Feeling Super

Well, if this doesn't get you excited for the upcoming high school football season, then nothing will.

The announcement earlier this month that six of the seven Eastern Mass. Super Bowls will be played at Gillette Stadium can be seen as nothing but great news for area gridiron fans.

Just as the TD BankNorth Garden provides an opportunity for hockey and basketball fans to see games at an affordable rate by hosting the high school championships in March, so it will be for football on Dec. 1 in Foxborough.

This isn't going to be one of those columns that bashes pro athletes and their followers. You'd be hard pressed to find a bigger fan than myself. But the reality is that some enthusiasts have been priced out of the new venues, with ticket prices going through the roof.

And no, I'm not lobbying for lower ticket prices to pro events, either. Hey, if 68,000 people file in for every Pats home game, why should the Krafts lower the price? And let's face it, we as fans don't exactly have anything to complain about in terms of how the Krafts invest their money. They've merely built a state of the art stadium, and turned the Patriots, who less then 20 years ago were a laughingstock, into the model professional franchise.

The only real surprise is that it took this long for the club to step up to host the Super Bowls, but a look at the field conditions the last few years answers that question. Of course, there was a time when the Super Bowls were held in Foxboro Stadium. But those were hardly looked at with the same enthusiasm as this year's will be. For one thing, Foxboro Stadium (or Sullivan Stadium, or Schaeffer Stadium) was a dump. With a few exceptions in the late 1970s and mid-1980s, there were always plenty of good seats available. Some of today's younger fans would be surprised to find out that the Pats were routinely blacked out of appearing on television in the local market, because it seemed they rarely sold out.

It all started to change in the early 90s. First, the playing surface at Foxboro Stadium was converted to grass instead of artificial turf. The turf at Foxboro Stadium had been blamed for cutting short some of the players' seasons in the late 80s, as several Patriots, including wide receiver Stanley Morgan, sustained serious knee injuries.

Like many teams at the time, the Patriots switched to grass. However, that effectively wiped out any chance that they would be able to host the high school Super Bowls as grass was more difficult to maintain, particularly as winter hit.

In 2002, the Patriots began playing in Gillette Stadium. In addition to being the home of the three-time Super Bowl champs, it has also hosted an MLS Cup, international soccer games, and several concerts. With both the Revolution and Pats using the stadium, it was taking the field longer to recover and was more difficult to maintain.

After one particularly bad game last year against the New York Jets, in which Tom Brady and the rest of the Pats never seemed to get solid footing, the Krafts received permission to change playing surfaces in the middle of the season. The Patriots went to FieldTurf, which combines the look and feel of grass with the durability of artificial turf.

Shortly after that, Bob Kraft talked about the idea of hosting the Super Bowls with the Globe's Mike Reiss: "We used to love hosting it at Foxboro Stadium. Kids work so hard during the year that if their prize is to play on an NFL field, that is pretty cool."

Indeed, as if playing to reach the Super Bowl isn't enough incentive, now high schoolers will be aiming to walk the same field as Tom Brady, getting dressed beforehand just a few doors down from the Patriots' locker room. Think that might serve as an extra incentive to some of the Bay State Conference and Hockomock League schools, who could be playing in their own backyard?

It's cool for the fans as well. Those that have been shut out for the first six years of the stadium's existence, now have an affordable way of getting in, while those relegated to the cheap seats can move on up to the front row, sitting at the 50-yard line.

I can't wait. Six games in 15 hours. Yikes! I'm just hoping it's one of those freakishly warm days. Maybe 60 or (gasp!) even 70 degrees. Heck, I'll settle for no rain and 40s. This should be a great day for football fans, on all levels.