History
Boston businessman Billy Sullivan Jr., talked about the possibility of an NFL franchise for Boston in 1958, but nothing came of the idea. In November of 1959, Sullivan got a call from Lamar Hunt, who was trying to organize a new professional league. Sullivan said he was interested, and the following week he attended an organizational meeting of what was to become the American Football League.
When the AFL began play in 1960, Sullivan's team was called the Boston Patriots. Unlike the other original AFL owners, Sullivan wasn't a wealthy man and the team was in almost constant financial trouble during its early owners. But, while several of the wealthy owners got rid of their interests and bailed out of the league, Sullivan managed to hang in, though he had to split ownership into a number of pieces to do it.
The Patriots never found a home in Boston, though they tried. They spent their first three seasons at Boston University's Nickerson Field, which had once been the home of baseball's Boston Braves. The team built a press box and remodeled the locker rooms there, but was then forced to move on. The next stop was Fenway Park, home of the Red Sox. The Patriots paid for a new scoreboard and new playing surface at Fenway but, after six seasons, they moved on to Boston College's Alumni Field, where they built a new parking lot and laid down another new field.
Stadium neighbors complained about the noise and traffic congestion, so the Patriots were forced to move again after one season. They went to Harvard Stadium, where the price of admission, once again, was a new playing surface. Harvard would let the Patriots use only one dressing room, which went to the visiting team, so the Patriots had to dress at a nearby motel and meet under the stands.
In the meantime, the AFL had merged into the NFL and Sullivan was under pressure from Commissioner Pete Rozelle to secure a stadium with a minimum seating capacity of 55,000, as required by the merger agreement.
Sullivan talked with the city and state about building a new stadium, but made little progress despite threats to move to Birmingham, Memphis, Seattle, Tampa, Montreal, or Toronto. Finally, he took the bold move of doing it on his own. It took both creative financing and creative construction, along with a donation of land from Foxboro Raceway, but the renamed New England Patriots opened the 1971 season in a brand new stadium in Foxboro, Massachusetts, approximately halfway between Boston and Providence, Rhode Island.
Cost of construction was only about $6 million, of which $1.5 million came from the Schaefer Brewing Company. Under the first naming rights agreement in professional sports history, the new home was called Schaefer Stadium.
During their first decade, the Patriots had somewhat more success on the field than they did in finding one. Mike Holovak, originally the team's player personnel director, took over as head coach after the Patriots had lost two of their first five games in 1961. He took them to a 7-1-1 record over the rest of the season.
After finishing second in the AFC's Eastern Division with a 9-4-1 record in 1962, the Patriots tied for the division lead the following season, even though they had only a 7-6-1 record. They won the divisional playoff game over the Buffalo Bills, 26-8, but were blown out by the San Diego Chargers, 51-10, in the AFL championship. It was 13 years before they played another post-season game.
The Patriots actually had their best AFL season in 1964, when they went 10-3-1, but that put them only in second place in the division. After winning a total of just seven games in 1967 and 1968, Holovak was replaced by Clive Rush, who was replaced by John Mazur midway through the 1970 season. And Mazur, in turn, was replaced by interim coach Phil Bengtson with one game left in the 1972 season. The Patriots went 15-41 over that four-year stretch.
With much fanfare, Chuck Fairbanks was brought in as head coach in 1973. Fairbanks, who had been very successful at the University of Oklahoma, patiently rebuilt the team into a contender. Despite an 11-3 record in 1976, the Patriots had to settle for second place in the AFC East and they lost their wildcard playoff game, 24-21, to the Raiders at Oakland.
After missing the playoffs in 1977, the Patriots won the division with an 11-5 record the following season, which concluded on a bizarre note. Word leaked out that Fairbanks had agreed to leave New England to coach the University of Colorado. When he confirmed the rumors, an infuriated Billy Sullivan suspended him for the team's final game. Offensive coordinator Ron Erhardt took over temporarily. The Patriots not only lost the game, 23-3, they lost quarterback Steve Grogan to a knee injury.
Fairbanks was reinstated for the team's playoff game against the Houston Oilers, but the turmoil and the loss of Grogan were too much to overcome. Houston won, 31-14, at Schaefer Stadium.
Many long-time fans think that Fairbanks' 1976-1978 squads had more over-all talent than any Patriots team before or since, including the recent Super Bowl champions. Grogan, tight end Russ Francis, speedy receiver Stanley Morgan, running backs Sam Cunningham and Horace Ivory, and linemen John Hannah, Leon Gray, and Pete Brock led a multi-dimensional offense. The defense was led by All-Pro cornerback Mike Haynes, hard-hitting safety Tim Fox, middle linebacker Steve Nelson, defensive end Julius Adams, and nose tackle Ray Hamilton. Hannah was the first Patriot inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame and Haynes, who later starred for the Oakland Raiders, was the second.
Erhardt replaced Fairbanks in 1979. After finishing second twice without making the playoffs, the team plummeted to a 2-14 mark in 1981 and Sullivan again went to the college ranks for a coach. This time, he hired Ron Meyer away from Southern Methodist University.
Meyer got the Patriots into the playoffs as a wildcard team in his first season, the strike-shortened season of 1982, but again they suffered a first-round playoff loss. In 1984, the team won five of its first seven games. After a 44-22 loss to Miami, though, Meyer fired defensive coordinator Rod Rust. Fans and media didn't like the move, so Sullivan fired Meyer and replaced him with Hall of Fame receiver Raymond Berry, who brought Rust back. After winning three of their first four games under Berry, the Patriots lost three in a row to drop out of playoff contention.
In 1985, Berry's first full season as coach, the team lost three of its first five while young quarterback Tony Eason struggled. Eason was injured in Game 6 and Grogan replaced him to lead the team to six straight wins. But then Grogan suffered a broken leg in a 16-13 overtime loss to the New York Jets, thrusting Eason back into the starting role. After two wins, the Patriots had a chance to take over first place in the division. The trouble was, they had to beat the Dolphins at Miami to do it, and they had lost 17 straight there. It became 18 straight losses, but the Patriots salvaged a wildcard berth by beating the Cincinnati Bengals in the final game of the season.
The Patriots proceeded to win at New York and at Oakland to advance to the AFC championship game, against the Dolphins in the Orange Bowl. This time, they snapped their losing streak with a 31-14 win to reach the Super Bowl for the first time.
In the Super Bowl, though, they came up against the powerhouse Chicago Bears, who boasted one of the best defenses in NFL history. After taking a 3-0 early lead, the Patriots were blown out, 46-10.
Berry took the team to first place in the division in 1986, but they were eliminated from the playoffs by the Broncos, 22-17, at Denver. After two second-place finishes that weren't good enough for wildcard berths, they slipped to 5-11 in 1989 and Berry was replaced by defensive coordinator Rust. He was fired after a woeful 1-15 season. Dick MacPherson brought them back to 6-10 in 1991, but they went 2-14 the following year and MacPherson was also fired.
In the meantime, the franchise had gone through two ownership changes and the stadium had gone through two name changes. It was renamed Sullivan Stadium after the team's founder and nominal owner in 1982. But on July 28, 1988, the Sullivan family sold the team to Victor Kiam, CEO of Remington Products, while Robert Kraft bought the stadium. He changed the name to Foxboro Stadium in 1990 and replaced the artificial turf with real grass in 1991.
The most notable event of Kiam's regime was a sexual harassment scandal. Lisa Olson, a reporter for the Boston Herald, entered the team's locker room after a 16-14 win over the Indianapolis Colts in 1990. She was sexually harassed and verbally assaulted by several players. After an investigation, the team was fined $50,000 and three players were individually fined for their actions.
The incident helped persuade Kiam that he didn't want to be in the football business, and in 1992 he sold the team to St. Louis businessman James B. Orthwein, prompting rumors that the franchise would be headed for St. Louis. Orthwein's biggest move, though, was to hire Bill Parcells, who had coached the New York Giants to two Super Bowl victories during the 1990s. The Patriots had the first pick overall in the 1993 NFL college draft. They selected Drew Bledsoe, an All-American quarterback from Washington State. After a 1-11 start, Bledsoe became more comfortable with the offense and guided the team to four straight wins.
In the meantime, rumors of an impending move to St. Louis continued to swirl around the franchise. They ended on January 21, 1994, when stadium owner Robert Kraft bought the team, as well. The Patriots rewarded their new owner with a 10-6 record, good for second place in the AFC East and a wildcard berth. However, that resulted in yet another first round playoff loss. After slipping back to 6-10 in 1995, the Patriots won the division title for the first time in 10 years. Then they beat the Pittsburgh Steelers, 28-3, and the Jacksonville Jaguars, 20-6. to earn their second trip to the Super Bowl.
This time, the Patriots made it interesting. Trailing the Green Bay Packers by two touchdowns at the half, they closed to 28-21 in the third quarter, only to give up a touchdown on the ensuing kickoff.
Again, the Patriots found themselves in a coaching controversy. There were rumors before and during the Super Bowl that Parcells had agreed to coach the New York Jets in 1987. Five days after the game, Parcells made it official. Because he still had one year remaining on his contract with the Patriots, the team was awarded four draft choices as compensation. Under Parcells' successor, Pete Carroll, the team declined each year, to 10-6, then 9-7, then 8-8. The 10-6 record, though, put them in first place in 1997, when they beat the Miami Dolphins, 17-3, in the wildcard game only to lose the Pittsburgh Steelers, 7-6, the following week. As a wildcard team in 1998, they lost in the first round of the playoffs.
After they failed to make the playoffs in 1999, the Patriots fired Carroll with two years left on his contract and decided to bring in Bill Belichick. That brought them into conflict with the Jets and Parcells again. After the Patriots asked for permission to talk to Belichick, who was the Jets' assistant head coach, Parcells abruptly resigned and appointed Belichick as his successor. After initially accepting. Belichick decided he didn't want the Jets' job after all.
Finally, the Patriots gave the Jets a first-round draft choice and signed Belichick. It turned out to be a very good move, though it may not have looked it at first. The team went 5-11 in Belichick's first season and lost their first two games in 2001. They also lost Bledsoe in the second game and were forced to go with untested Tom Brady at quarterback.
Brady and the Patriots shocked Indianapolis, 44-13, in Game 3. They went on to win the division title with an 11-5 record. After a first-round bye, things didn't look good in their divisional playoff game at Foxboro. In a heavy snowstorm, they trailed 13-10 when Brady apparently fumbled the ball away with 1:43 remaining.
But the play was reviewed and referee Walt Coleman ruled that it wasn't a fumble because Brady was attempting to tuck the ball away after bringing his arm forward. That made it an incomplete pass. The Patriots tied the game on a 45-yard field goal by Adam Vinatieri and won it in overtime on another Vinatieri kick. Then they beat the Steelers, 24-17, in the AFC championship game at Pittsburgh to get their third shot at the Super Bowl.
They weren't given much chance against the high-scoring St. Louis Rams, yet the Patriots had a 17-3 lead after three quarters. The Rams solved Belichick's defense to score two touchdowns in the fourth period, though. With 1:30 left, the Patriots got the ball back and they drove within Vinatieri field goal range. His 48-yard kick won the game.
In 2002, the Patriots moved into a brand-new stadium. Built by the Patriots at a cost of $325 million, it was originally called CMGI Stadium. But before the team even played there, CMGI Investments gave up its naming rights and the Gillette Company took over.
Located across from the site of Foxboro Stadium, Gillette Stadium seats 68.000. The Patriots played their first regular season game there on Sept. 9, 2002, a Monday night victory over the Pittsburgh Steelers.
That was the beginning of an up-and-down season. After winning their first three games, the Patriots lost four in a row, then won five of six to get into the playoff hunt. But two straight losses knocked them out of it again.
The 2003 season didn't start well, as the Patriots split their first four games. They followed that with a 15-game winning streak, culminating in their second Super Bowl victory in three years. And they kept right on going in 2004, running the winning streak to an NFL record 21 games before losing to the Steelers at Pittsburgh.
They had to go back to Pittsburgh for the conference championship game. This time, they beat the Steelers and won the Super Bowl for the second year in a row and the third time in four years. That gave the Patriots eight wins in eight playoff games under Bill Belichick.