liked the music that was played when the Patriots entered the field…can’t remember what it was but it was some sort of War of the worlds tune or something. We started to freeze to death by the 4th quarter so I put my toe warmers on. I’d seen a guy put his footwarmers on in the Pats train, now I know why. We ate clam chowda which was brill!, but after that it was too much trouble to leave to go get food and I didn’t want to miss any of it. Also it was too difficult to maneouvre snack and beers with all the clothes we were wearing.
Ok so about the game. When I saw Cassell come on and fumble etc I was a bit pissed off. I felt that I had been swindled for buying tix to watch rookies play. But now that I’ve read all the post game reports and strategies I’m quite happy about it. Plus we got to see that Flutie drop-kick.
After the game, we got back on the fan-train back to Providence, stayed one more night there and back to nyc today..what a blast, unforgettable!
Thanks NoMo,Celebrien, Beans%26amp;Cod %26amp; NewEngland Patriots...
Hi RNNYUSA,
What a fabulous Trip Report; I%26#39;m SO SO glad to hear you had such a great time, I was starting to read it thinking oh oh, is this one a good one or a bad one! PHEW, it%26#39;s a great one! Thanks so much for sharing it! Every one on this Forum will be so happy to read it.
I%26#39;m really glad you didn%26#39;t fall for that $125 menu for NYE, that was a good move leaving there and going to the Mall. That Providence Mall is positively GREAT! You had better choices there I%26#39;m sure and it%26#39;s definately NOT your average Mall. In fact, we drive down some times to Providence instead of going to the ones near Boston, it%26#39;s just WONDERFUL there! What a complete and total rip off and a %26#39;cute%26#39; move that restaurant pulled, can you imagine doing that to people, oh that makes me so sick! I%26#39;m so glad you walked right out of there!
Glad to hear you had such a great time at the game as well! I loved the way you guys went! You really went all out and it certainly was worth it for you, what a great idea for New Years, celebrating it at a Pats game! Thanks for sharing it with us!
Happy 2006!
Thanks NoMo,Celebrien, Beans%26amp;Cod %26amp; NewEngland Patriots...
Happy New Year!
So happy that you had a great time at the Pats game on Sunday. It was a little crappy that it was mostly a 2nd and 3rd stringer game, although I had a feeling that was going to happen. It%26#39;s not usually Bill Belichick%26#39;s modus operandi, but in this case a wild card berth against Jacksonville is preferable to Pittsburgh at this point. BTW: that last throw Cassel made was wildly overthrown on purpose (see above reason).I think the gate thing was mainly to keep the ladies from being gropes whilst getting into the stadium. It can get rowdy down there sometime, especially after a long morning of tailgating. Sometimes the liquid warmth gets folks a little too up close and personal.
Tailgating in football season is sometimes better than the game itself. It%26#39;s really a big deal in cities like Green Bay and Chicago, but I think the Pats fans give them a run for their money.
I was so happy about the %26#39;85 team having been celebrated. Many of those guys still live in the area and are involved with the Patriots in some way either directly or peripherally.
Anyhow, New Years Eve had turned into such a rook in the last ten years or so. Paying that kind of money even in Boston would be outrageous! Glad you didn%26#39;t fall for it.
NM: yeah that mall had a lot of real fancy stores in it, glad xmas was over with before i got there!
B%26amp;C: lol@groping in the lines, that makes a lot of sense, thank you! and i didn%26#39;t realise the last Cassel throw was deliberate, it helps when you know that :-)
Well, I don%26#39;t want to go as far as to say deliberate, but I%26#39;m sure there was a bit of, ';Give it a good heave and, well, whatever.';
There was much talk on the airwaves re: Cassel being in vs. Flutie and Flutie%26#39;s drop kick. It certainly makes for good conversation in an otherwise dull post-holiday time.
PS:I wonder if we%26#39;ll see another Pats-Bears Super Bowl?
Glad you had so much fun! I was at the game as well, but left at halftime. The game did get more interesting in the second half, but it didn%26#39;t seem worthwhile to stand around (I had standing room tickets) shivering to watch the likes of Mike Wright and Bam Childress battle it out for the rest of the day while being hit on by the drunk Dolphins fan sitting in front of me.
I doubt Belichick really had that much of a preference as to which team we ended up playing in the first round - the Steelers appear to be a better team, but then again, we match up well against the Steelers and certainly know how to beat them. We don%26#39;t have very much experience with the Jags and most likely won%26#39;t be able to gameplan against them as well. If 2 points would have won the game rather than simply tie, I bet we would have tried a little harder to convert.
I actually had a totally opposite experience at the gates! There were hundreds of guys trying to get through their gates, but only a handful of women, so we zipped right through with no problem. I felt badly for the guys, it looked like they were going to be there for a long time.
It was my first time using the fan-train too. I didn%26#39;t realize how long the trip is and so crowded!
Hello Celebrien, yes if this wasn%26#39;t our first time we would%26#39;ve liked to have gotten to the game a bit earlier and enjoyed the tail-gating! also i%26#39;m sure there were a lot of regular fans who didn%26#39;t want to wait around in the cold until the end. Thankfully it was our first time and we didn%26#39;t really know any better, just being in the stadium and watching the grass grow was exciting lol!
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