New England Patriots

NFL team the New England Patriots, aka “Pats” by their fans, are an American football team that plays their home games in Foxborough, Mass, which is part of the greater Boston area. This makes them part of the American Football Conference’s Eastern Division, which of course is part of the NFL. The team used to be called the Boston Patriots before relocating to Foxborough in the early 1970’s. Foxborough is 22 miles away from downtown Boston.

Here are some interesting facts about the New England Patriots:

• The Patriots are presently the defending AFC Champions, including the recent 2007 AFC Championship game.
• The Pats have won three Super Bowl Championships: 2001, 2003, and 2004.
• They’ve won six AFC Conference Championships: 1985, 1996, 2001, 2003, 2004, and 2007.
• In 1963, they won an AFL Division Championship, and they would later go on to win ten more Division Championships with the AFC East: 1978, 1986, 1996, 1997, 2001, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, and 2007.
• During the 2007 regular season, The Pats had a perfect 16-0 record. This made them the fifth undefeated team in the league’s history during the regular season, and the ONLY team to go undefeated since the regular seasons were expanded to 16 games. They ended up at 18-1 at the end of the season, after being defeated by the San Francisco Giants during the Super Bowl.

The Patriots have had four successful players enter the Pro Football Hall of Famers:
# 73 John Hannah, who was elected in 1991; # 40 Mike Haynes, CB, 1976–82, who was elected in 1997; # 85 Nick Buoniconti, who was elected in 2001; and #56 Andre Tippett, who was just elected this year. The team’s own Hall of Fame has thirteen inductees, in addition to several other notable alumni over the years.

Currently, the team’s head coach is Bill Belichick, who was previously with the Cleveland Browns. Since becoming head coach for The Pats in 2000, he has led them to three Super Bowl victories, as well as the undefeated regular season this past year. He has also brought misfortune to the team as well, thanks to the 2007 “Spygate” incident that cost the team a $250,000 fine. He himself was fined $500,000. This was all due to NFL security catching a video assistant for the team taping the defensive signals of the New York Jets.

Head Coach Bill Belichick still went on to become the pick for the 2007 NFL Coach of the Year Award. So far in the current 2008 season, the Patriots still have a high winning streak.