Patriots RB Shane Vereen now a Bruins fan
Although he isn’t the first New England Patriots player to become a Boston Bruins fan after joining the team, rising third-year running back Shane Vereen is a notable player to talk about from that perspective. According to Jeff Howe of the Boston Herald, Vereen is the latest Patriots player to become a Bruins fan and has shown his fandom for Boston’s great hockey team on Twitter and was enthralled with their terrific comeback victory in Game 7 (I’m not even going to think about the alternative to the ending of that game).
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Vereen said, “Back in California, I didn’t really watch hockey all that much. A couple of my friends played, but I didn’t make time to watch it. But ever since I moved out here, I have a newfound respect for it. You can tell this city loves hockey, and I love it, too, now, so I’m rooting them on.”
The California native starred for the California Golden Bears in college, but he genuinely loves Boston and has seemingly embraced the sports teams and culture of the city. I said that not only because he is now a Bruins fan (and hockey fan, at that), but also because of the Facebook updates I’ve read from him. He seems to enjoy how Bostonians use the word “wicked” instead of “really” or “very”, and it comes off like Vereen has fallen in love with the city of Boston. I could be wrong, but that’s just my hunch. And besides, how could you not fall in love with Boston?
Vereen also spoke about the nail-biter of a game that ended up in incredible defeat to keep Boston alive instead of a disheartening loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs (it would have been a sad day if the Bruins lost to the Leafs, but credit to the Leafs for making it such a great series), “I was very disheartened when they went down 4-1. But there was still time left, and there’s one thing we learned in football is that the game is not over until it’s over. They fought back. I thought it was an incredible game.”
Yup, that sounds like a guy who loves hockey and the Boston Bruins.
You can follow Joe Soriano on Twitter @SorianoJoe.