Boston.com / Sports / Bruins

Fans revel in first title

By Michele Kurtz, Globe Correspondent, and Scott S. Greenberger, Globe Staff, 2/4/2002

hat howling you heard last night was New England sports fans celebrating the end of a 16-year championship drought.

After Adam Vinatieri's kick split the uprights, fans poured out of homes and bars to revel in the ultimate victory of an underdog team that nearly everybody - even many of its diehard supporters - believed was overmatched.

Dripping with beer sprayed on him by ecstatic fellow fans at the Funway Cafe in Foxborough, 60-year-old Sol Yas hugged his family and reflected on the New England Patriots' improbable triumph.

''I'm a huge baseball fan, but this has to be the most exciting thing I've ever seen in sports,'' said Yas, a Pats season ticket holder since 1971.

Most of the celebrating around the region was raucous but good-natured, with fans honking horns and waving Patriots banners in jubilation.

But some crowds did get rowdy. One of the largest gatherings was at the corner of Harvard and Brighton avenues in Allston, where police in riot gear allowed fans to walk on the tops of cars, climb lightpoles, and light bonfires made from newspapers and shirts. By midnight, the crowd had begun to thin on its own.

In downtown Boston at Faneuil Hall, bemused police officers watched as a young man danced on top of a police van shortly after the game ended. But as the evening went on, police arrested at least four revelers there as firefighters removed one from a tree. Other fans climbed nearby poles and dived into the crowd, mosh-pit style.

A Boston police officer said another arrest was made on Landsdowne Street, but no totals were available citywide.

Some fans waved American flags and chanted ''USA, USA'' and at several locations, women lifted their shirts for passersby.

Matt Leitao, 23, who has seen precious few New England sports triumphs in his life, tried to explain the feeling of release after so many years of frustration.

''People wait so long - people like my grandparents and my parents,'' said Leitao, who lives in Brighton but watched the game at Funway.

''To win this is such a special moment. It's something I know I'll tell my kids about.''

Even the most optimistic Patriots fans could be forgiven for being a bit nervous about this one. The Pats were two-touchdown underdogs, and many were describing the Rams' turbo-charged offense as one of the best in NFL history.

Then there was the recent history of Boston's storied sports franchises.

It's been 16 long years since Larry Bird hoisted the NBA championship trophy in City Hall Plaza. In the decade and a half since, the sports gods have delighted in toying with Boston's rabid fans.

The trail of woe began a few months after the Celtics' triumph, when an easy grounder - and the 1986 World Series championship - dribbled through the legs of Red Sox first baseman Bill Buckner. The next year, the Celtics lost in the finals. In the ensuing years, the Bruins lost twice in the Stanley Cup finals and the Pats got crushed in the Super Bowl.

Apprehension was in the air at the Allston Sports Depot as the game got underway.

''We're all realistic - we're all New England fans,'' said Dave Sullivan, a Stoneham carpenter. ''We were all around in '86, when Bill Buckner was supposed to win the game for us.''

Chris Givner, 21, of Uxbridge had the same feeling in the pit of his stomach, even as the Patriots began to roll in the second quarter.

''Yeah, I'm worried. I haven't seen a team win in my life,'' Givner said. ''I was 6 years old when the Celtics won. I don't remember that. This would be my first time.''

Just before kickoff, fans at the Funway Cafe bit their nails and smoked cigarettes nervously, as if dreading the coming Rams' onslaught. A group of women wearing Patriots jerseys twirled Mardi Gras beads hung around their necks.

''People think of Boston teams as Cinderella teams, or teams that come up just a little bit short,'' said Adam Yas, a North Easton native who flew home from San Francisco to watch the game with his family. ''The hunger is what keeps us going.''

In the first half, Yas rotated a video camera around the room as if to capture a moment in history. But with the Patriots holding on to a 17-10 lead late in the game, Yas was not ready to declare victory.

''We can feel it, it's so close. We can taste it,'' said Yas, 26. ''But we've been able to taste a lot of things in Patriots history, only to have it ripped from our mouths.''

As a toddler, Yas would play with action figures under a sleeping bag when he accompanied his parents to home games. But he got religion as he grew up.

''All of a sudden in '85, I poke my head out of the sleeping bag - I was awakened,'' said Yas, who wore a Tom Brady jersey, His mother wore Drew Bledsoe's No. 11.

Once the game ended, some fans made a pilgrimage to the gates of Foxborough Stadium, a mile away from the Funway Cafe, to celebrate at the Patriots' former home (this season was the team's last there). But Foxborough police quickly dispersed them.

A crowd of several thousand also gathered on the campus of the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, lighting several small fires. Police made one arrest for drunk and disorderly conduct, but there were no serious injuries and no property damage. And at Northeastern University, a crowd of at least 3,000 flipped over a parked sedan, igniting a small fire in it. On Hemenway Street, people threw cake out of a fourth-floor window - which intoxicated fans promptly devoured.

Police across the region appeared to adopt a tolerant attitude toward long-suffering fans who are a little out of practice when it comes to celebrating a championship.

Tamela Roche, a realtor from Philadelphia who watched the game at the Allston Sports Depot, said it might take local fans some time to fully grasp the Patriots' victory.

''It's going to take New England a week to realize you won because you guys have been burnt so many times.''

Douglas Belkin, Michael Rosenwald, and Anand Vaishnav of the Globe Staff, and correspondents Jenny Jiang and Jason Trenkel contributed to this report.