New England Patriots 8899

The Boston Patriots played in the first-ever game in the American Football League, against the Denver Broncos on September 9, 1960. Although the team made only two AFL playoff appearances, it had numerous stars. In 1963, eleven Patriots made the AFL All-star team, including Gino Cappelletti, Nick Buoniconti, and Babe Parilli. That year the Patriots made it to the AFL Championship for the first time ever, but lost to the San Diego Chargers 51-10. Linebacker Tom Addison, an original Patriot and the first Patriot All-star, founded and was selected President of the AFL Players Association in the mid 1960s. In the late 1960s, fullback Jim Nance became an offensive weapon for the Patriots, gaining 1,458 yards in 1966 and 1,216 in 1967, when he was the AFL MVP[1][2].

In 1970 the Patriots became a member of the NFL pursuant to the merger of the AFL and NFL that had been agreed to three years earlier. Despite acquiring reigning NFL MVP quarterback Joe Kapp from the Minnesota Vikings, the Patriots first season as part of the NFL was extremely difficult as they finished 2-12 and finished in sole possession of the newly merged league's worst record.

After bouncing around between four different Boston-area stadiums in their first 11 seasons, in 1971 the Patriots moved into a new stadium in Foxborough (also known as Foxboro), on land granted by the Bay State Raceway. The team was renamed the New England Patriots in March 1971, to reflect its new location roughly halfway between Providence and Boston, as well as a desire to better position itself as New England's regional NFL team. The stadium, to be known as Schaefer Stadium, was built at a cost of about $7.1 million USD in only 325 days. The stadium was one of the first stadiums in the country to be named after a corporate sponsor, as the Schaefer Brewing Company paid $150,000 USD for naming rights. Additionally, the town of Foxborough was one of the first in the country to assess a surtax on every ticket sold.

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