The 28-3 tee and me

28-3 has become a part of Patriots lore and it’s hard to believe that a big part of it was started right here on this blog and now, here we are, five years later so it’s time for a little retrospective. Of course, the real Patriots did the hard work, coming back from a seemingly impossible deficit to secure their fifth title but it took a bit before it truly sunk in what the team had overcome.

About a month after the victory I was watching the game again and the scoreboard struck me. 28-3. That tells the whole story right there, that scoreboard. We know how it ended. 28-3, just over two minutes left… how the hell did they do it? It wasn’t about trolling the Falcons, it was just an instant reminder how even when it looks like it’s over, no comeback is impossible.

The next day a Twitter follower shared a screenshot of the scoreboard and it all seemed to click. I had been in the football blog t-shirt game for a few years and was even the first person to put Do Your Job on a shirt. But the NFL snuffed me out with a cease and desist, even though I was small-time and wasn’t making enough to even pay the hosting fees. Since then it was all about being creative with the tees, like the Malcolm Go one.

That’s why the scoreboard was perfect as well. It said it all and it was such a simple design that even my meager Adobe skills could reproduce a graphic that worked.

With everything fully integrated, it took all of about a half-hour before the design was completed and the shirts were available in the Prop Shop. Shortly after, another Twitter user suggested putting the final scoreboard on the back of the shirt. 10 minutes later that option was done and available but it didn’t take off initially. A week or so later, my good friend Nick “Fitzy” Stevens shared an Instagram post with him in the shirt and then, then it exploded.

The traffic went through the roof, crashing my blog as I frantically called my hosting service to upgrade my account to handle the influx. Soon the 28-3 tee began to pop up everywhere. There it was in the stands of Red Sox and Celtics games.

Not long after that Barstool Sports reached out and we worked out a deal for them to carry the tee as well and that elevated things to another level as they added giant flags to the mix as well.

All of this happened with a major life event for me and my family on the horizon, as we had decided to move back to Boston from California. I had lived in Los Angeles for 18 years, starting the PatsPropaganda blog as a way to stay connected to my hometown team that suddenly became dynasty while I was away. The explosion of 28-3 helped pave the way back to Massachusetts.

But there was more to it that didn’t even occur to me until later. In 2001, my grandfather had passed away on a strange date. I was close with him, and as the oldest of nine grandkids I was unable to say “Grampy” and ended up naming him “Bumpy” and that stuck with him for the rest of his life with all the ensuing grandkids. We had always found it strange that he died on the day of the PO Box he and my grandmother had had in East Dennis for over 50 years. That was PO Box 328 and Bumpy had died on March 28. Suddenly, I realized an even more personal connection with the digits that had blown up.

As my family and I adjusted to a new life in Boston, I knew I had to attend the Patriots season opener, where the fifth banner would be raised and there was sure to be plenty of 28-3 everywhere. And there were.

The Barstool-version flags littered the parking lot, while someone else hung one over the back wall as Flo Rida performed “My House” during the opening ceremony. Even better, the pregame scoreboard had 28-3 up on it with a nice side note, the time of 2:12. A time that mattered to me.

As you can imagine, the shirt was ripped off everywhere but the one way I could always tell it was one of mine was the 2:12 remaining. When the Patriots Hall of Fame added a Super Bowl 51 exhibit, the full 28-3, 2:12 scoreboard would find a spot on the wall, making it an immortal piece of Patriots history.

I still see the shirts from time to time and occasionally sell some as the meme it’s become continues to resonate with not only Patriots fans, but a lot of Falcon-hating Saints fans as well. Lots of shirts were sent to New Orleans, believe me. I might’ve thought it would be the most surreal experience of my life, until in 2019 I went from Patriots uber-blogger to Patriots.com employee.

To me, 28-3 still represents what it initially did… Facing seemingly impossible odds and overcoming them. Certainly, in early 2017 I was taking a leap myself as I moved back across the country and largely started my life over.

Super Bowl 51 was one for the ages, obviously for Patriots fans, but outside of making the Falcons feel bad, I hope some can still take a little bit of inspiration from the comeback that the t-shirt represents.