Fans from New England and neighboring New York and New Jersey gathered with friends and family in homes, bars and restaurants across Western Massachusetts to cheer on their hometown hopefuls in Sunday's Super Bowl XLVI between the New England Patriots and the New York Giants
AMHERST - Fixed in front of the game, fans from New England and neighboring New York and New Jersey gathered with friends and family in homes, bars and restaurants across Western Massachusetts to cheer on their hometown hopefuls in Sunday's Super Bowl XLVI between the New England Patriots and the New York Giants.
Twenty-nine years ago, Mark and Sandy Parent invited friends and family to their first Super Bowl party, and stipulated a single rule.
“You could only bring food you’d find at a ballgame,” said Mark Parent, 63 of Amherst.
In the nearly 30 years since the Parents have held their party every year, and the guest list has expanded. Soon enough the party outgrew their home, and six years ago they moved the annual tradition to the Amherst Brewing Company, where they’ve held it ever since.
This year a new face graced the party, albeit a familiar one for Western Massachusetts’ sports-minded faithful in UMass Men’s Basketball coach Derek Kellogg.
While Kellogg called his football schooling lacking, he offered one unlikely connection he had to the night’s big game.
2/5/12 Amherst - Staff photo by Michael Beswick - Vincent Gillespie (left) a Pats fan and friend Doug Wight, a Giants fan, take in the Superbowl at Rafters in Amherst Sunday night.While never on Kellogg’s roster, that didn’t mean breakout Giants’ wide receiver and former UMass Minuteman Victor Cruz’s name never crossed the basketball coach’s desk.
“I knew Victor a little bit from his time playing AAU basketball in New Jersey,” said Kellogg.
For some, like Vincent Gillespie, 50 of Greenfield, the wounds remained raw heading into Sunday's rematch after New York upset New England in Super Bowl XLII four years ago. Others, like Westfield, N.J. native Doug Wight, weren't soon to let the 2008 victory be forgotten.
"If its not the Jets, it's the Giants. If it's not the Giants, it's the Jets," Wight lightheartedly heckled Gillespie, rehashing New England's past post-season defeats, one to the Giants after a 16-0 undefeated season, and the other to the Jets in the AFC Championship Game in 2011.
2/5/12 Amherst - Staff photo by Michael Beswick - Carson Mills and friends, UMASS seniors, enjoy the Superbowl at Rafters in Amherst Sunday night.Initially hesitant to place a small wager on the game but quickly baited by Wight's braggadocio, in what Gillespie called a gesture to Patriots' nation agreed to the bet in the quiet barroom at the Hangar Pub & Grill on University Drive, within eyesight of the University of Massachusetts campus.
Elsewhere in the barroom Carson Mills, a 22-year-old UMass senior, and his five roommates, also students and all fans of the Patriots, crowded around a mounted TV.
“We were all thinking bars tonight, and that this is a good sports bar, but now we might be heading back to the living room,” Mills said, pointing over his shoulder a mostly empty billiards room and relatively asocial dining room.
Minutes away 40 UMass upperclassmen crowded around a TV of their own.
2/5/12 Amherst - Staff photo by Michael Beswick - A group of UMASS students feast on great BBQ while watching the Superbowl together.“Playoffs you go to the bar. The Super Bowl is something that’s very home-based,” said UMass junior Stewart Rodegast, from Martha’s Vineyard.
“It’s all our friends and we’ve got more food than we know what to do with. We’re just chilling,” said UMass senior Robert Brown, also of Martha’s Vineyard, who had invited friends and friends of friends to his house to watch the game.
And in the hot cramped living room, windows fogging as students jockeyed for position on the couch, the floor, behind the couch, and on the floor between the couch and the coffee table, the walls and floor shook as all took to their feet when Tom Brady connected with Danny Woodhead for a 4-yeard touchdown pass to take New England’s first lead of the game with 8 seconds remaining in the half.