The 25 Best Sports Bars in New Hampshire and Massachusetts

Editor's note: This article was written by a Townsquare Media Northern New England contributor and may contain the individual's views, opinions, or personal experiences.

Game days in New England. Ahhhh, the best.

Picture a Sunday 1 PM Patriots game. If you are not going to the game, you might find yourself at a sports bar at 11 AM.

Why so early? Because it is GAME DAY.

The vibes at most sports bars are unmatched during a game. I use Mojo's in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, and the Winners Circle in Salisbury, Massachusetts, as examples.

If you go into either of those places between 11 and 12 before a 1 PM game, the bars start to have an energy. And it builds, and builds, and BUILDS.

People are having a late breakfast/early lunch. People are starting to have a few beers to get ready for the game. People are meeting new friends, playing keno, and placing bets, all for that 1 pm kickoff.

The second the game starts, everyone in the facility is your friend. Everyone is there to see the same thing - a New England or Boston sport team victory.

Huge play? High fives all around. It doesn't matter who you are, or where you are sitting. Everyone high fives.

Touchdown/goal? Beers. Beers. Beers. Drink, celebrate, get loud, and get another!

Some say, and this is certainly me sometimes, that the best place to watch a game/spend a game day is at home. And that is certainly true sometimes. I thoroughly enjoy drinking my own beer, in my own seat, with no one around me talking to or disturbing me.

That said, being surrounded by other fans on a game day is more fun.

You cheer, they cheer. You drink, they drink. You get mad, they get mad. It is just a bunch of people with similar interests together in the same place.

Strangers become friends, and friends become family at these kinds of sports bars.