Milford native Jerry Edmond watched a game with Patriots owner Robert Kraft in Foxborough, MA on Dec. 24, 2022.
Contributed by Jerry EdmondJerry Edmond's first NFL game was an unusual experience. It started as a 'guys trip' of Patriots fans to Las Vegas. For Edmond, a Milford resident and graduate of Foran High School and Central Connecticut State University, it became a "vacation I won't forget."
It all started when a woman approached him during the beginning of the Sunday game to say it was "disrespectful" of him to cheer while wearing a Patriots jersey at the Raiders stadium in Las Vegas.
"I was so confused, but ignored her and cheered for my team whenever they scored a touchdown or made a good play," Edmond said, "During the second half of the game, her husband came up to me and told me to watch my mouth. At first I thought he was joking, since many other Raiders fans were joking with me, but it seemed hostile coming from him."
Toward the end of the game, Edmond said the woman tried to sit next to him and yell at him.
"I told her I did not want any trouble," he said. "Raiders win, and she just continued to scream to my face."
Edmond did not know anyone was recording the incident until two days later, when a friend sent him a video that had been posted online. By now, a tweet with the video has been retweeted almost 15,000 times, and liked more than 200,000 times.
And, it turns out, Patriots owner Robert Kraft had seen the video too.
"I woke up to a missed call from Kraft, who left a voicemail congratulating me for my poise and thanked me for representing the franchise in a 'classy' way," Edmond said. "He invited me and three others to watch the game Christmas Eve."
He toured the facility, met the players, saw the Super Bowl trophies, tried on a Super Bowl ring, shook hands with coach Bill Belichick, watched the game in a suite with Kraft and got a FaceTime call from rapper Jay-Z.
"Jay-Z told me he reached out to Robert Kraft after he found he invited me to the game, and wanted to speak to me when I got there," Edmond said. "That conversation was unreal."
Milford native Jerry Edmond and Patriots owner Robert Kraft in Foxborough, MA on Dec. 24, 2022
Contributed by Jerry EdmondEdmond said a representative from the Raiders also reached out to invite him to watch the Pro Bowl in Las Vegas. Raiders president Sandra Douglass Morgan praised Edmond in a statement on Wednesday and said she "will be in touch."
The experience made Edmond even "prouder" to be a Patriots fan, he said. Throughout the whole experience, he said he was in shock.
"Even if I did not get to go to the game or have this experience, hearing and reading the support from everyone means a lot," he said.