Celebrating the Super Bowl

This Saugus fan will cheer the Patriots from afar at the Super Bowl; Dennis Gould followed the team to the big game for years

By Gabriella Galbadis

Joseph “Dennis” Gould has been at the New England Patriots’ most iconic moments in Super Bowl history.

He was in New Orleans when the Patriots had their very first big win in Super Bowl XXXVI in 2002.

He watched Malcolm Butler’s famous game-winning interception in Super Bowl XLIX in 2015 in Arizona.

And he was there to witness the team’s overtime comeback in Super Bowl LI in 2017 in Houston.

For the past 10 Super Bowl games that the Patriots have competed in, Gould and his wife, Janice Gould, have made the trip.

“Every time the Patriots went to the Super Bowl, I’d look at her and tell her, ‘You know, if they go we go,’ ’’ he said in a recent interview.

But this year the Goulds, like most of Saugus, will be watching the Patriots face off against the Seattle Seahawks in Super Bowl LX at home. Ticket prices for the game at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, California, are upwards of $7,000 — out of reach for the Goulds, who are in their 70s.

Still, that won’t stop Gould and the rest of Saugus from reveling. At Kane’s Donuts, for instance, the company has been in full Patriots mania since the playoffs.

“I’m so happy the Patriots are back in the Super Bowl. It’s been a tough two years for Boston sports not being in a championship,” said Courtney Beaulieu on Saturday after walking out of the Kane’s on Route 1 with her donuts. “Couldn’t be more excited.”

Gould has long been a Patriots fan. He’s lived in Saugus his whole life aside from his time serving in active-duty in the military from 1969 to 1973. Gould has been retired for more than 11 years from his job as a project program director at General Electric, a job he held for 40 years.

The couple’s Super Bowl tradition began back in 1990, when Gould got Janice to join him at a Patriots’ game. She enjoyed watching the game as much as he did, so Gould began buying season tickets in 1991.

They attended their first Super Bowl in 1997 when the Patriots played the Green Bay Packers. It was the Patriots’ second-ever Super Bowl appearance, and they lost.

The couple stayed in a hotel near the Louisiana Superdome for about a week, since prices were much more affordable at the time. The trip cost them roughly $800 each.

That included the game tickets, hotel, and their commute, Gould recalled.

“We were on TV because we were one of the few Patriots fans there,’’ said Gould. “The Packers had a lot of fans, but the Patriots didn’t.”

Gould has many highlights from his years of attending the Super Bowl.

​He and Janice watched the Patriots defeat the St. Louis Rams at the Louisiana Superdome in 2002. He fondly remembers hearing the Boston Pops, the Creedence Clearwater Revival, and U2 play as part of the many special tributes to 9/11.

At Super Bowl XLIX in 2015 at the University of Phoenix Stadium, he got a “rush” from Butler’s famous game-winning play against the Seattle Seahawks.

And in 2017, Gould stood in NRG Stadium at Super Bowl LI when the Patriots charged  back from a 25-3 deficit with 8:31 left in the third quarter to defeat the Atlanta Falcons 34-28 in overtime. That game became the greatest comeback in Super Bowl history.

Gould witnessed all six of legendary Patriots quarterback Tom Brady’s Super Bowl wins during his 20-season career with the Patriots.

For the vast majority of their Super Bowl trips, it was just Dennis and Janice. “We went by ourselves which was great. We loved it,” Gould recalled.

The Super Bowl tickets were always expensive, even for a Patriots season ticket holder like Gould. He said he never had an opportunity to purchase those tickets at face value.

Season ticket holders get the chance to enter a lottery to purchase tickets at face value, but there are few winners.

“This year, I got about 66 chances to win, but we’ve never won the lottery in 30-something years and 11 Super Bowls now,” said Gould.

He has had to buy the tickets at a higher price each time. On average, the Goulds would spend about $15,000, including all travel expenses for each Super Bowl trip. One time it was $18,000, he said.

He said he was able to save up the money, thanks to his “great job” at GE and his drive to keep the tradition alive.

But now that he’s retired and on a fixed income, traveling to the Super Bowl to see his beloved Patriots became out of reach.

“I’m gonna miss this one, though … unfortunately,” he said.

Even though they won’t be making the trip to the Super Bowl this year, Gould has found ways to show up for the Patriots. He attended the recent Patriots’ playoff games in Foxborough. He watched the AFC Championship last week at his house in Saugus, and even though he described it as a strange game, he said the outcome was obviously awesome.

Other Saugus residents are displaying their passion for their home team before the game on Sunday.

At Kane’s Donuts in Saugus the Patriots fever was on full view in the display cases where donuts, decorated with red, white, and blue had writings like “Go Patriots” or “I love Drake Maye” on them.

One of the Kane’s Donuts owners, Peter Delios, said they have challenged Raised Doughnuts & Cakes in Seattle to a wager based on Sunday’s game. If the Patriots win, Delios said, Raised must send a dozen of their best donuts to Kane’s and vice versa.

This bet is part of a series of “donut-football” wagers Kane’s has been making, which also challenged shops in Los Angeles and Denver during the playoffs.

Katherine Rushfirth sat in the Kane’s on 120 Lincoln Ave. with her two sons, Benjamin, 3, and Henry, 6, who were enjoying a Patriots-decorated donut.

“We are very excited that the Patriots are going to the Super Bowl because they haven’t been alive for a Patriots Super Bowl yet,” Rushfirth said, referring to her children.

Rushfirth said that her sons’ grandfather is a huge Patriots fan so they will be spending the Super Bowl with their grandparents.

Beaulieu, another Kane’s patron, praised quarterback Drake Maye and coach Mike Vrabel for turning the team around, sounding like a lot of fans in town.

“I love Drake Maye, I love his wife,’’ Beaulieu said. “So I’m rooting for both of them.”

Gabriella Galbadis is a student journalist in the Boston University Newsroom program. She is a student in Meghan Irons’ Reporting in Depth class.