By PHILIP MARCELO
(CAMBRIDGE, Mass., AP) — The prospect of digging out from the second major workday snowstorm in a week couldn’t stop Patriots fans in New England from basking in the glow of their beloved football team’s fourth Super Bowl championship.
Todd Penney, of Coventry, Connecticut, was still recovering from a heady night of celebrating as he prepared for work Monday as a town engineer.
“My voice is very hoarse from screaming at the TV. I was all in last night,” he said. “It will be a lot more fun for me to snowblow this morning after the Patriots’ win, than if they would have lost, that’s for sure.”
In Boston, where schools were closed but subways were running, Mayor Marty Walsh announced a championship parade would kick off at 11 a.m. Tuesday at the Prudential Center skyscraper downtown and wind its way to City Hall.
But there won’t be the traditional post-parade rally at City Hall as the city continues to clear more than 3 feet of accumulated snow and temperatures are expected to be bitterly cold Tuesday.
“We’ll make sure the duck boats get through the snow,” Walsh promised, referring to the brightly-colored, World War II-era amphibious vehicles that are a staple of championship parades in Boston. “We’ll probably have plows in front of them, behind them, beside then, next to them, under them.”
The team was expected to land in Boston on Monday night following their 28-24 victory over the defending champion Seattle Seahawks in Glendale, Arizona.
Patriots fans in the thick of Monday’s snowstorm recounted tense moments from their team’s rollercoaster victory.
“It was an exciting game, a nail-biter to the end. You don’t get to see games like that very often,” said George Vemis, as he cleared the sidewalk in front of his variety store in Whitman, south of Boston.
Cheryl Happeny, a business analyst from Whitman, said the victory was especially satisfying because so many people outside of New England have been calling the team cheaters since the “Deflategate” scandal erupted.
“It was a sweet victory,” she said. “I don’t think it will quiet the critics. I’m waiting for it to heat up again. Everyone hates the Patriots because we’re breaking so many records. …We’re like the Yankees of the NFL.”
At the Modell’s Sporting Goods in Cambridge, devoted fans trickled in Monday morning as the snow fell in thick fluffy clumps, grabbing commemorative T-shirts and hats by the armful.
“It’s an early Valentine’s gift. I’m treating,” said Karen Rudgis, of Cambridge, who was buying shirts for her husband and two grown children.
Mike Kelley, who works next door at Staples, was buying T-shirts and hats for his daughter, brother-in-law and himself.
“It’s an expensive day today,” he said. “I’ve already spent $100, and I’m already planning to spend $100 more.”
Modell’s employees said the biggest sellers so far were the white Super Bowl champion baseball caps the team wore Sunday for the locker room celebration. Wine glasses commemorating the victory also were selling surprisingly well, they said.
“It’d be a lot different if there wasn’t a blizzard right now. Later tonight, I would think, it would get busy,” said Jennifer Walcott, who had been among a number of staffers brought in from the store’s Hamden, Connecticut, location to help open up the Cambridge store promptly at 6 a.m. Monday.
Southern New England was blanketed with nearly of foot of fresh snow that started early Monday morning and was expected to last most of the day, making both ends of the workday commute treacherous. That came on top of nearly 3 feet of snow that fell in some parts of the region during the past week.
From Boston to western Massachusetts, police reported that Patriots fans celebrated raucously but without mayhem late Sunday into Monday.
Crowds of mostly college-aged fans in Boston streamed into the streets outside the bars by Fenway Park and the city’s famous Common.
They screamed and chanted but remained mostly orderly. Boston police said there were no arrests. “Way to make your team & city proud,” the department tweeted.
___
Associated Press writers Mark Pratt and Steve LeBlanc in Boston, Denise Lavoie in Whitman, Mass., Pat Eaton-Robb in Coventry, Conn. and Steve Singer in Hartford, Conn., contributed to this report.
Todd Penney, of Coventry, Connecticut, was still recovering from a heady night of celebrating as he prepared for work Monday as a town engineer.
“My voice is very hoarse from screaming at the TV. I was all in last night,” he said. “It will be a lot more fun for me to snowblow this morning after the Patriots’ win, than if they would have lost, that’s for sure.”
In Boston, where schools were closed but subways were running, Mayor Marty Walsh announced a championship parade would kick off at 11 a.m. Tuesday at the Prudential Center skyscraper downtown and wind its way to City Hall.
But there won’t be the traditional post-parade rally at City Hall as the city continues to clear more than 3 feet of accumulated snow and temperatures are expected to be bitterly cold Tuesday.
“We’ll make sure the duck boats get through the snow,” Walsh promised, referring to the brightly-colored, World War II-era amphibious vehicles that are a staple of championship parades in Boston. “We’ll probably have plows in front of them, behind them, beside then, next to them, under them.”
The team was expected to land in Boston on Monday night following their 28-24 victory over the defending champion Seattle Seahawks in Glendale, Arizona.
Patriots fans in the thick of Monday’s snowstorm recounted tense moments from their team’s rollercoaster victory.
“It was an exciting game, a nail-biter to the end. You don’t get to see games like that very often,” said George Vemis, as he cleared the sidewalk in front of his variety store in Whitman, south of Boston.
Cheryl Happeny, a business analyst from Whitman, said the victory was especially satisfying because so many people outside of New England have been calling the team cheaters since the “Deflategate” scandal erupted.
“It was a sweet victory,” she said. “I don’t think it will quiet the critics. I’m waiting for it to heat up again. Everyone hates the Patriots because we’re breaking so many records. …We’re like the Yankees of the NFL.”
At the Modell’s Sporting Goods in Cambridge, devoted fans trickled in Monday morning as the snow fell in thick fluffy clumps, grabbing commemorative T-shirts and hats by the armful.
“It’s an early Valentine’s gift. I’m treating,” said Karen Rudgis, of Cambridge, who was buying shirts for her husband and two grown children.
Mike Kelley, who works next door at Staples, was buying T-shirts and hats for his daughter, brother-in-law and himself.
“It’s an expensive day today,” he said. “I’ve already spent $100, and I’m already planning to spend $100 more.”
Modell’s employees said the biggest sellers so far were the white Super Bowl champion baseball caps the team wore Sunday for the locker room celebration. Wine glasses commemorating the victory also were selling surprisingly well, they said.
“It’d be a lot different if there wasn’t a blizzard right now. Later tonight, I would think, it would get busy,” said Jennifer Walcott, who had been among a number of staffers brought in from the store’s Hamden, Connecticut, location to help open up the Cambridge store promptly at 6 a.m. Monday.
Southern New England was blanketed with nearly of foot of fresh snow that started early Monday morning and was expected to last most of the day, making both ends of the workday commute treacherous. That came on top of nearly 3 feet of snow that fell in some parts of the region during the past week.
From Boston to western Massachusetts, police reported that Patriots fans celebrated raucously but without mayhem late Sunday into Monday.
Crowds of mostly college-aged fans in Boston streamed into the streets outside the bars by Fenway Park and the city’s famous Common.
They screamed and chanted but remained mostly orderly. Boston police said there were no arrests. “Way to make your team & city proud,” the department tweeted.
___
Associated Press writers Mark Pratt and Steve LeBlanc in Boston, Denise Lavoie in Whitman, Mass., Pat Eaton-Robb in Coventry, Conn. and Steve Singer in Hartford, Conn., contributed to this report.
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