28-3 has become a part of Patriots lore and it’s hard to believe that a big part of it was started right here on this blog and now, here we are, five years later so it’s time for a little retrospective. Of course, the real Patriots did the hard work, coming back from a seemingly impossible deficit to secure their fifth title but it took a bit before it truly sunk in what the team had overcome.
About a month after the victory I was watching the game again and the scoreboard struck me. 28-3. That tells the whole story right there, that scoreboard. We know how it ended. 28-3, just over two minutes left… how the hell did they do it? It wasn’t about trolling the Falcons, it was just an instant reminder how even when it looks like it’s over, no comeback is impossible.
The next day a Twitter follower shared a screenshot of the scoreboard and it all seemed to click. I had been in the football blog t-shirt game for a few years and was even the first person to put Do Your Job on a shirt. But the NFL snuffed me out with a cease and desist, even though I was small-time and wasn’t making enough to even pay the hosting fees. Since then it was all about being creative with the tees, like the Malcolm Go one.
That’s why the scoreboard was perfect as well. It said it all and it was such a simple design that even my meager Adobe skills could reproduce a graphic that worked.
With everything fully integrated, it took all of about a half-hour before the design was completed and the shirts were available in the Prop Shop. Shortly after, another Twitter user suggested putting the final scoreboard on the back of the shirt. 10 minutes later that option was done and available but it didn’t take off initially. A week or so later, my good friend Nick “Fitzy” Stevens shared an Instagram post with him in the shirt and then, then it exploded.
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