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February 5, 2008

Just the die hards cheer the Patriots; Giants get a parade

A sparse-but-loyal group of 200 fans stood in the cold weather near the team’s pro shop Monday night to welcome home the NFL’s runner-up team.

The Pats remain champions in the hearts and minds of the fans. It was quite different from the 15,000 fans who were at Gillette two weeks ago for the Super Bowl sendoff.

And it will be quite a different scene in New York where the Giants will get a ticker-tape parade this morning at 11. Watch the parade live.

Fans began to gather around 5 o’clock in anticipation of the team’s arrival home. Around 8 o’clock a security guard screamed out, “Five minutes,” and the fans began to cheer. In the distance, a lone football was being tossed back and forth between a father and son. Finally, at 8:16, the blue lights from the police escort could be seen coming into the parking lot with five buses of players, personnel, friends and family.

“We’re here to support our guys,” said Sue LaFauci of Smithfield. “We still love them and we will love them. We’re disappointed like everyone else, naturally, but we won 18 and we tried.”

The buses moved slowly past the fans. One Patriots employee later described the flight home from Arizona as “somber.”

Al and Claudia Inglese of North Attleboro have had Patriots season tickets for 30 years, so they’ve experienced a lot of the ups and downs that come with being a football fan in New England. Their seats at Gillette Stadium are six rows behind the Patriots’ bench.

Posted by Peter Phipps  at 7:18 AM | Permalink