Porter Square’s Upton Bell is a legend in football giving nothing away about Sunday’s Super Bowl
Football legend Upton Bell of Porter Square, Cambridge, with a model of a statue dedicated to his father at the University of Pennsylvania’s Franklin Field.
This weekend is the big one, Super Bowl LIX – which is likely not that big of a deal around these parts now that the Patriots are the doormat of the AFC East. Sure, the team went to nine Super Bowls from 2000 to 2020 and still holds the record for the most appearances by any NFL franchise (11), but those glory days are in the rearview and there’s little hope on the horizon (other than Drake Maye and a coaching reboot).
The ad blitz campaign contest on tap features a rematch of Super Bowl LVII (2023) in which the Kansas City Chiefs and all-world QB Patrick Mahomes beat the Philadelphia Eagles in a 38-35 thriller. It was the Eagles too in Super Bowl LII (2018) who notched their first Lombardi Trophy by beating the Brady-led Patriots 41-33. (The mystery and sting of the Malcolm Butler benching still lingers like the scent of floral flatulence in the wake of a weekend cleanse retreat.)
There is one here among us who has deep ties to the Chiefs, Eagles and Patriots alike and a personal and professional portfolio that’s a veritable who’s who from the gridiron to the White House: Upton Bell, who walked and talked for a series of catch-ups last week on the street, on the phone, at the gym and over email.
If the name doesn’t click, the Porter Square resident was the Patriots’ general manager in the early 1970s – the youngest in the NFL. His father, Bert Bell, founded and was owner of the Eagles. The connection to the Chiefs is something a bit more complicated (but we’ll get to that later).
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The film starts off on the morning of the big, titular day with Sonny going back and forth with his girlfriend Ali (Jennifer Garner) about who he might pick. And of course she has some big news to tell him, but his phone keeps ringing. Cleveland has the No. 1 pick in the draft and everyone wants it because there’s a QB out there who’s the next Tom Brady – interesting timing because the team that’s after him the most, the Seattle Seahawks, have Russell Wilson and just won the Super Bowl. It’s kind of the same post-shoot conundrum that afflicted “Fever Pitch” when the Red Sox won their first World Series in 86 years and the filmmakers had to scurry to stay with the times).
For What it's Worth 