Wes Welker Wins Over Fans at Macy's

The Macy’s Downtown Location in cooperation with Sports Radio 850 AM WEEI hosted a public appearance yesterday by New England Patriots Wide Receiver, Wes Welker.

I had the opportunity to attend the event last night and even got to meet Wes Welker. I arrived to the event around 4:30 PM which was one half hour before the 5:00 PM start time. Welker arrived shortly after 5:00 PM and answered a few questions.

Welker, wearing a Boston Red Sox hat, displayed great appreciation to the approximately 250 fans who were in attendance. Welker seemed upbeat on the heels of his team’s 17-14 Super Bowl loss to the New York Giants. Looking back on his first season in New England, Welker said “I’m just happy to be on a…very successful team.” The pause to me seemed to indicate Welker was instinctively going to refer to the Patriots as a “championship team” but for obvious reasons he left that out. Welker appeared to me to be a friendly man who was hesitant to talk on the microphone but very gracious and charming when talking person to person.

Welker then went on to say that he had become a Red Sox fan since arriving in New England but that he hadn’t made it to a game yet.
At 5:30 PM, I made it to the front of the line and met Welker. After shaking his hand and thanking him for coming, I asked him if I could get an autograph for a friend who hadn’t been able to make it. I told him that “she might cry if she doesn’t get one.” Welker said “you would make her cry” and I shot back “no Mr. Welker I think it would be you that would make her cry.”

I then asked him about the recent retirement of Bobby Knight, the basketball coach of his alma mater, Texas Tech. Welker said “I was disappointed to read that.” I then said to him well I’m sure you are “no stranger to playing for a disciplinarian to which Welker laughed and said “no I am very familiar.” I shook Welker’s hand, said goodbye, and then moved away from the table.

Welker answered a few questions as I was making my way out of Macy’s. He said that he had been a soccer player growing up and “that I always saw myself playing that (soccer) when I grew up.” Welker said that the hardest hit of the previous season had come from a Giant in the Super Bowl but that “I can’t remember who hit me—I guess I’ll have to check the film.”