INDIANAPOLIS —
There’s no love lost in this Super Bowl host city for the New England Patriots, but it’s no crime to be a Pats fan.
Just ask Indianapolis police Officer Mike Andresen.
Emblazoned across his upper arm is a colorful collection of Patriot-themed tattoos, including “Patriot Pat” — the football-playing Revolutionary War minuteman that served as the longtime logo for the New England team.
Andresen, 39, has taken some grief in his hometown, where Indianapolis Colts fans love to loathe their longtime archrivals.
“But Indiana fans are pretty tame,” said Andresen. “They’re not like the hard core fans from the East Coast.”
The long sleeve on Andresen’s uniform has kept the tattoos hidden this week while he’s working the security detail at Lucas Oil Stadium, where the NFL championship game will be played Sunday.
But word of his Pats ‘tats have leaked out to some New England fans, who were happy to find a gun-toting protector of public safety in a city rooting for the Giants.
Andresen was locked in as a Patriots fan since the age of 12. That’s when he watched the Chicago Bears decimate the Patriots in Super Bowl XX, pounding them in a 46-10 loss.
Andresen likes underdogs, so he stayed loyal to the losers through some hard years. And he’s liked Patriots’ quarterback Tom Brady ever since Brady was chosen in the sixth round of the 2000 NFL draft.
So Brady, in his No. 12 uniform, is also tattooed on Andresen’s arm.
Andresen’s father, Indianapolis police Sgt. Edwin Andresen, tried to make his son a Colts fan. In the late 1980s, the senior Andresen worked security outside the old Colts stadium, where he was often gifted with tickets from disgruntled season ticket holders weary of their mediocre team.
That’s how the younger Andresen would get into the games, but he just never could catch Colts fever. Not even when quarterback Peyton Manning propelled the team to a series of winning seasons and a decade-long rivalry with the Patriots.
Andresen didn’t adorn himself with the tattooes until after the Patriots’ loss to the underdog Giants in Super Bowl XLII. At the Super Bowl party he’d hosted, he was the only Pats fan.
Not long after, Andresen went on a family vacation to Florida and had a moment of revelation on the beach.
“I decided it was time to come out completely as a Patriots fan,” Andresen said. “I decided it was no use hiding it anymore.”
That day, he headed for the tattoo parlor for a shoulder-to-elbow show of support. He intentionally asked for the scripted “Patriots” band to be tattooed right above the elbow, just below where his short-sleeved summer police uniform would reach.
“I was devastated by that (Super Bowl) loss,” Andresen said. “I thought it was time to show a little Patriot pride around Indianapolis.”
Maureen Hayden is Statehouse bureau chief for CNHI’s Indiana newspapers. She can be reached at Maureen.hayden@indianamediagroup.com.
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Indianapolis Police Officer Mike Andresen shows off his Patriots tattoos during a break on patrol at Lucas Oil Stadium. Mary Schwalm
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