{"id":169670,"date":"2026-02-08T21:54:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-08T21:54:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/169670\/"},"modified":"2026-02-08T21:54:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-08T21:54:08","slug":"san-jose-sharks-players-back-new-england-patriots-in-super-bowl-lx-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/169670\/","title":{"rendered":"San Jose Sharks players back New England Patriots in Super Bowl LX"},"content":{"rendered":"

SANTA CLARA \u2013 At least one corner of the San Jose Sharks\u2019 l<\/a>ocker room, not to mention the coach\u2019s room and front office, has a rooting interest in Super Bowl LX.<\/a><\/p>\n

A handful of Sharks players, plus coach Ryan Warsofsky, are Massachusetts natives and grew up fans of the New England Patriots. General manager Mike Grier <\/a>grew up in the Boston area while his father, Bobby, was a longtime coach and executive with the team. Bobby Grier passed away in September.<\/a><\/p>\n

The Boston-area natives on the Sharks\u2019 roster<\/a> are forwards Will Smith, Collin Graf, and Adam Gaudette.<\/p>\n

Smith said he had a chance to attend Sunday\u2019s game between the Patriots and Seahawks<\/a> at Levi\u2019s Stadium, but decided he wanted to spend the time at home and watch the game with his family in the Boston area instead. The NHL is on break, with over 100 players taking part in the Winter Olympics in Milan-Cortina.<\/p>\n

\u201cToo much travel,\u201d Smith said about going back and forth. \u201cI didn\u2019t want to deal with it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Smith, 20, and Graf, 23, were too young (or not yet born) to remember the early years of the Patriots\u2019 dynasty when they won three Super Bowls in four years between 2001 and 2004.<\/p>\n

But the Pats followed that with three Super Bowls in five years, from 2014 to 2018.<\/p>\n

\u201cGrowing up, obviously, they were really good, so I watched all the games, then maybe a little bit less just as you got older,\u201d Graf said. \u201cBut I\u2019ve watched all the playoff games.\u201d<\/p>\n

After three consecutive losing seasons, including two straight 4-13 years,<\/a> the Patriots, thanks to quarterback Drake Maye and a stellar defense, went 14-3 and earned the No. 2 seed in the AFC. They beat the Los Angeles Chargers, Houston Texans, and Denver Broncos to advance to the Super Bowl.<\/p>\n

\u201cI remember watching Week One, and they lost to the Raiders,\u201d Graf said of New England\u2019s 20-13 loss to Las Vegas on Sept 7. \u201cI was actually talking to (Barracuda center and Massachusetts native) Colin White about it. He had faith in them the whole time. So credit to him. He believed in them from the start.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"PregamePregame preparations take place on the field ahead of Super Bowl 60 at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif., on Sunday, Feb. 8, 2026. (Ray Chavez\/Bay Area News Group)\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cCan\u2019t complain, though,\u201d Smith said when asked about the Patriots\u2019 lean years. \u201cI\u2019ve got a bunch of championships from my childhood, more than most people will see.\u201d<\/p>\n

Maye had 15 touchdown passes and 10 interceptions in his rookie season,<\/a> completing 66.6% of his passes for 2,276 yards. This year, Maye completed 72.0% of his passes for 31 touchdowns and 4,394 yards, with just eight interceptions.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think (anyone) was expecting the Super Bowl, but after watching Maye last year, I think everyone knew he would be pretty good,\u201d Smith said. It\u2019s super exciting.\u201d<\/p>\n

What stands out about this Patriots team?<\/p>\n

\u201cI would say just the heart, just sort of having that underdog mentality,\u201d said Graf, who also traveled home for the break. \u201cI know they\u2019ve sort of played some weird games, but I don\u2019t think they\u2019re the most skilled team. It\u2019s just that underdog mentality (they have).\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SANTA CLARA \u2013 At least one corner of the San Jose Sharks\u2019 locker room, not to mention the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":135064,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[184,7,401,402,181,404,88,90,89,98,198,403,200,127],"class_list":{"0":"post-169670","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-jose","8":"tag-bay-area","9":"tag-california","10":"tag-hockey","11":"tag-inside-sports","12":"tag-latest-headlines","13":"tag-nhl","14":"tag-san-jose","15":"tag-san-jose-headlines","16":"tag-san-jose-news","17":"tag-san-jose-sharks","18":"tag-santa-clara-county","19":"tag-sharks-alert","20":"tag-south-bay","21":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/169670","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=169670"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/169670\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/135064"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=169670"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=169670"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=169670"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}