Ed Rosa of Stoneham won 2010 Patriots season tickets through the team's annual mock draft contest
FOXBOROUGH, Mass. (April 23, 2010) - Ed Rosa may have missed his calling. The retired high school vice principal from Stoneham, Mass. made like Mel Kiper, Jr. on Thursday night at the 2010 Patriots Draft Party at Gillette Stadium, winning the Patriots' 3rd Annual Mock Draft Contest. Rosa's prognostications won him a pair of 2010 Patriots season tickets.
The season tickets were the grand prize in the contest, where fans submitted their first round draft predictions on Patriots.com in the weeks leading up to the Draft Party. The nearly 1,000 attendees at the event were given periodic updates on the leaders as the first round unfolded.
"As the picks were coming in, I kept saying over and over, 'We've got a chance at this,'" said Rosa. "The people sitting at my table and at the tables near me were all rooting for me."
At the end of the round, Rosa had correctly predicted nine of the 32 picks by draft position in the first round, besting his nearest competitor by two. Of his 32 first round selections, 24 of the players were taken by NFL teams in the first round.
Rosa is a lifelong Patriots fan who has been attending games since the team played at Fenway Park and Boston University Field in the 1960s. He attends games with his family regularly, even traveling to Indianapolis with his wife for Patriots-Colts in 2007.
"My wife is a big fan," he said. "We watch every game. We have people over every Sunday."
In 2010, they'll be watching from the Gillette Stadium stands.
"It's exciting," he said. "I'm really going to enjoy this prize."
