He thought it was a sure thing, but now he has a tattoo declaring the Patriots won a game they never reached. 
 
 Now, Burke O'Connell may need to wear long pants for life, or at least until he leaves Massachusetts. 
 
 O'Connell's tattoo declaring the Patriots the winners of Super Bowl 50 was finished last week, before the team's 20-18 AFC Championship loss in Denver. 
 
 "Honestly, I just had a bad feeling right in the beginning, and they started losing," said O'Connell. 
 
 He has a lot of tattoos, but the latest was completed Friday night by friend and artist 'MilkTatz.' 
 
 Despite identifying himself as a fan of the Miami Dolphins, Milk has actually done tattoos for a lot of Patriots players. He says the work he did on O'Connell's left calf seemed like a sure thing. 
 
 "That's why I said, 'Let's write the word champs on top. Let's not just put Super Bowl 50. Let's put champs,'" he explained. 
 
 O'Connell said he plans to keep the tattoo covered up until he returns home to neutral ground in Los Angeles on Thursday. 
 
 "They're champs anyway. We got four rings," he said. "We're the best anyway regardless if we win or lose." 

 Burke O’Connell got a tattoo on his calf celebrating the Patriots as the Super Bowl champions, but the team lost in the AFC champsionship game to the Denver Broncos. 
 
 The New England Patriots couldn’t stave off the Denver Broncos last Sunday to clinch the AFC Championship title. 
 
 And they definitely — to the chagrin of Patriots Nation — won’t be appearing in this year’s historic Super Bowl 50. 
 
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 But a black-and-white tattoo that stretches along the calf of Massachusetts native Burke O’Connell tells a very different story. 
 
 Two days before the Patriots lost to the Broncos at the Sports Authority Field, O’Connell had a tattoo inked into the back of his leg proclaiming the New England team as Super Bowl champions. 
 
 The tattoo, which was done by O’Connell’s friend “Milk Tatz,” a Miami-based artist, shows a gleaming Lombardi Trophy rising above the Patriots logo. Etched within the image is the Boston skyline, and the number “50.” The word “Champs” appears in large cursive letters above the trophy. 
 
 But champs the Patriots are not. 
 
 “Right when they started losing on Sunday, I was like, ‘Oh, man, this isn’t good.’ I just had that gut feeling. I knew it wasn’t going to end well. I knew it,” said O’Connell, a 31-year-old former motocross competitor who now lives in Los Angeles. 
 
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 O’Connell said he had strongly believed that the Patriots would win the AFC championship and then advance to the Super Bowl to grab the title for a second year in a row. 
 
 Even though his home team lost, and people called him a “jinx,” O’Connell doesn’t regret jumping to conclusions — the tattoo has brought him some attention, and has turned into a conversation piece. 
 
 When he and Milk Tatz showed up at a club on Tuesday night, people recognized them instantly, he said, and asked to take photos with the tattoo. 
 
 Milk Tatz said that the image has gone viral, and O’Connell’s mistake has helped bring him a bit of recognition as an artist, even though he already has a fan base and has done tattoos for many NFL players, he said. 
 
 “This is by far the least worse situation me and Burke have been in,” Milk Tatz said. In fact, O’Connell admits, a tattoo of a girlfriend’s name that ran along the base of his chin was far worse than his Patriots mishap. After the couple broke up, he covered the tattoo with skulls. 
 
 “I can’t say ‘live and learn,’ because I didn’t live and learn,” O’Connell said. “But the memories. That’s what tattoos are there for. This one I’ll never forget.”
– A New England Patriots fan was a bit premature when he got a tattoo declaring the team champions of a game they never reached—yet he says he has no regrets. Burke O'Connell, 31, says he strongly believed the Patriots would win the AFC Championship and advance to the Super Bowl. The Massachusetts native had a friend ink the celebratory tattoo across his calf two days before the Patriots lost to the Denver Broncos 20-18. The black-and-white tattoo depicts a Lombardi Trophy rising above the Patriots' logo, along with the Boston skyline, the number "50," and the word "Champs." "Honestly, I just had a bad feeling right in the beginning [of the game], and they started losing," he tells WCVB. O'Connell, who now lives in Los Angeles, tells the Boston Globe he has no regrets, though. He says his chin tattoo of an ex-girlfriend's name—now covered up with skulls—was much worse. "I can't say 'live and learn,' because I didn't live and learn," O'Connell tells the Globe. "But the memories. That's what tattoos are there for. This one I'll never forget."