A chance to root for a local team amped up Super Bowl excitement Sunday night in central Maine.
Area sports bars normally are packed on Super Bowl Sunday, but bar patrons and employees said there was extra excitement this Sunday because the game was a showdown between the New England Patriots and the Seattle Seahawks.
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“It’s usually a huge day — standing room only — but with the Patriots, it makes it even bigger,” said Jamie Mayhew, manager of The End Zone on Elm Street in Waterville.
Patriots fans, and a lone Seahawks fan, started trickling in Sunday afternoon behind Mayhew, who said she could see the excitement building over the previous few days. For example, she recalled trying to buy cupcakes last week for her son for school.
“You think I could find cupcakes without a football on it?” she said and laughed.
At the Pointe Afta in Winslow, patrons decked in red, white and blue started to fill the sports bar in mid-afternoon Sunday to cheer their team on.
Lifelong Patriots fan Cathy LeClair, sporting a Tom Brady jersey, said she had just been finishing her bracket for the season and had come to the Pointe Afta to start celebrating game day.
“It’s my national holiday,” she said. “I’m not a ‘let’s go shopping’ kind of girl. I’m a ‘You go shopping and meet me at the game when you’re done’ kind of girl.”
LeClair said before the game that “the smart ones” will root for the Patriots, and she was looking forward to watching the teams compete.
At the next table over, Tammy and Steve Denis said they enjoy watching the Super Bowl every year, but they were particularly looking forward to this year’s game.
“Especially when the Pats are playing,” Steve Denis said.
Kaitlin Schroeder — 861-9252
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