DERRY - The New England Patriots game made legendary by a prisoner on a snowplow also marked Scott Flanders' foray into fandom.

"That's where it started for me," Flanders said yesterday, plopping a photograph from the "Snowplow Game" of Dec. 12, 1982, onto the coffee table in his living room.

The game, played in whiteout conditions at Schaeffer Stadium in Foxborough, Mass., was won by the Patriots, 3-0, in the final minutes.

Mark Henderson, on work release from MCI-Walpole, wheeled his mini snowplow off course while sweeping the line of scrimmage. To the delight of the crowd, he then cleared a swath of turf for kicker John Smith to gain his footing and bang a field goal through the uprights.

The game, against the Miami Dolphins, also was Flanders' first professional football game. The tickets were given to him by people at work, an asphalt plant where he was, and remains, the manager.

He didn't know what to expect at that first game.

Flanders and his three friends, in sneakers and light jackets, were underdressed for the freezing conditions, but he immediately warmed to the excitement of watching live football.

His excitement endured through thick and thin, even the lean years, when the Patriots lost many a game and people could hardly give away tickets.

At some games, fans could literally lay down on the stadium's bench seating because the attendance was so low.

That didn't deter Flanders.

He hasn't missed a Patriots home game since that day in 1982, neither exhibition nor regular season nor playoff game.

"It's kind of a Cal Ripken-like streak going - with attendance," Flanders said, referencing the former professional baseball player who holds the all-time record for consecutive games played - 2,632, all with the Baltimore Orioles between 1982 and 1998.

Flanders has been a season ticket holder since 1987, following the team through losing seasons, winning seasons, and this year's pursuit of perfection, a 19-0 season.

Flanders' two sons, Alex, 17, and Zac, 14, both Pinkerton Academy students, said their father never leaves football games early.

"If they are up by 30 or down by 30, he will stay until it's over," Zac said.

Flanders' wife, Pamela, was worried that her husband would miss the birth of their first child, Alex, if he went to a Patriots game near the baby's due date.

In the end, Alex obliged, arriving nine days beyond the due date.

For all his excitement for football, Flanders, 46, isn't the yell-and-scream type. But don't mistake the volume for the song.

"I'm passionate about football, New England Patriots football," he said, crossing and uncrossing his arms, crossing and uncrossing his legs, stretching his arms at his sides, and looking up at framed Patriots photographs.

That passion for live football will find an outlet this weekend when he and his wife attend Super Bowl XLII in Glendale, Ariz., sitting 36 rows up on the Patriots side of the field near the goal line.

Flanders and his wife were planning to go without tickets and the hope that they could score some through connections. His wife scored them late last week through some NFL connections that Flanders doesn't want to divulge.

Flanders' smile expressed his delight with the tickets. He put them on the table, looking like a poker player dropping four aces.

Still, it's all about the game, the strategy, the physicality, whether a regular season game or a Super Bowl, said Flanders, who grew up in Kingston and graduated from Sanborn Regional High School in 1979.

You never know what is going to happen, he said, recalling the game when former Patriot and New England icon Doug Flutie made history Jan. 1, 2006, by drop-kicking a ball though the uprights for an extra point. It was the first time a player had made a drop kick since 1941.

The Patriots lost that game, 28-26, to the Miami Dolphins, a game with no real bearing on the season. But Flanders was there until the end.

"I stayed," he said. "I was still interested."