New England Patriots
The New England Patriots, nicknamed as just the Pats by their fans and the media, is a member of the American Football team that is based in Foxborough, Massachusetts. They are, at present, a member of the American Football Conference, representing the Eastern Division in the National Football League. The team was originally named as the Boston Patriots but it was subsequently changed in 1971when they were relocated to Foxborough.
They were one amongst the original members of the American Football League when it started in the 1960’s. The Patriots were one amongst the handful of AFL teams who have been chosen to join the AFL-NFL merger back in 1970. The New England Patriots advanced to four playoff games before finally appearing in the 1986 Super Bowl XX, unfortunately losing to the Chicago Bears. The team also had their second Super Bowl appearance in 1997, losing against the Green Bay Packers.
However, between 2000 and 2005, things have changed for the New England Patriots, everything became better as they have won three Super Bowls in only four years (Super Bowl XXXVI, XXXVIII, XXXIX), making them the second team in the entire NFL history to have done such a feat, after the Dallas Cowboys. They are also currently the eighth team to have won back-to-back Super Bowls. Their recent success has prompted the media to tag then as the modern NFL dynasty.
The New England Patriots Football Team Franchise History
Billy Sullivan, a Boston executive, was awarded of the eight and final franchise of the fast-developing American Football League on November 16, 1959. Immediately after the approval of the franchise, locals were encourages to submit names to be used as the official name of the newly formed Boston team. The most popular and was then subsequently chosen was the Boston Patriots.
Training immediately began in July 4, 1960, just two moths before their first-ever game. The Patriots had their first game in September 9, 1960 against the Denver Broncos in also the very first AFL regular season. Unfortunately, they were defeated with a score of 13-10. In 1963, they reached their first AFL national championship games; they lost against the San Diego Charges wit ha score of 51-10. Unluckily, the Patriots missed to be included in the playoffs for the rest of the decade.
They started their second decade with substantial changes. They have joined the AFL-NFL merger and were merged in to the American Football Conference, where they still remained up to this very day. It was also in 1970 where they were moved to Foxborough, and subsequently known as the New England Patriots.
New England Patriots Logo And Uniforms
An artist named Phil Bissell originally hand crafted the Patriot logo back in 1960. The Logo consisted of a Revolutionary War minuteman from New England snapping a football, ironically not dressed with football gear. The first team owner William Sullivan gave the nickname Pat Patriot for the logo. Meanwhile, the New England Patriots uniforms were originally red with blue and white stripes for the sleeves. They also had white helmets and pants
In 1993, the team had their new owner, James B. Orthwein. Along with his entry to the team is also a rollout that changes were to be made to their existing logo and uniforms. The original Pat Patriot logo retired and was then changed with a stylized silhouette of a Patriot head wearing a red, white, and blue tricorn as a hat. This new logo was designed and created in partnership with the NFL Properties and eventually nicknamed, the Flying Elvis.
The New England Patriots uniforms were replaced from being red to dark blue, and both their pants and helmets changed from white to silver. In the modern day, particularly in the year 2000, the team made another changes to their uniform, although the Flying Elvis logo stayed, a darker tone of blue was used.