Scoring big just by being in the zone
In one way, I suppose you might say Jack Trottier and Adam Ascensao were simply two more devoted Pats fans among the multitudes that flooded the heart of the city yesterday.
But that would be kind of a lie.
These two 21-year-old best friends left Tyngsboro yesterday morning shortly after 9 a.m. for the 40-mile trip into town. When they arrived at the parking lot near TD Garden, Adam helped Jack pilot his motorized wheelchair out of the van.
The pair made the quarter-mile journey to a spot on New Chardon Street by the Edward Brooke Courthouse … and waited as a light snow turned to sleet and then to a bone-chilling rain.
As the sidewalk filled with people holding “Roger That” signs, screaming obscenities and guzzling Bud Lights, these two best friends calmly and quietly waited for the payoff — the moment when their heroes would roll by.
When he was 17, Jack became a paraplegic after a snowboarding accident. He has converted that tragedy into an opportunity to deliver motivational speeches to high school and college athletes. And, oh yes, he still manages to snowboard.
“Jack has never let what happened to him slow him down,” Adam told me. “When I got up this morning and looked out the window I called Jack and said, ‘ Whaddya think?’ He just said, ‘If it’s going to be bad, we’re going to make it happen regardless.’ ”
And so there they were, Jack sitting almost serenely in a no-nonsense wheelchair that was drenched in sleet, as his best friend Adam stood by his side.
“Hey,” Jack told me, “the Patriots won the Super Bowl. What other reason do you need to come out to Boston to support this team?
“You can never tell,” he said. “This may be the only time we get to come out, so you have to make it count. We just never know what’s going to happen on any given season.”
The conditions for that moment were truly beyond miserable yesterday, but you wouldn’t know it from looking at these two lifelong friends.
Jack Trottier, waiting in his chair, spoke about the inspiration of Tom Brady, a sixth-round castoff blossoming into the unquestioned master of the NFL universe.
“I mean, look at what he’s done,” Jack said, “all that he’s overcome to go from being Mr. Irrelevant to the best ever. What Tom Brady says to me is that anything is possible.”
When the parade of duck boats finally rolled down New Chardon, Tom Brady waved to the giddy throngs, more like a pol or a matinee idol than the rest of his teammates, who kept time to the blaring funk anthems.
Brady’s eyes never met the admiring gazes of Jack Trottier and Adam Ascensao. But it didn’t matter. The pair of best friends got what they came for … the chance to be within shouting distance of a legend. It was more than enough.