Haggis Joke, Tartan Army Takeover: Scotland Fans Embrace Boston

There's been some haggis controversy this week.

On Wednesday, a video of Governor Maura Healey swept social media with her signing a declaration stating the Scottish dish was now legal in the state of Massachusetts.

It looked like the Tartan Army's mission in Boston wasn't simply to drink the place dry of beer, inject fun into baseball matches, or donate generously to charities, it was to liberate the haggis from it's 55-year American exile.

That was until the bomb was dropped on Governor Healey's Instagram account 24 hours later.

"I have received countless messages from Massachusetts residents, Scotland supporters, legal experts, and at least one very concerned sheep," she wrote.

"After careful review by my office, I am prepared to clarify that this was, in fact, a joke."

Ah let's just lob the whole trip in the bin. What's the point?

While Scotland's supporters didn't manage to free some banned food stuffs, they have blown open the hearts of Bostonians who have embraced the takeover of their city in the last week and a half.

Just as well, because you can't get away from them.

There's not a statue left in the tri state area who now doesn't have a traffic cone for a hat, nor is there a sidewalk in Boston that hasn't had an unfortunate view up a kilt.

There's been - quite rightly - so much said about the tartan takeover of Fenway Park on Sunday night as the toiling Boston Red Sox were celebrated all the way to a limp 6-4 defeat to the Texas Rangers.

An on-screen proposal was done to the backing vocal of 10,000 Scots singing about John McGinn, a row of Sox fans had their view obstructed by two men doing the Gay Gordons in front of them, and organist Josh Kantor kept the hits coming while displaying a "No Scotland No Party" sign while on screen.

Jings, a Scot even managed to scoop the 50/50 draw jackpot. What a night he'll have had.

Two days later, thousands of Scots returned for Pride Night as the Toronto Blue Jays fluttered into town. There's now talk of thousands descending on the Miami Marlins game next week in south Florida.

At last, all those games of school rounders are paying off.

But the love affair here has gone way beyond baseball, this has been a glorious embracing of two cultures. A point underlined by the news Boston Mayor Michelle Wu has declared a sister city application with Glasgow.

Fittingly, she did so in a Scottish pub wearing a Scotland football jersey.

Tens of thousands of football fans swarming to a city for a major tournament is nothing new, but it is the manner of the revelry here that has set it apart.

At the time of writing, there has not been one arrest of a Scotland fan either in Boston or Providence, another nearby stronghold of the Tartan Army.

The ground work for this Boston bash was laid two years ago in Bavaria. At the last European Championships, Marienplatz felt like it held more Scots within it than Motherwell.

Again, Scotland fans were lauded for their behaviour, generosity and patter.

Alas, the football did its best to ruin the party.

That is perhaps one key difference to this shin dig, apart from the obvious step up in excitement from a Euros to their first World Cup in 28 years.

What mood the Tartan Army would have been in if the opener against Haiti had turned into a disaster we will never know. Although, I'd say it would not have made a dent.

The team on the pitch have done their bit to keep the party in full swing and a point against Morocco on Friday could trigger a tidal wave of celebration flooding back into Boston that night the likes they've never seen.

The best way to describe it is this has been the trip of a lifetime for people who are still in their 20s. There's a genuine appreciation from Scotland fans that they have waited this long to see their team at a World Cup, that it may be another three decades before it happens again.

And, even if it did, nothing could rival the week in Boston they've just had, regardless of what Miami holds.

For near enough a week, Scotland had the city to itself. Now it has become a tapestry of nations settling into one of the warmest, most welcoming place on the Charles River they could have hoped to visit.

Who knows, they may be back here if they are one of the best third-placed teams.

What will be the Tartan Army's Boston legacy as the sporrans are soon to get packed away and the online check-ins start for flights to Miami?

Their generosity? Their good spirit? Their ability to alert some locals to the fact the World Cup is even happening?

Perhaps all of the above. Just not a haggis supper.