{"id":728562,"date":"2026-02-04T10:31:16","date_gmt":"2026-02-04T10:31:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/728562\/"},"modified":"2026-02-04T10:31:16","modified_gmt":"2026-02-04T10:31:16","slug":"15-year-old-patriots-fan-with-cancer-heads-to-super-bowl-60-thanks-to-make-a-wish","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/728562\/","title":{"rendered":"15-year-old Patriots fan with cancer heads to Super Bowl 60 thanks to Make-A-Wish"},"content":{"rendered":"

PORTLAND, Maine (WABI<\/a>\/Gray News) – When the New England Patriots take the field for Super Bowl 60, a 15-year-old boy from Maine will be in the stands cheering them on, thanks to Make-A-Wish.<\/p>\n

Avery MacNair, 15, has been a Patriots fan for as long as he can remember.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve always loved football,\u201d Avery said. \u201cI used to play it as a kid, and then, obviously after everything happened, I wasn\u2019t able to play it really as much.\u201d<\/p>\n

The teenager has spent the last two years undergoing treatment for leukemia. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just very important to keep your mind strong and keep your head up,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\"AveryAvery MacNair, 15, (center) has been a New England Patriots fan for as long as he can remember. He’ll soon get to see his favorite team play in person at Super Bowl 60, thanks to Make-A-Wish.(Source: Jamie MacNair, WABI via CNN)<\/p>\n

Make-A-Wish asked Avery in 2023 what he wanted to do out of anything in the world, and his answer was, of course, go to the Super Bowl. A few setbacks along the way led to a delay in the wish, but it\u2019s now happening.<\/p>\n

When Avery found out<\/a>, it was before the Patriots beat the Denver Broncos to punch their ticket to the big game, which made for a pretty stressful AFC championship game.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought they were going to lose,\u201d Avery said. \u201cDuring the end, I didn\u2019t think they were going to pull it out, but they did. When Christian Gonzalez got the interception, that was nice.\u201d<\/p>\n

Avery will be attending the game, the first time he\u2019ll see the Patriots play in person, after a week full of activities in California with his brother, Skylar. It\u2019s a trip the two will never forget.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese kids have had their childhoods taken away from them, really tough circumstances. So, to be able to bring the joy of childhood back to them and have these last memories is just an incredible thing,\u201d said Brian Franks, president and CEO of Make-A-Wish Maine.<\/p>\n

Avery is looking forward to seeing his favorite player, Drake Maye, compete, and he\u2019s predicting a close game with the Patriots as the ultimate winners.<\/p>\n

\u201cProbably be a defensive game, so 17-23, probably, hopefully, the Pats,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s also making a gutsy call.<\/p>\n

\u201cKayshon Boutte is probably going to have a 40-yard reception for a touchdown,\u201d Avery said.<\/p>\n

So, remember who called it first when that comes on Super Bowl Sunday as the Patriots take on the Seattle Seahawks.<\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 WABI via Gray Local Media, Inc. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PORTLAND, Maine (WABI\/Gray News) – When the New England Patriots take the field for Super Bowl 60, a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":728563,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2050],"tags":[7,998,91547,1167,249,2326,2094,6,208,105337,23840,105335,105336],"class_list":["post-728562","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-england-patriots","tag-football","tag-maine","tag-make-a-wish","tag-new-england","tag-new-england-patriots","tag-newengland","tag-newenglandpatriots","tag-nfl","tag-patriots","tag-patriots-fan-with-cancer-heads-to-super-bowl","tag-super-bowl-60","tag-teen-patriots-fan-heads-to-super-bowl","tag-teen-with-cancer-heads-to-super-bowl"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116011906172603099","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/728562","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=728562"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/728562\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/728563"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=728562"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=728562"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=728562"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}