New England Patriots

The New England Patriots are a professional American football team based in the Greater Boston area. The Patriots compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the American Football Conference (AFC) East division. The Patriots play home games at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Massachusetts, 22 miles (35 km) southwest of Boston. As of 2024, the Patriots are the second-most valuable sports team in the world and have sold out every home game since 1994.

Founded in 1959 as the Boston Patriots, the team was a charter member of the American Football League (AFL) before joining the NFL in 1970 through the AFL–NFL merger. The Patriots played their home games at various stadiums throughout Boston, including Fenway Park from 1963 to 1969, until the franchise moved to Foxborough in 1971 and changed its name to the New England Patriots. Founding owner Billy Sullivan sold the team in 1988, and it was sold twice more until it was purchased by current owner Robert Kraft in 1994. Home games were played at Foxboro Stadium until 2002 when the stadium was demolished alongside the opening of Gillette Stadium.

The team had mixed results during its first four decades, spending half of each decade near the top of the league with championship game appearances in all but the 1970's, when they had what is still widely considered one of their best teams ever in 1976. The other half of each decade included records at or near the bottom of the standings. Negative local media coverage emphasizing their failures encouraged national perception of the franchise as hapless, in contradiction of their substantial number of wins during their competitive seasons. Three years removed from their last playoff appearance, they experienced unexpected success in the 2001 season under head coach Bill Belichick and quarterback Tom Brady, which started a 19-year period of dominance. The Brady–Belichick era, regarded as one of the greatest sports dynasties, saw the Patriots claim nearly every major Super Bowl record. The Patriots hold the records for most Super Bowl wins (6, tied with the Pittsburgh Steelers), appearances (12), and losses (6). In every year of the franchise's existence, there has been at least one player on the active roster who participated, or would go on to participate, in the league championship game with the Patriots.

Other NFL records held by the franchise include the most wins in a 10-year period (126 from 2003 to 2012), the longest winning streak of regular season and playoff games (21 from October 2003 to October 2004), the most consecutive winning seasons (19 from 2001 to 2019), the most consecutive conference championship appearances (8 from 2011 to 2018), the most consecutive division titles (11 from 2009 to 2019), the only undefeated 16-game regular season (2007), the most postseason victories (40, tied with the San Francisco 49ers), and the highest postseason winning percentage (.635).

History

AFL years (1959–1970)

On November 16, 1959, Boston business executive Billy Sullivan was awarded the eighth and final franchise of the developing American Football League (AFL). The following winter, locals were allowed to submit ideas for the Boston football team's official name. The most popular choice – and the one that Sullivan selected – was the "Boston Patriots", with "Patriots" referring to the colonists of the Thirteen Colonies who rebelled against British control during the American Revolution and in July 1776 declared the United States of America an independent nation, which heavily involved the then–colony of Massachusetts. Immediately thereafter, artist Phil Bissell of The Boston Globe developed the "Pat Patriot" logo.

The Patriots never had a regular home stadium in the AFL; home games were played at various times at Boston University Field, Harvard Stadium, Fenway Park (shared with baseball's Boston Red Sox), and Boston College's Alumni Stadium. The 1963 season saw the franchise's first playoff win over Buffalo to clinch the division. They subsequently lost the AFL championship game to the San Diego Chargers 51–10. They did not appear again in an AFL or NFL post-season game for another 13 years.

Post-merger years (1970–2000)

When the NFL and AFL merged in 1970, the Patriots were placed in the American Football Conference (AFC) East division, where they still play. The following year, the Patriots moved to a new stadium in Foxborough, Massachusetts, their home for the next 30 years. They announced a new name, the Bay State Patriots, after the state of Massachusetts, but the NFL rejected it; on March 22, 1971, the team said they would change its geographic name to New England.

During the 1970s, the Patriots had considerable success under head coach Chuck Fairbanks, earning a berth in the playoffs in 1976 – as a wild card team – and in 1978 – as AFC East champions. They lost in the first round both times.

After barely missing the postseason in two of the next three years under Ron Erhardt, the next coach, Ron Meyer, led the team to the playoffs in the strike-shortened 1982 season. That season, during a December 12, 1982, home game against the Miami Dolphins under icy conditions, the game remained scoreless until the fourth quarter when Meyer motioned to snowplow operator Mark Henderson to specifically clear a spot on the field for New England kicker John Smith so he could kick what proved to be the game-winning 33-yard field goal to give the Patriots a 3–0 win. At the time, an emergency ground rule was put into play where the officials could call time-out and allow the ground crew to use a snowplow to clear the yard markers, but not plow often enough to keep the field clear. Dolphins head coach Don Shula, believing it to be against the league rules, pointed out that the league's unfair act clause allowed the league to overturn it, and met with NFL commissioner Pete Rozelle several days later to formally protest the game result. Although Rozelle agreed with Shula that the use of the plow gave the Patriots an unfair advantage, he said that he had never reversed the result of a game and was not going to start doing so for any reason. Both men ignored the fact that what the Patriots did was not illegal and did not violate any rule, and further, that game Referee Bob Frederic offered the same opportunity to Shula for any subsequent attempts by his kicker, Uwe von Schamann, which Shula refused. Henderson, a convict on work release, jokingly remarked, "What are they gonna do, throw me in jail?"

The following year, the NFL banned the use of snowplows on the field during a game. The Patriots organization has commemorated the game with an exhibit at the Hall at Patriot Place within Gillette Stadium, where the plow itself hangs from the ceiling. Meyer never had a losing record but was fired in 1984 due to poor relationships with players and management. He was replaced by Hall-of-Fame player Raymond Berry, who in 1985 led the team to its first AFC Championship and a berth in Super Bowl XX, which they lost to the Chicago Bears 46–10. Berry left the team after a disappointing 1989 season, and local hero and Heisman Trophy winning quarterback Doug Flutie, who had led the team to the brink of the playoffs in 1988 before being benched by Berry, was released. While Flutie, after not being picked up by any other NFL team, proceeded to set passing and rushing records, winning 6 Most Outstanding Player awards, 3 Grey Cup championships and 3 Grey Cup MVP awards during the next eight years in the CFL, the Patriots plummeted to the bottom of the NFL standings. Berry's replacement Rod Rust only lasted one season, 1990, during which the Patriots went 1–15.

Ownership turmoil

During the late 1980s and early 1990s, the Patriots changed ownership several times, being purchased from the Sullivan family first by Victor Kiam in 1988, who sold the team to James Orthwein in 1992. Though Orthwein's period as owner was short and controversial, he did oversee major changes to the team, first with the hiring of former New York Giants coach Bill Parcells in 1993. Orthwein and his marketing team then defied Patriots fans' overwhelming preference and commissioned the NFL to develop a new visual identity and logo, and changed their primary colors from the traditional red, white and blue to blue and silver for the team uniforms. Orthwein intended to move the team to his native St. Louis (where it would have been renamed as the St. Louis Stallions), but instead sold the team in 1994 for $175 million to Boston paper magnate Robert Kraft, who had bought the Patriots' then-home, Foxboro Stadium, out of bankruptcy in 1988.

Continuing on as head coach under Kraft's ownership, Parcells would bring the Patriots to two playoff appearances, including Super Bowl XXXI (after the 1996 season), which they lost to the Green Bay Packers by a score of 35–21. Pete Carroll, Parcells's successor, would also take the team to the playoffs twice in 1997 and 1998 before being dismissed as head coach after the 1999 season.