Patriots Leave for Super Bowl, And Locals Are Left With the Mess

FOXBOROUGH, Mass.  Mary Pat Sheehan has lived in this community of 14,000 south of Boston her whole life, so she's used to the media circus that comes to town whenever the New England Patriots advance to the Super Bowl.  "I can deal with the reporters taking up parking spaces downtown and cutting in line at the Dunkin' Donuts," she says.  "I just wish they'd learn to clean up after themselves."

Downtown Foxborough, Massachusetts

Sheehan is referring to the practice by members of the national media to shorten the town's name to "Foxboro" in stories they file for print and electronic outlets, leaving the streets littered with cast-aside U's, G's and H's.  "It's a matter of common courtesy, but the media big shots think they're too important to bother," she says.

Gillette Stadium

The cost of the clean-up is significant, straining the town's budget and forcing cutbacks in services such as the local anti-smoking officer, Earl "Bud" Dailey.  "My job is to stand around downtown and yell at kids to stop smoking," Dailey says.  "Due to budget cuts, I can only yell at half the kids, the others I just kinda scowl at."

"Hey--half of you kids stop smoking!"

National reporters say they are being discriminated against since local newspapers such as the Boston Globe and the Boston Herald also shorten the town's name, but Walter Endicott, assistant managing editor of the Globe, says the situation is more "nuanced" than that.  "We encourage our readers to recycle the extra letters on our puzzle page," he says.  "With a U, a G and an H, if you need a three letter word for 'wildebeest' you're two-thirds of the way there."

Wildebeest:  "What's gnu?"

It's not just the extra letters, say concerned residents such as Marla Townsend, it's also the over-the-top figures of speech that are thrown around during the two-week interval between the conference championships and the Super Bowl.  "I came out to get the paper one morning and there was a worn-out methaphor--'Brady is the Patriot's arm'--on my lawn.  It was disgusting."

Townsend, Sheehan and others like them aren't just complaining, however, they're taking action.  As the media buses roll out of the parking lot at Gillette Stadium today on their way to Logan Airport and flights to the Super Bowl in Glendale, Arizona, the women will be standing in silent protest along Route 1, holding signs to express their unhappiness. Their slogan:  "U-G-H spells 'UGH'."

Copyright 2008, Con Chapman