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Super Bowl XXXVI was an event that I'll never forget. It was February 3, 2002 and my Home Team- The Patriots were 14 point underdogs against the hyped 'Greatest Show on Turf'. There was absolutely little to NO respect for the Patriots at the time. The National Media had already anointed the St. Louis Rams with Kurt Warner and his flashy, high powered offense the Super Bowl Champs.
Well, the Patriots were no strangers to adversity as they experienced a very similar attitude amongst the national media in preparation for that season's AFC Championship game vs. the Steelers. I remember prior to the actual game having taken place that there was a lot of infighting among the Steelers players. The players were consumed with making arrangements and securing tickets for family and friends for their inevitable trip to the 'Ship. The media attention was on the Steelers and their drama all the way up to the start of the Big Playoff Game. Never getting swallowed up in the distractions, The Patriots would come out with their proverbial hard hats on and lunch pails in hand ready to report to work as a cohesive team unit under the direction of the Football Genius of Head Coach- Bill Belichick. And yes, The Steelers were eventually put out of their misery 24-17.
Which brings me back to The Super Bowl Game. I recall watching the TV as the St. Louis Rams were being introduced one by one, as the Individual Super Stars that many of them were, to the 10's of thousands of Awe Struck and Adoring Fans at the Superdome. Afterall- This was to be their Glory, Their Victory, Their Crowning Achievement of The St. Louis Rams' Spectacular Football Season. Anyway, This is why the Game has to be played. Back to the Introduction of the teams. The Patriots would be next. And in Patriots fashion, Our team would be introduced and unsurprisingly the players would come out together as one… a team… the Team that could just Do IT!
I was watching the game at my friend Arnie's home with a ton of his family and some mutual friends. The room was filled with an electricity, the energy of optimism. It was one of the most exciting games that I've seen. It felt so good to see our Patriots bring home our first ever Super Bowl Championship.
As you can imagine, I was very happy to have done the art work for the pennant that you see at the beginning of this Blog post. You are looking at an uncut sheet of four Tom Brady Super Bowl XXXVI MVP pennants done for Wincraft, Inc. I had the pleasure of building a relationship with Craig Kunce, the Art Director at the time. Craig had set aside this uncut sheet of Tom Brady pennants for me so that I could have a one of a kind something to commemorate the historic moment for our New England Patriots. Thanks Craig! The Brady MVP pennant was to be a limited edition release of only 2002 to commemorate the year of that Super Bowl Game. My friend Arnie and I had bought 100 of them to sell outside of Gillette Stadium in September of the same year. In fact, I still have a few.
Anyway, Tom Brady would go onto win the AFC East Division 10 times winning 5 AFC Championship Games with 3 Super Bowl Championship Rings to show for it all. I can't wait to see what happens this year as we are poised for another good run at it.
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