WALTHAM, Mass. -- Longtime New England Patriots fan Gary Bell was having a conversation with his 17-year-old son the morning of Super Bowl LIII, and his anxiety was high.
"I was so worked up. I get way too into it and I didn't know what to expect, and I said to him, 'If this is another 2- or 3-point Super Bowl, I'm going to have a heart attack. I can't take another game like that,'" Bell recalled.
"I was joking, but then I actually had one."
Bell's story has a happy, healthy ending, which is why the 51-year-old police officer in Waltham, a city just west of Boston with about 62,000 residents, can now tell it with smiles and laughter.