FOXBOROUGH, Mass. Mary Pat Sheehan has lived in this community of 14,000 south of Boston her whole life, so she's used to the media circus that comes to town whenever the New England Patriots advance to the Super Bowl. "I can deal with the reporters taking up parking spaces downtown and cutting in line at the Dunkin' Donuts," she says. "I just wish they'd learn to clean up after themselves."
Downtown Foxborough, Massachusetts
Sheehan is referring to the practice by members of the national media to shorten the town's name to "Foxboro" in stories they file for print and electronic outlets, leaving the streets littered with cast-aside U's, G's and H's. "It's a matter of common courtesy, but the media big shots think they're too important to bother," she says.
Gillette Stadium
The cost of the clean-up is significant, straining the town's budget and forcing cutbacks in services such as the local anti-smoking officer, Earl "Bud" Dailey. "My job is to stand around downtown and yell at kids to stop smoking," Dailey says. "Due to budget cuts, I can only yell at half the kids, the others I just kinda scowl at."
"Hey--half of you kids stop smoking!"
National reporters say they are being discriminated against since local newspapers such as the Boston Globe and the Boston Herald also shorten the town's name, but Walter Endicott, assistant managing editor of the Globe, says the situation is more "nuanced" than that. "We encourage our readers to recycle the extra letters on our puzzle page," he says. "With a U, a G and an H, if you need a three letter word for 'wildebeest' you're two-thirds of the way there."
Wildebeest: "What's gnu?"
It's not just the extra letters, say concerned residents such as Marla Townsend, it's also the over-the-top figures of speech that are thrown around during the two-week interval between the conference championships and the Super Bowl. "I came out to get the paper one morning and there was a worn-out methaphor--'Brady is the Patriot's arm'--on my lawn. It was disgusting."
Townsend, Sheehan and others like them aren't just complaining, however, they're taking action. As the media buses roll out of the parking lot at Gillette Stadium today on their way to Logan Airport and flights to the Super Bowl in Glendale, Arizona, the women will be standing in silent protest along Route 1, holding signs to express their unhappiness. Their slogan: "U-G-H spells 'UGH'."
ATTN : SUPERBOWLERS!!! Since the NFL won"t let me come to you to sell my football cards at their "Experience", I am forced to have you come to me. FOR SALE: 30 YEAR OLD CARDS!!! Very Few Are Of 10-20 Years Of Age. There are only about 1,000 cards on inventory. 112 cards are priced at $20.00 each. The rest are only $10.00 each. This is no joke. Yeah, I got two Manning cards... Archie Manning!! These cards are not new , mint condition. I do consider them an excellent grade, though. I have had them in sleeves for the past 25 years, and have only decided to sell them since the game is here in AZ. I will be at the SE vacant lot at 6131 N. 27th Ave. (1/4 mile West of I-17, just North 1/2 mile of Bethany Home Rd., approx. 3/4 mile South of Glendale, intersection of Rose Ln. and 27th Ave.), which for you going to the "Experience" or game via I-17, it's on the way, on Thursday, Friday, & Saturday Jan. 31, Feb. 1, & Feb. 2, respectively between the times of 9a.m. and 2p.m. I will be there a little later on Feb. 2, but will only be out on gameday if from 10 a.m. till noon.
Con Chapman is a Boston-area writer. He is the author of "The Year of the Gerbil: How the Yankees Won (and the Red Sox Lost) the Greatest Pennant Race Ever," a history of the 1978 AL East pennant race, and a number of plays, including "Number One Hockey Mom," "Please, Pope," and "What Mickey Belle Isle Told You," a trilogy about hockey (JAC Publishing). His work is available on Amazon Shorts (at 49 cents a dowload), and he writes on sports for Flak Magazine.
