Jerry Edmond’s first NFL game experience didn’t go as planned. One NFL team owner is trying to make sure Edmond’s second NFL game will make up for it — and then some.
Edmond is a New England Patriots fan who attended his first-ever game last week at Las Vegas’ Allegiant Stadium to watch his favorite team. As if the ending of that game wasn’t tough enough for Edmond to watch, he then was subjected to torment from one Raiders fan.
A viral video surfaced of a woman in a Raiders jersey verbally accosting Edmond after the game’s wild ending gave the Raiders a shocking victory. To Edmond’s credit, he remained calm even after the woman got in his face multiple times.
The video was viewed more than seven million times on social media, and it made its way to the eyes of Patriots team owner Robert Kraft. After Kraft saw Edmond maintain his composure during the ugly exchange, he reached out to the Patriots fan to offer him tickets to Saturday’s game against the Bengals at Gillette Stadium, as well as pregame sideline passes and a customized jersey, the team announced.
Edmond accepted and is expected to be in Foxborough this weekend, weather permitting.
When the viral video first surfaced, many fans tried to identify the man who was the subject of the Raiders fan’s heckling. But Edmond saved a lot of Twitter detectives time when he revealed himself in the mentions of the video post.
“I’d like to thank everyone for all the kind words,” Jerry replied on Twitter. “I’m the Patriots fan in the video. My name is Jerry Edmond and that was my first ever NFL game. I didn’t want to ruin my experience by retaliating towards that woman so I kept my cool.”
In a video interview with Twitter user @BabzOnTheMic, Edmond said he thinks what angered the Raiders fan so much was his gentle razzing of Derek Carr. And what jersey was the Raiders fan wearing? Carr, of course. But whatever she said, Edmond tuned her — and several other Raiders fans chiming in — out completely.
“I was more focused on how we lost that game,” Edmond deadpanned.
Now Edmond will get a second crack at watching his favorite team play in person less than a week after his rough first game. No guarantees on the Patriots winning, but the do-over appears to already be off to a much better start.