All time record
 

The upcoming Jets game has some historical significance. The Patriots all time record now stands at 353 - 354 & 9.

A victory against the Jets will establish an the Patriots as having an all time record at .500 ball in their 45 years of competition. Actually, the 9 ties are not considered losses so they are really 4.5 games OVER .500. In 1963 the extra half win, by the tie, allowed them to win the AFLE championship. They were subsequently beat 51-10 by the San Diego Chargers for the AFL championship.

The Patriots first took the field in 1960 as the last and eighth team to be organized and awarded a franchise in the (second) American Football League, under the leadership of Billy Sullivan.

A historical curiosity is that Boston's entry almost didn't happen. Minneapolis was originally to be the eighth entry and Boston was to be ignored after the failure of Boston to support previous pro football franchises, Boston Redskins, Boston Yanks, Boston Bulldogs and the Boston Yankees.

But Minneapolis listened to the blandishments of the counter-attacking NFL, and chose to re-organize as an NFL expansion franchise along with another expansion franchise awarded to Dallas. If it hadn't been for the Cowboys and Vikings, in particular, there would never have been a Patriots franchise.

At one point the Patriots were 76 games below .500, although we still loved them.

[QUOTE=Arizona Patsfan]The upcoming Jets game has some historical significance. The Patriots all time record now stands at 353 - 354 & 9.

A victory against the Jets will establish an the Patriots as having an all time record at .500 ball in their 45 years of competition. Actually, the 9 ties are not considered losses so they are really 4.5 games OVER .500. In 1963 the extra half win, by the tie, allowed them to win the AFLE championship. They were subsequently beat 51-10 by the San Diego Chargers for the AFL championship.

QUOTE]

I have to disagree. If a tie is half a win, it's also half a loss. Therefore, ties don't affect the over/under .500 percentage thing.

never the less, nice research arizona!

Agreed, and nice to know. It took a long time to get there, but better late than never. Actually, I wonder if the Pats got to or over .500 lifetime due to those 70s teams with Grogan, Hannah, Morgan, etc.

Great post! I saw that 52-10 game. Lance Allworth, Kieth Lincoln et. al. were much faster than the old-style sluggish but good Pats team. Ran circles around them. We can all thank Michael Jackson for screwing over the Sullivans such that the franchise got sold, eventually to the Krafts. Then again, tix to those losing Pats games were cheap and readily available. Costs me $250 per game for 2 tix these days.

I suspect the Pats never got that stat above .500 in the Grogan '70s.

This is interesting stuff. Makes me wonder who else is above .500 and who else is below. Who would be the Top Five all-time? Maybe Dallas, Pittsburgh, Denver? Not so sure about San Fran.

damn dude, you're old

:D

Agreed. For winning percentage purposes ties count as a half win/half loss. A team with an 0-0-16 record would have a winning percentage of .500

The Pats were above .500 until the late 1960s then never again.

i will be staying up for the monday night game if i can stay awake :rolleyes: