If you ever went to a Patriots game with our dad, you heard it. Probably more than once.
“Hurry up, we gotta go!”
Our version of tailgating was Luciano’s. No folding chairs, no grill in a parking lot. A real meal, indoors, and vodka, not beer. Tito’s on the rocks, for him. Kickoff was usually at 4, and we’d get there around 1. Plenty of time by any normal measure.
Not by his. Somewhere between ordering and the check, it would start: hurry up, we gotta go.
He wasn’t the only one. Jimmy, a fellow oil company owner who’s had Patriots season tickets for decades, had the same routine: Luciano’s first. He’d walk in, see our dad, and yell, “Joe! Hurry up! We gotta go!” And our dad would yell it right back. We all knew the joke. We also knew they meant it.
Our dad didn’t want to miss the national anthem. It brought him to tears every time. This was a man whose insults landed like compliments, and the anthem got him every single time.
Here’s the part that still makes us laugh. He’d rush us out to get there early, and then he’d leave at the end of the third quarter to beat the Route 1 traffic. Early in, early out. Everything on his schedule.
We think about that line a lot now. He showed up early for the things that mattered to him, and for the people who mattered to him. That’s the whole idea behind this foundation: find people close to home who could use a hand, and show up for them.
On April 16, 2027, the anniversary of his passing, we’re hosting The Annual Joe Niccoli Invitational at Olde Scotland Links in Bridgewater. A four-person scramble, then dinner and awards. It’s our first event, and we want it to feel like him: a full field, people he cared about, and nobody late.
You can register a team, or sign up on your own. And if you’d like to follow along, sign up for our occasional email updates.
Hurry up. We gotta go.
Christina, Joey and Anthony
Your gift supports our work close to home, in Raynham, Bridgewater and Brockton.
DonateGiving back, the way he would have.