Boston.com / Sports / Bruins

Local fans were most vocal fans

By Joanna Weiss, Globe Staff, 2/4/2002

EW ORLEANS - By the first touchdown, when red, white, and blue confetti sprayed into the air and New Englanders started shaking their hips, it was clear that the Patriots fans had won the day.

Whatever happened on the field - and that couldn't have turned out better - ticket-holders from New England knew from the start they wouldn't be outshouted, outchanted, outpainted, outgarbed, or shamed into submission by a 14-point spread. Actually, the pointspread probably helped. There's nothing like a little anger to get you charged up. The result: Rams fans, at times, were loud; Patriots fans were deafening.

And why not? Here they were, in a Super Bowl no one thought they'd reached, and the Boston Pops had played ''The Stars and Stripes Forever'' on the 50-yard line as players warmed up on the sidelines. Official Super Bowl paraphernalia was printed in red, white, and blue.

The fans all had a common theme.

''It's destiny,'' said Chris Clermont, 37, a salesman from Franklin, Mass., who started a ''Go Pats'' chant on a Superdome escalator.

''It's destiny,'' said Brad Comjean, 42, an electrician from Pepperell, as he pointed to his official Super Bowl jacket with red, white, and blue patches.

''You know, it's destiny,'' said Wayne Furtado of New Bedford, a Patriots season ticket-holder who was yelling ''Vince Lombaaaaaaahdy Tropheeee'' outside the upper decks.

In a stadium full of Patriots nuts, Furtado was chief cashew, his face half-blue, half-red, his body covered in Patriots socks, pajama pants, boxer shorts (supposedly over and under the pajamas). He also wore a Patriots jersey, earrings, watch, and Mardi Gras beads, and a hard hat covered with Patriots stickers.

He had come to New Orleans for the 1997 Super Bowl but couldn't get tickets. It's OK, he reasoned yesterday. That time, New England fans were outcheered by the Cheeseheads, and the Patriots barely made a dent against Green Bay.

''The football gods were waiting for the real game,'' Furtado said. ''This is our time. Silence of the Rams today. Silence of the Rams.''

He was right about the fans, at least. Yes, there were hordes of Rams supporters in the Superdome, and some had a little face paint on, but they weren't a presence. Maybe it was the hype that the Rams would dominate from the start.

''There ain't no reason to create no ruckus before the scene,'' said John Marshall, 26, a tall guy in a Kurt Warner jersey, his hair gelled in a confident cowlick. ''I've got to save the voice.''

Maybe it's regional character.

''That's because we're from the Midwest - calm, cool,'' said Tom Radetic, 43, of Cape Girardeau, Mo.

Whatever it was, some Rams fans walked through the Superdome so serious and straightlaced that you wondered whether they were undercover cops.

No, the Rams had nothing close to Piero Procopio, 18, and his nephew, Joe Caponigro, 15, who would have been at the Italian-American Club in Lynn if Joe's dad hadn't scored tickets to the game. Now, Joe was the envy of Swampscott High School, and he and his uncle were going to make sure New Orleans noted their arrival.

They had to get up at 3:30 a.m. yesterday to catch their flight. They didn't care. They screamed, ''Go Pats,'' during the flight. More than a few people shot them dirty looks, and someone threw an empty Coke can at them as they stepped off the plane. They didn't care.

They made their way to the stadium, stopping to have ''Go Pats'' painted on their chests. Joe had ''Slam the Rams'' painted on his back. They were shivering, shirtless on a chilly, damp New Orleans afternoon. They didn't care.

Rams fans eyed them skeptically, but Patriots fans cheered them in the hallways and as they made the long climb up the concrete steps to their seats. ''We're here,'' one woman in a Patriots shirt muttered as they passed.

Finally, they were there. It was the nose-bleed section. They didn't care.

Just being at the game, feeling the vibe, was good enough. And there were wide reports of people waking up Sunday morning with a good feeling about the game.

Not to mention positive omens. For instance, Colleen Dwyer of Raynham always watches Patriots games with a stuffed black gorilla. A good luck gorilla. She couldn't bring it to New Orleans. But when she stepped into a merchandise store, she found a small, stuffed Patriots gorilla.

''The first thing in the case,'' she said, amazed.

''It's fate,'' said her sister-in-law, Diane Ostrander of Halifax.

Ostrander brought along a good-luck angel pin. Her husband, Daryl, brought his good-luck amethyst crystal. He found it in Wrentham; it's been in his pocket for every Patriots game this season. It was safely stashed in a cigarette box inside his shirt pocket.

So they stood there, covered in luck, chanting ''Go Pats'' in the Superdome and trading high-fives with passing fans. There were ''Go Pats'' chants all over the stadium, and pockets of New Englanders, standing together, looking with pity at the unsmiling St. Louis crowd.

''I think they're a little bit nervous,'' said Keith Ryan, 42, a truck driver from Brockton. ''I think the team is overconfident. I hope they think we're patsies.''

''No respect,'' agreed Chris Murphy, 29, a power equipment store manager from Whitman wearing a Patriots bandana.

''We're gonna win it,'' said Jon James, 45, who owns a painting company in Auburn, Maine, and worked hard to get to New Orleans. He drove through a snowstorm to catch a flight from Manchester, N.H. He made his way through the Pittsburgh airport wearing a Patriots jacket.

It was tough. But this is New England, and the fans know what they need to do to show their love.

They pumped their fists and tossed confetti. They gave the Pops a standing ovation. They screamed when Tom Brady ran onto the field for warmups, an hour and a half before kickoff.

And you can bet that in the end, after the Patriots had won and confetti was dropping on the field, the fans - the ones who never doubted - were staying, and standing, and cheering themselves hoarser than any overconfident Rams fan could have imagined.