Put a real damper on what had been a fairly nice year up until then for me...
It ruined Christmas.
1976 was years in the making.
Granted, the Missing Rings Raiders had, after losing Super Bowl II, lost an amazing six AFL/AFC title games in eight years plus the Immaculate Reception, was loaded with future Hall of Famers and perennial Pro Bowlers, and did not lose to anyone else.
They had a very large national following going back to the AFL, and the world considered them 'due'.
But, despite all of Al Davis' many brilliant accomplishments, he led the charge for the biggest crybabying franchise in sports, with their fan base believing they should have won every Super Bowl played to that point.
And they were a ratings giant for NBC, who covered the game in Pasadena that year.
In contrast to the national media frenzy over the Orange Crush only the following year after Denver did nothing in their history, the Patriots making the playoffs was a very quickly and quietly mentioned tidbit in NFL coverage.
For us, myself anyway, as a young lad I saw and heard an unmatched tsunami of denigration and derision of the Patriots my whole young life, and I knew and saw that the outstanding players not only had nothing to do with the travails of ownership, they overcame being underpaid and having substandard facilities with character and pride.
Chuck Fairbanks was a genius. I said in 1974 that Jim Plunkett was just as capable of winning two Super Bowls as Bob Griese or anyone else, and I was proven right years later. Chuck sent him off to SF for a draft booty that put us on top, and made us competitive for many years even after he left. And if there's one person most responsible for the Patriots winning as they did throughout the 70's & 80's, it is Steve Grogan.
There was, in that era, one caveat for the Patriots: If they stayed healthy, they could beat anyone.
And they did. Unlike several other ballyhooed teams, the Patriots were indeed the best team in the league that year.
It was, most of all, the year to put all of the morons in the league, opponents, and media in their place as Fairbanks hoisted the Lombardi Trophy and shut them all up.
Appropriately, on our nation's bicentennial.
I'm still pissed about this too. The 76 Pats team remains my favorite because they were the first great Patriots team we post merger. And John Hannah was our first GOAT.
It is Steve Grogan who put the Patriots on the map, and it was this team in this time which established the Patriots as championship contenders in modern (post-merger, Super Bowl) era of American professional football.
Dreith enabled the media and everyone else to continue the false laughingstock narrative to this day. Granted, they yes would have dismissed the Patriots as lucky or a fluke... perhaps even cheaters, as Fairbanks came from OU labeled 'controversial'.
But as happens more often than not, a team which wins their first Super Bowl tends to go back again. It sets their standard.
By 1985, as great as breaking the jinx was, the unmitigated happy to be there attitude infected everyone. To whatever extent coach Brooks was paying any attention, he held his nose.
