{"id":722579,"date":"2026-02-02T00:11:19","date_gmt":"2026-02-02T00:11:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/722579\/"},"modified":"2026-02-02T00:11:19","modified_gmt":"2026-02-02T00:11:19","slug":"patriots-send-off-rally-turns-into-surprise-trip-to-super-bowl-for-massachusetts-dad-son","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/722579\/","title":{"rendered":"Patriots send-off rally turns into surprise trip to Super Bowl for Massachusetts dad, son"},"content":{"rendered":"

A drive to Gillette Stadium for the Patriots\u2019 Super Bowl send-off rally turned into a surprise flight to Santa Clara for a Massachusetts dad and son.<\/p>\n

Aaron Tarver and his son, Duncan, have never been to a Super Bowl, but that will change after the father and son won two tickets to attend next Sunday\u2019s Patriots-Seahawks championship clash in California.<\/p>\n

\u201cI never thought I\u2019d be here, never thought in a million years,\u201d an excited Duncan Tarver told the Herald, moments after he and his dad learned they scored the pair of tickets as part of a Bud Light-sponsored special prize.<\/p>\n

\"AaronAaron Tarver, left, and his son, Duncan Tarver, right, of Dighton, are going to the Super Bowl after scoring a pair of tickets at the Patriots send-off rally at Gillette Stadium. (Lance Reynolds\/Boston Herald)<\/p>\n

The father and son drove to Foxboro from their home in Dighton early Sunday morning, arriving at a severely bitterly cold Gillette Stadium around 4 a.m., well before the send-off rally got underway in the late morning.<\/p>\n

New England hosted its first Super Bowl send-off rally in seven years, with well over 10,000 fans braving a blustery wind chill that plummeted below zero, making it feel as cold as -10. Fans who aren\u2019t flying out to Santa Clara took in their final chance to see Patriots players and coaches this season.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo way,\u201d Aaron Tarver, 56, told the Herald when asked whether he has been to a Super Bowl. These are thousands-of-dollar tickets, no way.\u201d<\/p>\n

The father highlighted how he and his son were the first fans to arrive at Patriot Place plaza, waiting about 30 minutes before other passionate fans started to file in. The first 300 ticketed fans who checked in at a Bud Light on-site activation entered to win either the two Super Bowl tickets or beer money.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe just stuck together because we didn\u2019t know what was going on,\u201d Aaron Tarver said. \u201cI was like, \u2018If there\u2019s 100, 200 of us, we\u2019re all best friends.\u2019 This was a team day.\u201d<\/p>\n

Duncan Tarver, 24, has been a Patriots fan his entire life, being born \u201cinto greatness\u201d at the start of the 2001 season. The first real season he remembers is 2007, when New England went 18-0 before dropping the Super Bowl to the Giants.<\/p>\n

Now? He\u2019s hoping the 17-3 Patriots can win their first Super Bowl of the Mike Vrabel-Drake Maye era, and he and his father will be there.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m just trying to be grateful for it all. It\u2019s incredible,\u201d Tarver said of the team\u2019s success. \u201cTalking about fandom, bias, I think we\u2019d be the best team every single year, but I would be lying if I said I thought that we\u2019d be going to the Super Bowl.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fans filled the lower bowl and the field for the send-off rally. Scores of Patriots alumni, including Super Bowl champions Matt Light, Dan Koppen, Patrick Chung and Robert Ninkovich, greeted them, sending advice to the current team and leading rally chants, \u201cWe all we got, we all we need.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Dropkick Murphys played a few songs, including their hit \u201cThe Boys Are Back,\u201d but they changed the lead verse to \u201cThe Pats Are Back.\u201d<\/p>\n

The loudest crowd roar came when head coach Mike Vrabel and a group of players took the stage.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery week we played here, it got better and better and better,\u201d Vrabel said of being at Gillette Stadium. \u201cA coach is only as good as his players, I promise you that. I know that for a fact. And a big part of our success is our players.\u201d<\/p>\n

The coach gave a special nod to his quarterback before passing the microphone to Maye.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou guys have been great all season,\u201d Maye told the cold but lively fans. \u201cMan, wouldn\u2019t be here without you guys. What a journey, and we still got work left to do. \u2026 Celebrate when we get back. Go Pats, baby.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Foxboro police and fire departments escorted a caravan of team buses to TF Green Airport in Warwick, Rhode Island, after festivities at Gillette came to a close. Fans lined the roads, waving them on for one final time.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery game, we were just like, \u2018This is it. We\u2019re coming to the end of the season,\u2019\u201d fan Kayla O\u2019Connor told the Herald, \u201cand every time, we were like \u2018They really are something, they really are a team.\u2019 They called it a family at some point, and it looks like it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s nothing like New England,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n

\"AA fan wears \u201cGo Pats\u201d bling and a face mask against the cold during Sunday\u2019s rally. (Nancy Lane\/Boston Herald)
\n\"PatriotsPatriots including Stefon Diggs, Mack Hollins, Drake Maye, Garrett Bradbury and Hunter Henry wave to fans at Sunday\u2019s rally(Nancy Lane\/Boston Herald)
\n\"AA young fan holds up a sign looking for a seventh Super Bowl trophy. (Nancy Lane\/Boston Herald)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A drive to Gillette Stadium for the Patriots\u2019 Super Bowl send-off rally turned into a surprise flight to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":722580,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2050],"tags":[7,18106,1167,249,2326,2094,6,208,104092,104310,95742,23840],"class_list":["post-722579","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-england-patriots","tag-football","tag-gillette-stadium","tag-new-england","tag-new-england-patriots","tag-newengland","tag-newenglandpatriots","tag-nfl","tag-patriots","tag-patriots-seahawks","tag-patriots-send-off","tag-patriots-super-bowl","tag-super-bowl-60"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115998143341385050","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/722579","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=722579"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/722579\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/722580"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=722579"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=722579"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=722579"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}