Last week, Jerry Edmond was in his first NFL game, calmly enduring the booing of another person in the stands. This week, the New England Patriots fan met one of 32 NFL owners.
Edmond, who has become something of a hero to Patriots fans for the calm way he dealt with verbal abuse at last week’s Patriots-Raiders game, was invited to Saturday’s game against the Bengals at the Gillette Stadium in Foxboro.
Before it started, he was invited to meet the Pats’ owner, Robert Kraft.
“I’ll tell you, what you did was very elegant and you represent what our entire franchise is about: building bridges,” Kraft said, in a video released by the Patriots on Saturday.
The Patriots had given Edmond two tickets to Saturday’s game, a custom jersey and two field passes to watch pregame warmups, but Kraft gave him another gift: some of the best seats in the house.
“It’s a bit cold, how about you come to our suite and watch the game there?” Kraft said.
Edmond was even seen on the TV broadcast celebrating a crucial interception alongside Kraft as New England got back into the game.
When NBC10 Boston met with Edmond after the Patriots’ blowout loss, he said it “felt good” that so many people recognized him and started cheering for him.
“I got a lot of chants of ‘Jerry!’ and simply, good deeds never go unnoticed,” Edmond said.
“It was like a dream. It was like a dream,” he added. “Half the time I was in shock. Actually, for the most part.”
Edmond said it’s been an amazing feeling to receive so much support from everyone, noting how grateful he is for the experience.
Words cannot express how grateful I am for this experience. I want to thank @BabzOnTheMic, @patriots and everyone who was so kind to me and brought this story to light with their comments. I will never forget this moment. Thank you . God bless you all and happy holidays pic.twitter.com/vseoworkv6
— 🇭🇹Jerry Edmond (@Duggie490) December 24, 2022
A week after calmly fending off boos from a Raiders fan, earning him Patriots Nation hero status, Jerry Edmond met Robert Kraft at Gillette Stadium.
A video of Edmond’s moment of calm under pressure at a Raiders game went viral, viewed millions of times.
Edmond was with friends in Las Vegas, excited to see the Patriots play.
“It all started when the woman came up to me and said it’s disrespectful that I’m rooting for the Patriots at Raiders Stadium,” Edmond said Thursday.
As the game progressed, so did the verbal abuse, he said.
“At first I didn’t fully understand what he was saying, I just ignored it and let it go,” Edmond recalled. “My best option is to just sit here and ignore you.”
Robert Kraft left a voicemail and two tickets for a Patriots fan who kept his cool when a Raiders fan teased him in a video that went viral.
As the intensity of the abuse continued, Edmond simply let the two fans berate him, hoping it would stop.
“I didn’t want this woman to ruin my day, to ruin this, because at the end of the day, it was still my first experience in an NFL game,” he said. “I didn’t want my day to be ruined, or anyone else’s day, so I tried to stay calm there.”
Edmond later received a surprise phone call from Kraft, who left him a voicemail thanking him. “I think you represented our brand in a very elegant way,” Kraft said in the message. “I love to see that you remained faithful and first class in an environment that could have been provocative.”
Edmond also said that he received a call from Jay-Z.
Source: news.google.com