New England Patriots

The franchise began as the Boston Patriots in 1960, one of the AFL's charter members. Founded by a group led by Billy Sullivan, the Patriots were the AFL's nomads — playing home games at four different stadiums in their first decade, including Braves Field, Fenway Park, Harvard Stadium, and Boston College's Alumni Stadium. The instability reflected the franchise's shaky financial footing, but it didn't prevent the team from fielding competitive squads.

The 1963 Patriots, led by quarterback Babe Parilli and a stout defense, won the AFL Eastern Division and reached the AFL Championship Game, where they lost to the San Diego Chargers 51-10. It was a humbling defeat, but reaching the title game in only their fourth season showed promise. The rest of the decade, however, was largely forgettable, as the Patriots failed to establish the kind of consistent winning tradition that their AFL rivals in Buffalo and Kansas City managed.

The merger with the NFL in 1970 brought new challenges. The Patriots were placed in the AFC East, and the search for a permanent home — and a permanent identity — continued.

In 1971, the franchise moved to a new stadium in Foxborough, Massachusetts, and rebranded as the New England Patriots — a name that acknowledged the team's broader regional identity. Schaefer Stadium (later Sullivan Stadium, then Foxboro Stadium) gave the team a permanent home, though the facility itself was spartan and cold, befitting a franchise that was still finding its way.

The 1976 season was the first in which the Patriots truly felt like contenders, finishing 11-3 before a controversial roughing-the-passer penalty in the playoffs against the Oakland Raiders ended their season in bitter fashion. The 1985 Patriots, under coach Raymond Berry, made an improbable playoff run to reach Super Bowl XX, where they were obliterated by the Chicago Bears 46-10 in the most lopsided Super Bowl in history to that point.

The late 1980s and early 1990s were marked by instability. The Sullivan family's financial troubles led to the sale of the franchise, and the team nearly relocated to St. Louis before Robert Kraft purchased the team in 1994. The coaching carousel included Rod Rust's disastrous 1-15 season in 1990, one of the worst in NFL history. Bill Parcells arrived in 1993 and brought respectability, but the franchise's true transformation was still a few years away.

Robert Kraft's purchase of the Patriots in 1994 for $172 million was the pivotal moment in franchise history. Kraft, a Boston-area businessman and longtime season ticket holder, saved the team from relocation and immediately began investing in making the Patriots a first-class organization. His first major move was keeping Bill Parcells as head coach, and Parcells delivered — the 1996 Patriots reached Super Bowl XXXI, where they lost to the Green Bay Packers 35-21.

Parcells departed acrimoniously after the Super Bowl loss, leading to the hiring of Pete Carroll, who went 27-21 in three seasons but was let go after the 1999 campaign. The Kraft ownership was establishing something important: a willingness to make difficult decisions in pursuit of excellence. The next coaching hire would prove to be the most consequential personnel decision in the history of American professional sports.

In January 2000, the Patriots hired Bill Belichick as their head coach. In the 2000 draft, they selected Tom Brady in the sixth round, 199th overall. From these two decisions emerged the most dominant dynasty in the history of professional football — and arguably the most remarkable sustained run of excellence in any American sport.

When Drew Bledsoe went down with an injury in Week 2 of the 2001 season, Brady stepped in and never gave the job back. That season's climax — Adam Vinatieri's 48-yard field goal in the snow against the Oakland Raiders in the Tuck Rule Game, followed by his Super Bowl-winning kick against the St. Louis Rams — announced the arrival of something extraordinary. The Patriots won three Super Bowls in four years (XXXVI, XXXVIII, XXXIX), establishing themselves as the team of the early 2000s.

After a decade-long championship drought that included an 18-1 season in 2007 (the only loss coming in the Super Bowl to the Giants' improbable upset), the dynasty roared back with three more Super Bowl victories in five years (XLIX, LI, LIII). Super Bowl LI — in which the Patriots overcame a 28-3 deficit against the Falcons to win in overtime — may be the greatest single game in NFL history.

Twenty years. Nine Super Bowl appearances. Six championships. A combined record of 249-75 in the regular season. Brady and Belichick didn't just build a dynasty; they redefined what was possible in a league designed to prevent exactly what they accomplished.