NEW ENGLAND PATRIOTS

The New England Patriots, commonly called the "Pats" by sports writers and fans,[1] are a professional American football team based in the Greater Boston area, playing their home games in the town of Foxborough, Massachusetts. The team is part of the Eastern Division of the American Football Conference (AFC) in the National Football League (NFL). The owners changed the name from the original Boston Patriots after relocating the team to Foxborough in 1971, although Foxborough is a suburb of Boston, only 22 miles away. They are currently the American Football Conference Champions, after winning the 2007 AFC Championship Game.

An original member of the American Football League (AFL), the Patriots joined the NFL in the 1970 merger of those leagues. The team advanced to the playoffs four times before appearing in Super Bowl XX in January 1986, losing to the Chicago Bears. The team also appeared in Super Bowl XXXI in 1997, losing to the Green Bay Packers.

Between 2001 and 2005, the Patriots became the second team in NFL history (after the Dallas Cowboys) to win three Super Bowls in four years (Super Bowl XXXVI, XXXVIII, and XXXIX), and the eighth to win consecutive Super Bowls. As Boston Globe sports columnist Dan Shaughnessy wrote after the Super Bowl XXXIX win: "...the New England Patriots of the 21st century are established as an NFL dynasty on a par with the Packers of the 1960s, the Steelers of the '70s, the 49ers of the '80s, and the Cowboys of the '90s."[2] In 2007, the Patriots became the fifth team in NFL history to complete a perfect regular season. They were the second team in the modern era of the NFL to have a perfect regular season, and with a record of 16-0, were the first team to do so since the introduction of the 16-game season. They also became the first team in NFL history to finish the season 18-1 without winning the Super Bowl and the third team (after the '84 49ers and the '85 Bears) to finish a season 18-1.