Tuck's Blog: Sit Down, Shut Up?
Tom Brady's comments regarding the New England fans leaving early during last week's home game has fans coming out in full support. Are Patriots' fans getting soft lately?
It's third and four. The Patriots have a three-point lead and the Ravens have the ball at the Patriots 27-yard-line. The crack of the famous opening guitar riff of Guns n' Roses "Welcome to the Jungle" blasts throughout the stadium. Fans in Section 126 start to get up and support their home-team, providing some much needed noise to deafen Joe Flacco and the Ravens offense.
The Ravens come out of the huddle. Flacco sends WR Derrick Mason in motion. The Patriots defense has everyone standing and shifting, as Coach Hoodie so often enjoys puzzling opposing offenses.
Let's do this Pats! Get up everyone! Let's go!!....Get the hell up!! Come on!
Shhhh. Would you mind sitting down? You're blocking my view. Thanks.
Although that situation was just created, the current trend of Gillette Stadium presents this as a likely circumstance during one of the biggest home games of the year.
98.5 The Sports Hub's Gresh and Zolak initiated this topic minutes after Brady took a slight shot at the New England "faithful". What's worse is that Brady compared the New York Jets' fans against us, favoring them.
"The road environment is very different than our friendly home crowd, who when I looked up, half the stadium was gone when we were up 21 points early fourth quarter, which I wasn't so happy about," said Brady. "I don't think the Jets fans leave early. They're going to be loud the whole game. Communication is always an issue."
Yikes.
We all know the massive benefits from home-field advantage. The deafening noise. People jumping higher than they ever had in their lives (beer will do that). The goosebumps rushing up your spine as the stadium trembles. Yet, a strong amount of New England fans as of late have been nearly non-existant.
Rather than past crowds, who would toss mass amounts of snow in the air in celebration like maniacs, the current crowd would rather brush it off their North Face coat.
Is the state-of-the-art stadium to blame? The comfortable seats with a vast amount of legroom? The fancy Patriots Pro-Shop that is bigger than most? Tours of the Hall-of-Fame? Varied food vendors that require longer walks than usual? To get the best seats at the new CBS Scene? To get some shopping in at Old Navy?
"It's that the ticket prices are so high that a lot of the rowdy diehards are being out-priced," said fan Michael Naymie. "I don't blame the teams for taking advantage of the open market but that will inevitably bring in more casual fans," he added.
Let's get this straight: what the Kraft's have done to Gillette Stadium and its surroundings is simply phenomenal. Looking back at the old Foxboro Stadium, quite frankly, it's unbelievable.
However as a result, fans are more laid back and comfortable. Their priorities seem to be elsewhere as opposed to what built all of these luxuries in the first place: your New England Patriots.
The heartbreaker through all of this is that people (not fans in my book), are telling the fans to quiet down. Calm down. Take a seat. No? Well, maybe Mr. Lime-Green Jacket can tell you to do so.
"I was at the game when Brady first came back from his injury," said fan Stefan Digregorio . It was like the crowd was backwards getting loud on passing plays and our own third-down and then not doing anything on defense," he added.
Don't take offense to Brady's comments. Rather, use it as a wake-up call. Tell the people behind you to stand up or get out if they don't like it. Rather than the Patriot Place slogan: "Shop. Dine. Enjoy", use the classic New England fans motto.
Stand. Cheer. LOUD.
