Businesses and colleges are gearing up to support the New England Patriots as the team makes its fourth Super Bowl appearance in the last five seasons.
In a cross-country bet, the University of Massachusetts Amherst and UCLA, a university in the same home city as the Rams, put their top chefs at stake. Following a Patriots win, UCLA will send a chef from their award-winning dining program to Amherst to prepare popular Los Angeles cuisine, including Dodger Dogs, Kogi tacos, and avocado toast. If the Rams are victorious, one of UMass’s top chefs will travel to California to cook up New England favorites such as clam chowder, Boston cream pies, and a clam bake.
The universities are not the only ones wagering over the outcome. Rutland Town Administrator Michael J. Nicholson bet Madera, California City Manager Arnoldo Rodriguez that the Patriots would beat the Rams. The winner will take home a gift basket, personalized with local goods, such as wine from Madera. Both towns contain the geographical center of their respective state, sparking the idea of a Super Bowl-themed competition.
The Maple Valley Creamery in Hadley has partnered with Mother Moo Creamery in California to give the losing creamery the other’s shirts to wear for a week.
“If the LA Rams win Sunday, then those losers in New England will have to wear our fabulous LA Rams jerseys for a week,” Mother Moo Creamery posted on Facebook Tuesday. This will be Maple Valley Creamery’s third consecutive year engaging in a friendly wager with a distant competitor.
The Holyoke-based Hazen Paper is producing holographic programs dawning the Lombardi trophy set in front of the Atlanta skyline. The programs will be distributed at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, where the Patriots and Rams will face off. This marks the 15th consecutive year that Hazen Paper has produced the official program for the Super Bowl.
Two businesses in the region are capitalizing on the simple Super Bowl tradition of consuming an excess amount of food while watching the game. The historic Rice Fruit Farm in Wilbraham recently released their newest creation, “The G.O.A.T.” ice cream sundae – an acronym for “greatest of all time.” The sundae has blue cookie monster, strawberry, and vanilla ice creams topped with strawberries and blue marshmallows. Each sundae is appropriately adorned with a small cutout of Tom Brady.
Tree House Brewing Co. in Charleton, known for their inventive craft beers, released their newest brew on Tuesday, producing 26,000 cans dedicated to Brady. The cans, censoring Brady’s language from a recent statement, have “BADDEST MF-ER ON THE PLANET” stamped on the bottom.
The Patriots will face the Rams on Sunday, Feb. 3 in Atlanta.