If you’re wondering what’s wrong with the Patriots, who needed a last-second touchdown to avoid falling to 0-2 at home, the answer appears to be divisiveness. Not over football strategy or political protests, but over the value of tap water.
A few days after Tom Brady’s new book warned readers not to drink tap water, the Patriots charged fans $4.50 for tap water at Gillette Stadium when concession stands ran out of bottled water before halftime of their Week 3 game against the Texans. That’s unreasonable to begin with, but when you factor in that the temperature hit an unseasonably high 86 degrees in Foxborough on Sunday, it’s also dangerous.
Let’s just say fans were not pleased.
@Patriots @GilletteStadium concession stand out of bottled water. I was offered tap water for $4.50!!
— Scott Carruthers (@ecarruthersjr) September 24, 2017
#GilletteStadium is HOT! @Patriots not so much. Ran out of water. $5 for Foxboro tap!?!? pic.twitter.com/cZeMTHVxff
— Dana Caron (@DanaCaron1) September 24, 2017
@Patriots so, hottest game I’ve been to and you run out of water, but, charging $4.50 for tap water? Shame on you….
— Joy Garon (@joygaron) September 24, 2017
@Patriots — Loved spending $45 on tap water today… how could you run out of bottles in the 2nd qr? #bestdayever
— jim kappos (@jimkappos) September 24, 2017
Phone lines filled with people saying they were told to pay $5 for a cup of tap water at Gillette yesterday when bottled water ran out.
— Toucher & Hardy (@toucherandhardy) September 25, 2017
Even after a tumultuous week in the NFL filled with national anthem protests, 98.5 FM show Toucher and Rich was filled with people wanting to talk about the tap water situation instead.
The Patriots released a statement saying this won’t happen again, but they haven’t mentioned if fans who got ripped off with receive any sort of compensation other than an apology:
“We apologize. That should not have happened,” team spokesman Stacey James said. “It is the first time that I have ever heard that complaint here. We are looking into the matter to ensure that it doesn’t happen again.”
