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FOXBOROUGH — As I stood on the Gillette Stadium concourse holding my sign on Friday afternoon, people were looking at me funny.
Amused? Perplexed? Confused? It was hard to tell. I didn’t care.
What started as a silly idea, took on a life of its own, which is how I came to be holding up a homemade sign trying to convince a Norway fan to trade me his hat.
Let’s backtrack a bit.
Among the images that stuck with me from the first World Cup game I ever watched was the hats. It was Scotland vs. Norway in a group stage match at the 1998 World Cup. As the television camera scanned the crowd, there were hundreds of Viking hats among the Norwegian contingent.
I loved the nerdy intersection of fandom and history. I vowed if I made it to the northern European nation, I would buy one. But time passed, I never made it to Norway and I largely forgot about the hats, until just over a week ago when Norway played Iraq at Gillette. Their fans arrived in droves, many wearing Viking hats.
The concept is simple — a dome in the middle with short horns on either side. But part of the appeal is that no two hats were alike. They varied in material — cloth, plastic, metal — and quality.
Some could have been cheap promotional giveaways at “Viking Hat Night” when HamKam hosted Sandefjord in a key Eliteserien showdown. While other looked like Russian fur winter hats with horns affixed. Many seemed lovingly handmade.
All of them appealed to me. I wanted one and this time I was determined.
It’s obviously not that hard to get a Viking hat. Amazon sells them as part of a “Horned Berserker Helmet” costume and I’m sure Minnesota’s NFL franchise has several varieties for sale.
But I wanted one from Norway, preferably one that had seen some action. Maybe it had been worn during their group stage wins over Senegal or Iraq. Maybe in their 4-1 win over Italy in qualifying.
Whether it was worn in the stadium or a pub didn’t matter. It just had to be something that had been worn while celebrating an Erling Haaland goal or yelling at a bad call on TV. I wanted a game-worn fan Viking hat.
My plan was simple. I bought a brand new Patriots hat to trade with a Norwegian fan for headwear with horns at Friday’s game against France.
I liked my chances. Sports fans traveling abroad are often looking for souvenirs from the local team. But FIFA cleared out all Patriots gear from Gillette Stadium for the length of the World Cup. The Pats team store is squatting like a Spirit Halloween in space that I think used to house the Christmas Tree Shop over by Bass Pro Shop.
A hat made the most sense. I was asking for a hat and one-size fits most. I found a new Patriots hat, in colors that matched Norway’s red, white and blue uniforms.
I have no idea if this is a fair trade or not. I spent 25 American dollars on the Pats cap. I don’t know how many krone a Viking cap goes for back in Oslo.
So, with art supplies that I purchased Friday morning at a grocery store, I made a sign in the press box and headed downstairs. MassLive photographer Sebastian Restrepo agreed to video this and Peyton Doyle came along to see if I’d make a fool of myself.
I started on the concourse underneath the Patriots Super Bowl Banners and quickly realized that this end of the field was largely French fans.
We saw two French guys in Napoleon-style bicorne hats with France jerseys on. One said Bonaparte and one said Lafayette. Had either of them offered me their hat, I might have accepted.
Norway battled against France during a World Cup match at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Mass. on Friday, June 26, 2026.(Sebastian Restrepo/MassLive)
Moving to a spot near the FIFA merchandise stand greatly improved foot traffic, but still didn’t deliver a hat.
Most of the fans who weren’t wearing Viking hats seemed amused. They smiled and wished me well. Some even took my picture.
The fans who were wearing Viking hats weren’t sure what to do. Some read my sign and tried not to make eye contact. I felt like a craft fair vendor trying to convince someone to buy hand-painted coasters that are nice, but not $50 nice.
I got a few almosts. A kid said he would have made the deal if the Patriots cap’s brim was flat and not the dad-hat curved one that I bought.
One guy looked at the Patriots cap disdainfully and, in a thick Norwegian accent, said:
“I’m a Saints fan. Who dat.”
And then kept walking.
A guy in a Mexico shirt took pity on me. He reached into his bag and offered me a luchador mask. I thought he was offering it as an alternative trade, but it was a gift. I gleefully accepted and then posed for a picture with his son.
I was starting to wonder if I might strike out when we moved to a third location, to the left of Gillette’s signature lighthouse where people came in.
But then I saw a guy and his wife reading my sign from a safe distance. He looked at me, perhaps deciding if I was on the level or scamming him. When he started to raise his arm to his head, I knew.
“I’ll do that.”
He told me that they were Norwegians living in London, who’d come over for the World Cup. He pulled on his new cap.
“My Yankee supporting friends are not going to be happy,” he said.
MassLive Sports Columnist Matt Vautour traded a Patriots hat for a Viking hat with an unnamed Norwegian fan at Gillette Stadium on Friday, June 26, 2026 during a World Cup match between Norway and France in Foxborough, Mass.(Sebastian Restrepo/MassLive)
I don’t know if he realized that the Patriots and Yankees play different sports or not, but I didn’t care. I had my Viking hat. Mission accomplished.
The Germans are here on Monday. Do I have anything I could trade for lederhosen?
More World Cup 2026 Coverage
- Team of the Group Stage: Best XI players from the World Cup at Gillette Stadium
- Lionel Messi won’t start Argentina’s World Cup group finale match vs. Jordan
- World Cup: Why did Erling Haaland and Martin Ødegaard not play for Norway against France?
- World Cup: Win for France sets up potential return to Gillette for quarterfinal
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