NATCHEZ — Many Miss-Lou football fans will be torn Sunday when former Trinity Episcopal and LSU standout Stevan Ridley takes his New England Patriots up against former Ole Miss star quarterback Eli Manning and the New York Giants.

With the black and gold out of the title hunt, most local fans will have to come up with new criteria for choosing their favorite team come Super Bowl Sunday.

But there are a couple of local fans who will have no problem picking between Giants and Patriots Sunday, because their allegiances have been with New England for many years.

Robert Otkins was born in Mississippi but moved to Springfield, Mass., when he was approximately 10 years old.

It was then that he started to develop his love of NFL football, and the natural choice for a boy living in Massachusetts was the Patriots.

It only took one visit to a Patriots home game to seal the deal.

“When I was younger in elementary school we got tickets to a game and since then I converted,” he said. “But at the beginning it was like being a Saints fan (used to be). We didn’t have a real good team. You had to be a die-hard fan. You had to like the team, because it wasn’t really good at first.”

Otkins said many of the non-Patriot fans used to rip him pretty hard about how bad his team was.

“I got really ridiculed back then,” he said. “They always said their team was playing the practice squad not the Patriots. I got a lot of ribbing from the other kids that liked other teams.”

But Otkins’ loyalty finally paid off when the Patriots started seeing some success and now his team is arguably the best franchise in the league.

“It’s a great feeling (when the Patriots win the Super Bowl),” he said. “And then to come back and know we’re the only team that’s been to five in the last 10 years and won three with a pretty good record (in those Super Bowls — 3-1). Hopefully we can step that up.”

Otkins said he started his fandom with Patriots heroes like Sam Cunningham and Darryl Stingley, and he has since moved on to Tom Brady, Jerod Mayo, Wes Welker and now Stevan Ridley.

Otkins said he would spend Sunday at home watching the game by himself — his wife, Angela, and daughter, Avari, are going to watch the game with family.

“I have to watch it at home, because I’m one of those that yells at the TV every play,” he said. “I will be (at the house) and go crazy for a little while, so (my family) vacates the house on game day because it’s kind of raucous.

“There will be a whole lot of praying, eating and cheering. Hopefully we can revenge our undefeated season when the Giants beat us (in the Super Bowl).”

Otkins said he would watch the game live, but he would also DVR it in case the Patriots win.

“I still DVR it, and I’ll watch it like 10 to 12 times and watch it like I’ve never seen it before,” he said.

Jerry Lee Williams is another Natchez-native who will be cheering for New England Sunday.

Although he has lived in Natchez all his life, he became a big Patriots fan in the early 1990s when they hired Bill Parcels to coach the team.

“I always like Parcels, and the Patriots had been down for years and he made the team successful,” Williams said.

Williams said he is a big Tom Brady fan, and he will be sporting his Patriots No. 12 jersey Sunday.

“I am going to a Super Bowl party,” he said. “I’m excited. I will be doing play-by-play on Facebook.”

Both New England fans predicted a Patriots’ win Sunday night. Williams said he thinks New England will win 24-23, and Otkins said he is picking his team to win by less than a touchdown.