We Are All Patriots

We all know the story that broke a few nights ago about the death of Osama Bin Laden in Pakistan. It has made people like myself, a college student, think about where I was on the day of September 11^th, 2001. I was a fourth grader sitting in my classroom and very randomly kids were leaving left and right and nobody in the class knew why. I left that afternoon and had my mother tell me about the bombing of the Twin Towers. I am fortunate enough not to know a relative who died that infamous day, but it’s a tough subject for everybody to talk about.

But, sports is one of the things that brings fans of any team together whether you root for the Patriots, the Jets, or even the Colts as we saw Sunday night during the Mets-Phillies game. As I was reminiscing the events of 9/11 as a New Yorker, I thought about the ten year anniversary of the 2001 New England Patriots.

Even though most people despise the Patriots today, ten years ago, they were considered America’s team. Drew Bledsoe gets hurt on the first game since the attacks against New York, but then Tom Brady takes over and the rest is history.

Let’s take a look back at that Super Bowl for a second. The halftime performance in New Orleans was U2 with a 200 foot sign of all the victims on that dreadful day. But, the nation got to unite behind a 14 point underdog who defeated the Greatest Show on Turf on a last second field goal by Adam Vinatieri 20-17.

On that day and to this day forward, we are all proud to be Patriots of this great country! This is why football has to be played on September 11^th this year. Even though New England would not play till the 12^th, we would have to remember the terrible events that took place ten years ago.

I am proud to be a New England Patriots’ fan, but more importantly, I’m proud to be a Patriot of this great nation!