The Most Memorable Games in Patriots History – Review

Jim Baker and Bernard M. Corbett. The Most Memorable Games in Patriots History: An Oral History of a Legendary Team. New York: Bloomsbury, 2012. Print.

A great book that covers the highlights of the history of the New England (né Boston) Patriots. While it focuses on 13 games, the book has plenty of information about what was going on between the acts.

As the subtitle tells us, a good part of this book is oral history. A cast of about fifty players, managers, sports journalists, and others reminisce about the background of the Patriots and about those games. Some of the most interesting stories and perspectives come from the non-players. Patrick Sullivan, long-time Patriots general manager and son of one of the original owners, tells a lot about the origin of the team and of the American Football League in 1960.

The book goes back in time to tell of other professional football franchises in Boston. For example, I had known that the Washington Redskins had started in Boston and had moved to Washington not too long after their founding. I did not know that in 1932 they were originally called the Boston Braves, after the baseball team whose stadium they shared. When the baseball Braves did not renew the stadium contract, they changed their name to the Redskins.

People who follow the Patriots will recognize many of the contributors, story tellers, and teammates they talk about: Gino Capelletti, Babe Parilli, Houston Antwine, Mosi Tatupu, Steve Grogan, Jim Plunkett, and on through modern players–including a few story tellers from other teams. One thing I did not realize–that in 1977 the Patriots lost to the Raiders in a nail-biting playoff game thanks to a misapplied penalty call (the book says the replays were clear that the call was wrong). It puts the 2002 “Tuck Rule” Snow Bowl game versus Oakland in perspective. The mills of the gods grind slowly…

One of the 13 game the book focuses on was the 2002 game which I remember vividly. I was visiting Boston that weekend, and my wife and I realized we would have to spend the night because of the weather. (I had some friends in the suburbs, but it was not great driving weather even for a few miles). I got to see the game on TV in the motel where we were staying just outside of Boston. I seldom get to see NFL games because we do not have the luxury of cable, so I was looking forward to seeing that game–and what a game it was!

One of the men sharing his story is Mark Henderson. No, you won’t find his name on any football trading card. He was the guy who drove the tractor in the 1982 “Snowplow Game.” He cleared the spot for kicker John Smith so he could kick what proved to be the game’s only score in the 3-0 win against Miami. The book is clear to point out that it was a tractor with a brush, not an actual snowplow.

John Smith’s own story is quite interesting, too. He was a British soccer player. As he puts it, “The first game of football I ever saw, I was in. I did not even know what a down was.”

More recent players who contribute their stories include Kevin Faulk, Rodney Harrison, Willie McGinest, Troy Brown, Adam Vinatieri, and Vince Wilfork. Some of the older contributors like Mosi Tatupu have died, so clearly the reminiscences are not all from recent interviews.

The Most Memorable Games in Patriots History also has short chapters that act as statistical and historical sidebars that illuminate the specific games or periods in Patriots’ history: most yards in a game, history of tiebreaker games before 1974, last ties by a franchise, single score games, largest comebacks, most years between playoff victories, etc. etc. Some are Patriots records, but most focus on NFL and AFL records. A few bring in other professional football leagues.

This book is fun for a fan. Yes, some of the stories and a lot of the accounts of other games are about losses like that 1977 playoff game, but that is a factor in any sport. Since the NFL has a lot of parity, it does make certain teams stand out, especially in the Super Bowl era. It is a tribute to a few teams that they can be competitive for a number of years: the Cowboys and Steelers in the 70s, the 49ers in the 80s and early 90s, and perhaps the Patriots since 2001.

N.B.: I am writing this the day after the Patriots’ loss to the Ravens in the 2013 AFC Championship Game. While I do not consider myself superstitious, I have always felt that the sportscaster (and I do not recall who it was) who called the Patriots a dynasty at the end of the 2005 Super Bowl jinxed them. Although they continue to get into the playoffs nearly every year, that was the last time they won it all.

P.S. I was re-reading this in 2021. Clearly, the jinx did not last forever as the Pats have won it all three more times since I originally wrote the above—including a couple of Super Bowls where it looked like maybe their opponent (Seattle and Atlanta) may have been jinxed.

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