The Patriots pulled off a win against a division rival in Week 2 against the Miami Dolphins, and a special new fan was in the crowd to help cheer New England on to victory.
The team surprised Sebastian, a third grader in the Miami-Dade County Public School system, with tickets to attend the game at Hard Rock Stadium on Sunday. He has his teacher, Mrs. Mary Crippen, to thank.
"Hey Sebastian, this is Coach Vrabel with the New England Patriots," head coach Mike Vrabel said in a video he recorded for Sebastian.
"I got a pretty cool letter from you that said you got to draft us in Mrs. Crippen's class, so I want to thank you for drafting us and believing in us, and I also want to encourage you to be a great teammate, be a great leader, treat people with respect, and most importantly have fun."
Four years ago, Crippen began working the NFL into her curriculum to help make learning fun for her students.
Initially, her classroom just followed their home team Dolphins, but her students craved more. Crippen evolved the program to include a "draft" where each student selects an NFL team to follow, and she used football to teach lessons about math, geography, teamwork, friendship, hard work, and more.
All the while, Crippen posted videos of her teaching her students about the NFL on TikTok and the rest was history, helping her amass over 400,000 followers on the social media platform.
Sebastian was lucky enough to be placed in Mrs. Crippen's class this school year and was thrilled to draft the Patriots.
The team was just as excited for his support, recently receiving his hand-written letter, and in return, sent a package to the school that included a signed Drake Maye football for the classroom, gift bags for each of Crippen's students, a customized Patriots jersey for Sebastian, and best of all, tickets for him and his dad to attend New England's road game in Miami.
"Hold up that jersey," Crippen says to Sebastian in a video of her revealing the contents of the Patriots packages to her class.
"Where are you going to wear that? How about to the game?"
Crippen is then shown flashing the two game tickets, and her students erupts in joy for their classmate.
The Patriots win made for Sebastian's first-ever NFL game, and he got to go down to the sideline to meet Patriots Chairman & CEO Robert Kraft pregame.
Before Crippen's video ended, she found an opportunity to teach her students about another important lesson.
"None of these teams have to do this, and it's a really cool thing, especially when you think about rivalries," Crippen said.
"The Patriots are our home town team's rival, but they're still showing this kindness, and they're not expecting anything in return. They just wanted to show kindness and that's really cool."
