From Hell Week to Gillette: Hosting Patriots Training Camp

How cool is this?! Patriots Training Camp. The unofficial kickoff to a new NFL season—where roster spots are earned, coaches set the tone, and fans finally get a real look behind the curtain.

The Patriots do training camp right. Free entry. Legit food options. Games, activations, and a steady buzz around the practice fields. And then there’s the stage entertainment… which is where I come in.

I played high school football. I wasn’t very good. But I did work my way up to Special Teams Captain my senior year, which still counts for something. One of my strongest memories from that time is camp—also known as “hell week.”

No campfires. No s’mores. Just early-morning runs, endless conditioning, hitting, film sessions, bad meals, worse calf cramps, and a whole lot of throwing up. All of it for a team that didn’t exactly rack up wins. Brutal.

And yet… I look back on it fondly. I went through it with friends I still talk to today. Shared misery has a funny way of bonding people.

Fast forward a few years, and there I am—at an NFL training camp—doing something I’m actually good at.

I was fortunate enough to host several marquee dates of Patriots Training Camp, handling player, media, and cheerleader interviews, crowd hype moments, interactive fan games, trivia, and on-field races. The energy was high, and so were expectations—especially with second-year quarterback Drake Maye drawing plenty of attention.

Training camp is where fans feel closest to the team. No massive barriers. No game-day chaos. Just football, access, and excitement. Helping strengthen that connection between the organization and the fans is always the goal—and there’s no better place to do it than right there on the practice field.

From hell week… to Gillette Stadium.
Funny how things work out.