Wisconsin Patriots fans relish opportunity to see their team up close in Green Bay
GREEN BAY – Watching New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick stalk across Clarke Hinkle Field didn't draw the interest of most Green Bay Packers fans, but for a handful of Wisconsin-based Patriots fans, Wednesday was a good day.
Belichick is in town with his team to play a preseason game against the Packers at 7 p.m. Saturday at Lambeau Field.
The teams held a joint practice Wednesday and are scheduled to do so again at 10:30 a.m. Thursday.
While the Packers warmed up on Ray Nitschke Field on the east side of the Don Hutson Center, the Patriots went through their reps on Clark Hinkle Field on the west side of the Hutson Center and adjacent to South Oneida Street. A handful of Patriots and Packers fans lined the fence along the sidewalk, bringing back memories of when Railbirds spilled into the street watching Packers practices. Ray Nitschke Field, complete with bleachers, was built to end the potentially dangerous tradition.
Brad Christenson of Appleton happily stood by as Patriot players crossed the street from the Lambeau Field parking lot to Hinkle Field, mostly ignoring requests for photographs. Even having three boisterous kids in tow did not crimp his mood. In fact, his oldest son was one of the few fans to cage an autograph from a passing player.
"Since I'm from Wisconsin, I don't get to see (the Patriots) that often," Christenson said. "It's nice to get to see them up close and personal."
How does a Wisconsin resident become a fan of a team from New England? It's not unlike the tales many Packers fans relate.
His parents would watch the Packers once in a while, but weren't big sports fans. He decided, when he was 10, he would become the fan of the worst team in the AFC at the end of that season, which proved to be the Patriots. It turned out a good choice for him and all the other Wisconsin Patriots fans, given the success the aforementioned Belichick and a quarterback named Tom Brady would eventually have, including six Super Bowl victories.
Not that he's opposed to the Packers. All three of his kids are on the Packers' season-ticket waiting list, and at least one, his daughter, is a declared green-and-gold fan.
Christenson has tickets for the game Saturday, as does Jason Lee of Marshfield, who will be sitting behind the New England bench.
Lee, who's father definitely is a Packers fan, got a blanket with NFL logos on it from his grandmother when he was about 7 years old. It included the original Patriots logo of a Minuteman hiking a football. He was sold. "It was like having a super hero on your helmet," he said.
Like Christenson, he became a Patriots fan when they where going through their own years in the wilderness, a circumstance Packers fans can relate to. In fact, both teams were next in a Super Bowl in 1997 against each other. The Packers won 35-21, but it was a highlight for the long-suffering fans of both teams. Patriots fans had to wait only five more years before it got much better for them. (See Tom Brady above.)
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"I went through years of ridicule, then everything turned. It's been great," Lee said.
The last time he saw the Patriots in Green Bay, he was not quite a teenager. He traveled to Foxborough, Mass., when Gillette Stadium was new, but the Patriots were out of town, so he went to a local Target to see what it was like to be in a store with no Packers gear.
His father, who is now 82, would buy Lee Patriots gear when he traveled, and Saturday he'll be sitting with him behind the Patriots bench.
Carl Caflisch, originally of Brillion but now living in Howard, chose the Patriots out of a degree of defiance. "I was picked on a lot and I wanted my own team to be different than everybody," he said.
But once he was in, he was all in. Any time the Patriots come to town, he gets tickets, sometimes even by accident. Or luck. Last season he signed up for the Brown County ticket lottery, in which the Packers draw names out of a hat for individual games during the season. Caflisch got picked and was randomly assigned last year's Patriots game in October, which the Packers won 27-24.
In fact, for those keeping track, the Packers lead the regular-season series 7-6.
Caflisch traveled to Foxborough when Gillette Stadium was new, before the team built Patriot Place, which was the inspiration for the Packers' Titletown development. He'd like to get back there and see how they compare.
He thinks Belichick is a good coach and is curious to see whether quarterback Mac Jones will develop into a worthy successor to Brady, a sentiment Packers fans also can appreciate, given their Jordan Love succeeding Aaron Rodgers situation.
"Last year was brutal," Caflisch said.
Matthew Konecny of Lake Geneva was sold on the Patriots in the 1997 Super Bowl against the Packers. His parents were Bears fans, but they rooted for the Packers. He decided to go the other way.
"They had Drew Bledsoe, and I loved those jerseys," he said.
He's a Belichick fan as well. "It's a no B.S. world," he said of the coach's approach to, well, everything.
As to being a Patriots fan in Wisconsin, he understands how it goes.
"My family is all over there," he said, motioning toward Nitschke Field, where the Packers were warming up.
Contact Richard Ryman at rryman@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter at @RichRymanPG, on Instagram at @rrymanPG or on Facebook at www.facebook.com/RichardRymanPG/.
This article originally appeared on Green Bay Press-Gazette: Wisconsin Patriots fans relish opportunity to see their team up close
