Re: Your top ten favorite games from any era of the Patriots (sans the Super Bowl win
Hey Kontra, here's one outside the box fer ya...
The Pats December 1980 Monday Night Football game from The Orange Bowl.
Also remembered as how the world found out that John Lennon had just been shot.
Back in the days before everyone had cable, the viewership for MNF was astronomical for there were about only 7 channels back then. Everyone used to watch the same stuff at night and talk about it the next day.
The Pats were playing in the dreaded Orange Bowl, where they never, ever won. Sometime during the game, Howard Cosell, in that famously dramatic voice of his, broke the news that Lennon had been shot outside The Dakota. He didn't have further details of his status as the nation held its collective breath. Phones began ringing across the country as the pre-internet word spread from home to home. Everyone was asking,"Did you hear Cosell during the Dolphins game? John Lennon has just been shot." (the Pats were just the supporting cast to Shula, Griese, Czonka, & company)
Well, the next day, I went to my 8th grade Connecticut school and all the kids were razzing me because the Pats had lost AGAIN in The Orange Bowl. Well, after second period, it became too much and I had ta go outside and get away from all the abuse. I was walking out the door with tears in my eyes and a teacher saw me and asked,"Oh, are you sad because John Lennon died last night?" I whimpered back,"No. Gez. The Patriots lost AGAIN in Miami. And they were even ahead in the 4th quarter." The teacher musta thought I was lonny tunes.
Anyway, that was 8th grade when I was 14. I hadn't yet matured to be able to grasp the magnitude of who John Lennon was and all he stood for & represented to so many people. Well, now I'm 43, and after running an independent record label for 17 years here in NYC, I certainly can.
As for The Pats, Kontradiction, back on November 27th, 1966, The Boston Patriots won in The Orange Bowl. I was TWO MONHS OLD. Okay? You with me so far? Well, 19 or 20 trips down to Miami later, on January 12th, 1986, The Patriots finally won again. It just happened to be the freaking AFC Championship game. I WAS NINETEEN YEARS OLD BY THEN!!! I watched it at college at N.C. State (the Jim Valvano's Wolfpack era).
The FINALLY won down there, beat freaking Dan Marino (who were the only team to beat the Bears that year, again, on Monday Night Football, when Monday Night Football used to actually mean something because it would be on most of the television sets in bars & homes back then.)
Craig James ran up the gut the whole game. He's the LAST white running back to gain 1,000 yards in a single season, btw. That season. The 1985 season. The 1985 season, when The New England Patriots FINALLY won in The Orange Bowl.
You think The Patriots own The Bills these days? That's NOTHING compared to The Phish-Pats of 1967-1985.
And everybody remembers where they were when they heard John Lennon had been shot. Know where everyone was? In front of a t.v. ,watching The Dolphins-Patriots Monday Night Football Game from The Orange Bowl. The night Howard Cosell became more than a sportscaster in that moment. He was giving updates for all of the country abut something else altogether." Heady times, man. And that Pats-Phish game was a freaking war. And I'm sure people are gonna say,"Why is this guy mentioning a game The Pats lost as one of his faves?" Because I don't need to be a 20-something year old bandwagon jumper to love a team! That's why. And I love the red throwBACKS. Know why? Because they do what they're meant to. Yeah, to take me BACK! Back to when I was a kid and I loved seeing those Red jerseys and the gorgeous Pat Patriot white helmets do battle with the hated mighty Dolphins.
And these clueless juvies cry,"Oh, not the red unis again. Why? So we can remember when The Pats were crappy?" They always point to the 2-14 and 1-15 seasons. That's only two individual years. These juniors don't remember the 1970's, when The Pats would lose, yet leave it all out on the field. And when I was a kid, my HEART would be right out there with them... in my Sears and Roebuck RED Steve Grogan jersey.
(aside)- Whatchoo Talkin' 'Bout, Kontradiction? How in The Hell can you not put that Pats Divisional Miracle in San Diego not up like in your top THREE or something? Wazzamatta? You get dumped the night before er sumpthin and weren't into the game that day? Konta, it was 14-3 in the 2nd quarter. SEASON OVER. It was the frickin' 2006 Chargers. They were awesommmme. What's tha freakin' dealio with the b.s. honorable mention? What, a freaking honorable mention for the TROY BROWN STRIP game?
And you actually LIKED that blue-on-blue unis look? BWAH!!!!! I bet your taste in fashion is just as atrocious. The reds are gorgeous. The white away unis they wore in Denver last year were beautiful too. I thought we'd see 'em again in Miami, but it was a day game, so The Phins wore white at home. They only wear turquoise blue or an occasional orange at night.
And he gives the Troy Brown Strip an honorable mention. lol.
"Whatchoo Talkin' 'Bout, Kontradiction?"
