Longtime New England Patriots fan Jerry Edmond was just trying to enjoy his first-ever NFL game when the verbal abuse began.
"It all started when the woman comes up to me and she tells me it is disrespectful that I am cheering for the Patriots in the Raiders' stadium," Edmond said Thursday.
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Edmond was with is friends in Las Vegas, excited to watch the Patriots play against the Las Vegas Raiders.
Edmond says as the game went on, so did the verbal abuse.
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"At first I didn't fully understand what she was saying, I kind of just brushed it off and let it go," Edmond said. "My best bet is just to kind of sit here and ignore you."
As the intensity of the abuse continued, Edmond just let the two fans berate him, hoping it might just stop. A video of Edmond's calm under pressure has gone viral, viewed some 8 million times.
"I didn't want this woman to ruin my day, ruin this, because at the end of the day, it was still my first experience at an NFL game," he said. "I didn't want my day to get ruined, or anyone else's day, so I tried to keep my cool there."
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Back home, Edmond says he received a surprise phone call from Patriots owner Robert Kraft.
In the voicemail, Kraft thanked Edmond for keeping his cool.
"I think you represented our brand in a very classy way," Kraft said in the message. "I love to see that you stayed true and first-class in an environment that could have been provoking."
Edmond says he appreciated the phone call. The Patriots also gave him two tickets to Saturday's game, a custom jersey and two field-passes to watch pre-game warm-ups.
"In my case, I am always going to be the bigger person," he said. "I just hope other people can see that and gain inspiration from that."
