Ahead of the Super Bowl, revisit the Patriots’ appearances in Concord

As the New England Patriots prepare to take on the Seattle Seahawks in football’s most anticipated face-off, let’s revisit some of the team’s appearances to the New Hampshire capital.

In 2015, at the height of deflategate, Patriots defensive lineman Zach Moore and cheerleaders LisaMarie Ianuzzi and Bridget Martin made an appearance at the Abbott-Downing School, where senior citizens and elementary school-aged children were gathered for an event promoting physical activity.

Monitor reporter Ray Duckler went hunting that day for the “elephant in the room” and found scant criticism for the mythic quarterback at the center of the controversy, Tom Brady. The swirling allegations hardly mattered to the children.

“The children shrieked when [former Patriots center Pete] Brock told them they would receive a team photo and team wristbands,” Duckler wrote. “And later, a select few got to ask Moore questions. […] Nothing about PSIs, Tom Brady, pressure gauges or four-game suspensions. Not on this day.”

In January of 2017, former Pats linebacker Tedy Bruschi autographed footballs and headshots for school children during the Harlem Wizards basketball fundraiser at Bishop Brady High School.

Bruschi acted as the team’s honorary coach, raising money for the American Stroke Association through his Massachusetts-based nonprofit, Tedy’s Team.

Later that year, it was team owner Robert Kraft’s turn to entertain a crowd in Concord.

The New Hampshire Lottery Commission was entering the sixth year of its lucrative partnership with the Patriots, which had yielded more than $26 million in scratch ticket sales and $7 million for state education programs the previous year.

Kraft joined then-Gov. Chris Sununu and Charlie McIntyre, executive director of the Lottery Commission, on the steps of the State House to launch the 2017 Patriots scratch ticket, “lobbing foam footballs […] and smiling broadly,” as Monitor reporter Ethan DeWitt observed.

Sununu received the day’s most coveted prize: a signed jersey from Brady.

“In the spirit of [doing] things for all the citizens of New Hampshire, we know you like to be the best at everything,” Kraft said. “So I wanted to give a gift to the governor for all the people, and this is from the GOAT himself.”

Super Bowl LX begins at 6:30 p.m. on Sunday, Feb. 8.

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