A Patriots fan who kept calm despite an overly-aggressive Raiders fan flailing her arms and screaming in his face after a Las Vegas game was invited to a home game by Robert Kraft on Wednesday.
Jerry Edmond deserves every award available after keeping his composure during a football game in Las Vegas on Dec. 18. Edmond had traveled to Sin City to watch the New England Patriots play against the Las Vegas Raiders and was verbally abused by an aggressive Raiders fan during the game.
The Patriots lost Sunday’s game with a final score of 30-24, and a Raiders fan who was seated close to Edmond celebrated by getting in his face and screaming at him, seemingly to gloat. The fan flailed her hands and yelled at Edmond while she was inches away from his face as her companion repeatedly tried to restrain her. Cell phone footage was taken by another fan seated nearby and
shared on Twitter on Dec. 20. The fan also noted that the Raiders fan had been “chirping” at Edmond the entire game.“Someone find me this man. I owe him a beer,” wrote the fan.
“Entire game this lady was chirping at him for CHEERING for the Patriots in ‘her’ stadium. Absolute s— ending for NE & she’s up in his face. He stayed calm after seeing the worst loss ever. I know I wouldn’t. He deserves some love.”
After seeing the video, Edmond responded on Twitter and identified himself. He also noted the Las Vegas game was his first-ever NFL game.
“I’d like to thank everyone for all the kind words,” he wrote. “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 toward that woman, so I kept my cool.”
The Patriots chairman and CEO personally called Edmond on Dec. 21 and invited him to
the Patriots game on Saturday against the Cincinnati Bengals, which Edmond accepted. Kraft told Edmond that he liked the way he conducted himself at the Raiders-Patriots game in Las Vegas and hoped his second NFL experience will be better than the first.“I think you represented in our brand in a very classy way,” Kraft said.
Kraft also said Edmond will receive a customized jersey as well as pregame field passes so that he can watch warmups.