FOR PATS FANS, DELIGHT COMES ON LATE
Jubilant New England Patriots fans poured into the city’s streets, shouting, dancing and cheering as the glory of five Super Bowl wins and with it the confirmation that Tom Brady and Bill Belichick are in fact the greatest of all time sunk in.
“Brady! Brady! Brady!” the crowd chanted and — because there also has to be a loser — shouts of “(expletive) Goodell!”
Turned away from Kenmore Square by battalions of police — anxious to avoid the mayhem that greeted past championships — thousands of fans marched down Boylston Street.
A bagpiper led the way on Boylston — Hamish Lamotte, a junior at MIT who’s been playing since he was 8.
Along the way fans stopped traffic as they danced in the streets and gathered in the Public Garden around the Swan Pond, where a few rowdies ventured out on the ice — before the cops moved in and cleared them out.
“Brady is not going to cheat to be the best,” exulted John Jweid, 21, of Syracuse, N.Y., who called Super Bowl LI “the best game I have ever seen. The game came down to toughness. I’ve never seen a tougher team than this year’s Patriots. We dug down deep.”
Mayor Martin J. Walsh, announcing the Victory Parade for tomorrow at 11 a.m., said in a statement: “Congratulations to the greatest team, the greatest coach, and the greatest quarterback of all time for winning their fifth Super Bowl victory in Houston. The Patriots have made Boston and New England proud — fire up the duck boats!”
In the sports bars, watching the final, unbelievable moment on the big screens, fans exploded, screaming and spraying beer and hugging behind the bar as they witnessed the Patriots execute the greatest comeback in NFL history.
“Tom Brady is our fearless leader! You follow him into battle and he never lets you down. I’m grateful for this moment. I’m just happy right now. Let’s go!” exulted Adrian DiRomualdo, 21, of Carlisle, inside The Greatest Bar near North Station.
“Unreal. If any team could have won this game, it’s the Patriots team right here,” said Jack Najarian, 21, of Needham.
Max Lebaron, 31, of Mexico, visiting relatives from Boston, wrapped himself in a Pats flag.
“This is the best day of my life. Brady is the best ever. Ever! I never doubted,” Lebaron said.
Earlier, the fans had hung tough as the grim deficit the Patriots were facing climbed to 25 points before, in a matter of minutes, the team turned it around.
“We got leadership, the type of fire, the attitude,” DiRomualdo said
during the dark quarters of the game, consoling himself. “Fans are never going to give up on a leader like Tom Brady.”
Najarian said, “This is a team that faced a ton of adversity. They came together and it just meshes well.”
Paul Berge, 58, formerly of Maine, came all the way from Jacksonville, Fla., to watch his Patriots in Boston, and he wasn’t disappointed.
“It’s the greatest comeback ever. I mean, history has been made,” Berge said. “It’s the Patriots as they always have been.”
Pats fans spilled out of the bars around North Station and hollered and hugged in the street to mark the improbable win.
Drivers leaned on horns up and down Tremont Street as revelers, one in nothing but American flag boxer briefs and sneakers, shouted “Let’s go!” and directed epithets at NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell. They mingled with stopped cars to slap high fives as police on sidewalks kept watch and directed traffic.
Eric Andrade, 28, of Taunton, liked watching Goodell shake hands with Brady.
“That made me feel pretty good, right there,” he said.
John McCaffrey said the momentum turned when Julian Edelman bobbled and snatched a miraculous catch.
“That was where it all turned,” he said. “That’s when you knew, oh, there’s something here.” Sam King, 27, of Boston, agreed. “The Edelman catch was redemption for all the (grief) we’ve gone through.”
“The greatest game of all time!” exclaimed Matt Menard, 20, of Taunton.