OK, OK. I know that the New England Patriots are installed as double-digit underdogs in the Super Bowl. I've heard that dirge played before. Tatupu, bless him,
thinks Pats can winI am a New England native who suffered through the 1986 Patriots vs. Bears debacle.
I watched the game on a big-screen TV at a Waikiki restaurant. The arm that was supporting my head during the second half finally slipped off the table when the stein-wielding guy next to me chortled with glee, "Boy, I'm sure glad I'm not a Patriots fan today."
The Patriots have been my team since they were the Boston Patriots in the 1960s and they played their home games at any of three sites, depending upon availability: Fenway Park, Boston College's Alumni Field or Harvard Stadium.
In preseason, I would pedal my bike the five miles from my then-residence in Tewksbury, Mass., to the Pats' training camp at Phillips Academy in Andover, Mass., and watch Kentucky's legendary Vito "Babe" Parilli call signals in practice with the likes of Gino Cappelletti, Joe Bellino, and Jim Nance.
The players would sometimes take a breather and plop right down next to you on the grass. None of them felt too important to chat, sign an autograph, talk about a game. They weren't necessarily making more money than the people watching them anyway.
It was long before the American Football League melted into the National Football League, TV took over and pro football stars became gods of ridiculous proportion.
MY neighbors didn't get too worked up in 1963 when the Pats won the AFL Eastern Division title with a 7-6-1 record under head coach Mike Holovak.
But I know New Englanders did care a lot when Raymond Berry took the Pats to the 1985 AFC title. That was the year former Punahou star fullback Mosi Tatupu got his only trip to the biggest sports show on the planet.
He still lives in Plainville, Mass., a hamlet that borders Foxboro, with wife, Linnea (Garcia), a former Radford High track standout, and his two children who have their father's and mother's first names.
Tatupu retired in 1992, after 14 NFL seasons, regretting deeply that he never got another shot at the big one.
So, on Sunday night, in a Foxboro night spot with several of the celebrating 1997 AFC Champions, Tatupu sat down with fellow Samoan-American and former Pac-Five star Pio Sagapolutele and imparted what he called, "some Hawaiiana."
Sagapolutele, who graduated from Maryknoll in 1987, had done a superb job at defensive tackle against Jacksonville.
"I told him, 'Hey, brother, you've got one shot now and you don't know if you'll go back.Don't let this one slip. You already got the conference ring, but you don't want the conference ring. You want the Super Bowl winner's ring."
TATUPU said Sagapolutele took the counseling pretty well. "But not because he looks up to me," said the 6-foot Tatupu. "I look up to him - he's 6-foot-6."
Few people know the NFL as well as a guy who played in it for 14 seasons and so I really want to trust Tatupu's view of things. He thinks the Pats can win Super Bowl XXXI.
Tatupu contends that Green Bay is not unbeatable and others have proved that already.
Ok, Mosi, we're in this together.
Oh, and, by the way, there's one thing you didn't mention.
I think it might help that New England can go into this Super Bowl with a logo of a Patriot who looks sober.
Ever take a close look at the old logo of the guy crouched to center the ball?
Whoever drew those eyes made him look like he'd been on an all-night bender.