Uncover all the hidden pop culture references in A Song of Ice and Fire

New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick watches the first half of an AFC Wild Card game against the Tennessee Titans at Gillette Stadium Saturday, Jan. 4, 2020 in Foxborough, Mass.

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The NFL

George R.R. Martin is a big fan of New York football, writing often about the triumphs and tragedies of the Jets and the Giants. Back in 2007, the undefeated New England Patriots were bested by the New York Giants in the championship, and Martin gladly wrote it into A Dance with Dragons:

"…the fourth and final volume of The Life of the Triarch Belicho, a famous Volantene patriot whose unbroken succession of conquests and triumphs ended rather abruptly when he was eaten by giants."

“Triarch Belicho” is a reference to Bill Belichick, coach of the Patriots.

Then there’s the character Ser Patrek of King’s Mountain. I’ll let Martin explain this one himself:

"Well there’s this guy named Patrick St. Denis, who runs a fantasy website called Pat’s Fantasy Hotlist. And Pat is a big Dallas Cowboys fan. So we would have a standing bet for a number of years about whether the Dallas Cowboys or the New York Giants would do better. And I won the bet the first two years. But finally, in the third year the Cowboys finished ahead of the Giants. And what I had to do if he won the bet was to kill him horribly within the books."

Ser Patrek was a clean-shaven knight who wore a cloak of white fur and a cloth-of-silver surcoat emblazoned with a blue five-pointed star, not unlike the Dallas Cowboys logo. Like Belicho, his death would come at the hands of giants. Ser Patrek was killed by Wun Wun, a nod to past New York Giants quarterback Phil Simms, whose jersey number was 11.

Those are only a few of the more popular Easter eggs readers can find in Westeros. There are plenty of other references out there, both speculative and confirmed. With Martin hard at work on The Winds of Winter, maybe he’s adding more Muppet-themed Tullys as we speak.

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