1 Photo by Maddie Meyer/Getty Images
The New England Patriots are one of the most well-known teams in the NFL. The team is based out of the Greater Boston area in Massachusetts and is a member of the East Division of the AFC. The team has always fascinated me, though I’m not a big football fan.
I appreciate their resilience and the ability to come back from any challenge, virtually unscathed, stronger than ever.
So, I started looking into the Patriots’ story, and boy, was I surprised! The team is simply one of the best examples of professional sportsmanship. They have excelled in every benchmark and aspect of the sport.
The History
Established in 1959 as Boston Patriots, the team became New England Patriots in 1971. Significant victories and success have always been associated with the team. More importantly, the team has kept its spirit alive even after going through substantial transformations throughout its history.
New England Patriots have been very successful professionally. They have appeared in no less than 11 Super Bowls, winning six of them in the 2001-2018 time period. This ranks them among the most successful NFL franchises ever, sharing the crown with the Pittsburgh Steelers.
Tom Brady left the team in 2020, though Bill Belichick continues to coach. That hasn’t hurt the team’s morale, however. The Patriots continue to offer amazing performances.
Decades after making history, the team continues to maintain a strong fanbase while making a respectable effort to remain highly competitive in today’s football landscape.
Bill Belichick & Tom Brady Era
The majority of the team's modern success can be easily attributed to the partnership of head coach Bill Belichick and quarterback Tom Brady. Tom Brady is a football player of unparalleled renown, and his performance has been instrumental to the success of the Patriots and the reason why the team is so well-known in the US and beyond.
The team achieved truly unprecedented success under this leadership. They won no less than six Super Bowl championships (XXXVI, XXXIX, XLIX, LI, and LII) while making an appearance in a total of nine Super Bowls together (out of the total eleven).
The era is commonly called the "Belichick-Brady dynasty," and it's single-handedly responsible for cementing the team as one of the most dominant in NFL history.
Even if you try to find it today, you’ll see the majority of the team’s success and renown in this time period. In fact, two of the three biggest bets of all time in NFL history have been during this era—XXXVI and XLII.
Gillette Stadium
Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Massachusetts, is where the Patriots play their home games. The stadium opened in 2002 and has a seating capacity of 65,000 spectators in football games.
The stadium has hosted many playoff games as well as Super Bowl appearances for the Patriots. The name is almost synonymous with the team and has nationwide renown.
Most notably, the team changed five home stadiums before settling on Gillette Stadium for over two decades now! Here are the previous stadiums:
- 1960-1962: Nickerson Field
- 1963-1968: Fenway Park
- 1969: Alumni Stadium
- 1970: Harvard Stadium
- 1971-2001: Foxboro Stadium
- 2002-present: Gillette Stadium
Rivalries
The Patriots have had notable rivalries in NFL—Mainly with teams like the New York Jets, Miami Dolphins, and Indianapolis Colts. The games between these teams and the Patriots have been intense and memorable, to say the least.
The Patriots-Jets rivalry is the most well-known today, where the Patriots lead 73-54-1. This long-standing divisional rivalry in AFC East surely brings a lot of eyeballs from all over the world.
With the Dolphins (another AFC East team), the Patriots share a geographical proximity, which, as we all know, is a recipe for a classic rivalry between two competent teams.
The fierce Dolphins-Patriots matches have always been spectacular and a treat to watch.
The rivalry against the Colts didn’t develop fully until the 2000s. Fueled by multiple high-profile matches, the Tom Brady vs. Peyton Manning matchup was one of the highest moments of American football.
Wrapping Up
Having sold out every single home game, the Patriots are the most valuable sports team in the world after the Dallas Cowboys, currently valued at $6.40 billion (as per Forbes).
Such a prominent and respected franchise in NFL—For a reason! The Patriots are certainly the embodiment of football as a sport.
The league is dynamic, and it's very natural for the competitive landscape to change from year to year. But the Patriots have shown remarkable consistency throughout their existence, and it's been a delight to watch them put on a professional show every time.I’ve come a long way from pondering whether there will ever be a Canadian NFL franchise to today, writing a tribute to a global football favorite! So, naturally, I'm wondering, what do you think of the Patriots?
