Super Bowl LX is on the horizon, and things feel too familiar for New England Patriots fans as we roll into our favorite kind of Sunday. From a young quarterback who has taken charge and given us years of great football to look forward to alongside a coach that is getting his players to buy in, to fans getting that cocky kind of swagger again after a spell of suckery, and analysts churning out the most eye roll-worthy criticism of a team that is just vibing on friendship all the way to Santa Clara to square off against the Seattle Seahawks. The world genuinely hates the Patriots again, and that – more than anything – is a sign that we are so back.
In agreement of those sentiments is all-star comedian and Boston sports super fan, Sam Jay. As someone who has followed her teams from hell to the hilltop, not to mention roasted the GOAT Tom Brady and rang the bell as an honorary “Keeper of the Light” at Gillette Stadium in 2024, the Dorchester native has curated quite a passionate and keen eye for what makes a team worthy of glory. Right now, as Drake Maye and the Patriots prepare to add trophy #7 to the case, she’s feeling pretty good about what’s to come of the big game, and what she’s seen up to this point in the season. For any New England fan, that’s not a hard stance to support, especially considering this most recent Cinderella story is only a few years removed from arguably the most dominant dynasty in sports history. We’ve seen this before. We know how it generally goes. It’s looking pretty good.
Yes, Maye has shown up as a true leader of the team (the real MVP in our hearts, dammit) alongside veterans like Stefon Diggs, and those closer to his age range like Will “Big Country” Campbell, Milton Williams, and Christian Gonzalez, while the newest Coach of The Year Mike Vrabel has brought the energy and resilience of those early 2000s Super Bowl powerhouses he was a part of into the new era of Patriots football with a vengeance. There’s no secret that this team is special as they trudge oh so close to the peak of greatness once again, fueled by vibes, Ann Michael Maye’s All-Pro baking skills, and a true love of the game – but what exactly has made this team so special and fun to watch? Well, Jay has a few ideas, so we got on the horn to chat with her a little bit about it, just to help us get juiced the fuck up for the big Bad Bunny concert on Sunday night.
We all we got. We all we need. Go Patriots. Check out the chat below.
Jason Greenough: In general, how are we feeling about this game, Sam?
Sam Jay: Man, I know people say you shouldn’t, but I feel good. I really do. I feel like we’re the right amount of underdog right now. If you’re from Boston, you feel me. This is where we like to be. We’re hated, people don’t like us again – this is where we thrive, in this energy. They didn’t let Belichick in the joint, and they didn’t let Kraft in the joint. You know what I mean? It’s like ‘Alright, cool. Let’s line it up.’
We’re so back. Nobody likes us, I keep seeing memes and such about how much people hate us, and it’s exactly what we want.
Did you think, at the start of the season, that the Patriots would, or even had a chance, to wind up in the Super Bowl?
I knew pretty early on that we were going to have a good season. It just felt better. The Super Bowl, though? Nah. But early on, I knew we weren’t going to have a bum season. From Stefon Diggs’ speech where he said ‘I like us,’ to the harmony and energy they’re in, you can feel it. When I went to the game last season when I rang the bell, it felt off. We stunk. I remember watching the guys run out of the tunnel, and they just didn’t have that energy. We aren’t used to that type of energy for any of our sports. We like having guys who are fired the fuck up to play. Hockey, Baseball, Basketball, Football. All of it. Because we’re a sports city, and we will turn the city over if you play hard.
You don’t even have to win all the time, but if you put it on the floor for Boston, you could slap women down in the street, and we wouldn’t even care. It’s just ‘That’s our guy!’
When I was growing up, we used to lose everything all the time. We went for a long period of time of just losing bad. Sometimes, hockey was our only haven, but other than that, it was dismal. The Red Sox were cursed, so the whole city was cursed. The Patriots stunk a lot, the Celtics stunk. There was a time where if I saw you wearing a jersey from our teams, I knew you had to be from Boston, because nobody else outside of our city was wearing our shit until we started winning. In saying that, I specifically mean black people. White people had their players like Larry Bird, and that’s going to be a white guy’s jersey no matter what. White folks have a particular affinity and relationship with the city, but black people did not wear any Boston gear at all, unless you were from the city.
Who was your favorite player to watch this season? Why?
It’s been great watching Stefon Diggs light it up this season. Getting to see his, like, third coming. He just looks happy. Not even just for playing as well as he has, but he just looks happy with where he is with this organization, and it seems like the good in him is being cultivated. It’s dope to see Cardi B bringing the energy with him. We got some of those vibes in here, which is nice because Boston usually gets the vanilla vibes because it is so white aligned, but Cardi was shaking that up. I knew once she started popping out, we were going to the Super Bowl. It was too lit. We’ve been good for a long time now, as a sports city, but it’s starting to get litty now with Cardi at the Patriots games, Gucci Mane sitting courtside with the Celtics. It’s getting lit as hell here now.
It’s like that Dallas Cowboys effect, you know? There is a generation that grew up with the Patriots being a dynasty, so even if you’re not from the city, you’re going to attach yourself to that winning team. It’s like how I love the Celtics, but I still fucked with Kobe and the Lakers. It wasn’t my city, but I still felt like I was watching the best thing to ever happen, just like how people watch LeBron. I can’t not be a fan of that.
I swear, when the Patriots started winning, everyone else had to start winning. It changed the temperature of sports in the city. It set a new standard where we didn’t just lose. It’s almost addictive for each team to succeed at the same time at that point. Especially in a city that has this amount of history behind it. Boston sports history is so long, and strong, and embedded into the beginning of sports in this country, so when that’s the legacy that every team is playing with, you don’t want to be the team that sucks.
In terms of the Patriots this season, though, it was really crucial to bring in some great receivers like Diggs, who could give Drake Maye the confidence to throw the ball and know that someone is going to be out there to catch that motherfucker. It has completely changed the direction of the team.
What are some of your Super Bowl must-haves? Any rituals or mandatory eats in the spread?
I try to only watch with Patriots fans. That’s my one thing. If I’m surrounded by people on Super Bowl Sunday, they have to be rocking with my team. I don’t want to be in a room with the opposition. What fun is that? So we can be in a mixed room like that, just arguing with everybody? I need people who understand that we’re all in that room for the same cause. I don’t want any other energy. It also helps that if anything bad happens, then it’s not my fault. But if I’m in mixed company, then it’s my fault by bringing bad energy onto the team because I shouldn’t have been with those people.
Like when we played Atlanta a few years ago, it was me in a room full of people who were rooting for Atlanta. They were in my house, eating my food. Until that game changed, it was the most devastating time of my life.
Any final predictions of how the game will turn out?
Nope. I believe that’s bad luck.