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Super Bowl: How’d we get here? – John Cardullo
by John Cardullo, sportswriter
The New England Patriots get an unexpected shot at Super Bowl 60 and New England couldn’t be more excited. So sit back and let me teach you something about our New England Patriots.
The 2025-26 season was supposed to be a break in year. A chance for the young Patriots to figure out what their new coach, Mike Vrabel, was all about. It was a chance for the coach to see what type of team he was taking over. Entering the season, both the team and the coach were hoping to win more than they lost and make a run at the playoffs. The Super Bowl? That was a dream that could happen down the line. But for now, the goal was to get to an even .500 record. If they exceeded this expectation, it would be a good year.
Their first game was against the Las Vegas Raiders, a team that was hoping to turn their fortunes around with the new season, just like the Patriots. Playing on their home field, the Patriots looked like the Patriots of the past couple of years, sloppy and disorganized. The Patriots lost 20-13 as journeyman quarterback, Geno Smith, threw for 362 yards and a touchdown. The Patriot faithful went home expecting another subpar season.
The Patriots then traveled to Hard Rock Stadium in Miami to play the Dolphins. The Dolphins always played the Patriots tough in the heat of southern Florida. The Patriots pulled to an even 1-1 record by beating the Dolphins 33-27. This was an important win for the Patriots for two reasons – they won the game on the road, and it was a divisional opponent. The third game was another home game; the opponent was the Pittsburgh Steelers. In a game that saw the Patriots turn the ball over 6 times and lost their second home game, 21-14.
Then the unthinkable happened – the Patriots went on a 10-win streak. They started by beating the Carolina Panthers at home, 42-13, then going to Buffalo and upset the stunned Bills 23-20, grabbing another divisional win. They went to New Orleans and beat the Saints 25-19, then the Tennessee Titans 31-13 in Tennessee. They hosted the Cleveland Browns and beat them 32-13. The Atlanta Falcons came into Gillette and lost a 24-23 contest.
Sporting a 7-2 record, the fans expectations rose even higher. The Patriots traveled to Tampa Bay and beat the “red hot” Buccaneers, 28-23. The next week, the Patriots went 3-0 in the division by beating the lowly New York Jets 27-14. The Jets historically were an ineffective NFL team since they joined the AFL in 1960. They did win the Super Bowl in 1970 with Joe Namath as their quarterback. Namath at 82 years old is still the Jets best quarterback! For too many years the New York Jets have been nothing but an embarrassment to the NFL.
For most Patriots’ fans thought that from 1960 to 1970 there were dark times in Patriot nation, as it turns out, things could have been worse, they could have been the New York Jets. The Patriots went to Cincinnati Bengals and won 26-20. The next week, the game before their bye, the Patriots traveled back to New England to play the Giants. The Giants and Patriots had their own rival going on, if you remember that Eli Manning and the Giants derailed two Super Bowls for the Patriots. But not this time, the Patriots won 33-15 and went into their bye with an 11-2 record and were 6-0 at this point on the road.
As the Patriots were ready to wrap up their last four games of the 2025-26 season against three divisional opponents, and a traditionally tough opponent, they noticed something else. They suddenly were getting flipped into the NFL schedule. This meant that going into the season, the bulk of the Patriots games were scheduled for a 1:00 pm start. These games were reserved for regional games while teams that were either popular or competing for championships were getting prime time games on on Thursdays, Sunday Night football in America and Monday night football. This means that the Dallas Cowboys who had a great public relations department promoting them and their lousy record as “America’s” team, while their record stated otherwise, were now being rotated out of prime-time games and the Patriots game were being rotated in to prime time.
Their 3rd loss of the season came at home to the Buffalo Bills, 35-31. They went into Baltimore and beat the Ravens 28-24. They took their divisional record to 4-1 when they beat the New York Jets 42-10 and beat the Dolphins at home 38-10. This gave the Patriots a 5-1 divisional record and the AFC East championship, their first one in the post Tom Brady and Bill Belicheck era. All the fan base knew was that under the coaching of former Patriot Mike Vrabel and with the talent of new quarterback Drake Maye, the New England Patriots exceeded everyone’s expectation and were headed back into the play-offs.
The Patriots were the number 2 seed in the AFC and would host the LA Chargers in the divisional round of the play-offs. All season long the Patriots were criticized for benefiting from a “soft” schedule. It was said that they had not played the best teams in the NFL. In the Patriots defense, they didn’t choose who to play, they played the schedule and teams that were in front of them. They couldn’t control the schedule; they went 14-3 in the regular season and a perfect 8-0 on the road. In the divisional round of the playoffs, the Patriots beat the Chargers at home 16-3, then traveled to Denver to play the number one seed in the AFC, the Denver Broncos at Mile High stadium, one of the loudest stadiums in the NFL.
The Patriots beat the Broncos 10-7 to punch their ticket to Super Bowl 60, that is being played in the San Francisco Bay area. This will be the New England Patriots 12th appearance in the Super Bowl. They currently hold a 6-5 record, they beat the LA Rams twice, Carolina Panthers once, Philadelphia Eagles once, the Atlanta Falcons once and the Seattle Seahawks once. They lost to the New York Giants twice, Philadelphia Eagles once, Green Bay Packers once and the Chicago Bears once.
In the 60 years that the NFC and AFC decided to end the season with a Super Bowl to determine a champion, the NFC dominated the game. The Green Bay Packers won the first two super bowls in dominate fashion. In super bowl three, the New York Jets, yes, the Jets, beat the Baltimore Colts in a stunning upset. Two years later the Baltimore Colts were a victim to the AFC; NFC merged and ended up beating the Dallas Cowboys as the AFC representative.
Over the years, the Pittsburgh Steelers, Dallas Cowboys, San Fransico 49ers and Denver Broncos appeared in 8 Super Bowls. Kansas City and Green Bay played in 7, The New York Giants, Washington, the Oakland, LA and Las Vegas Raiders, LA Rams and Philadelphia Eagles appeared in 5, while the Miami Dolphins and now Seattle Seahawks appeared in 3, as have the Cincinnati Bengals. Both the Buffalo Bills and Minnesota Vikings went to 4 Super Bowls each, only to walk away empty handed. The Carolina Panthers and Atlanta Falcons appeared in 2 and came out winless. The Cardinals, Chargers and Titians appeared in 1 each and lost each.
Out of the 32 NFL franchises that currently make up the league, there are only four teams that never played in the Super Bowl. These teams are the Jacksonville Jaguars, Houston Texans and long-time members of the NFC and NFL, Cleveland Browns and Detroit Lions. For the most part, the NFL has a pretty good track record for their teams to make an appearance in a Super Bowl, and the four teams waiting for their turn are trending in the right direction, except for Cleveland, who can’t seem to be able to get out of their own way.
For the New England Patriots, yes, their early history wasn’t the greatest and they showed very little of the dominating spirit that we have come to expect from them. Making the Super Bowl under coach Raymond Berry only to lose to the Bears and about ten years later with Bill Parcells at the helm, the Patriots went against the Green Bay Packers and Brett Farve, only to lose again. Then the 20-year run under Bill Belicheck and Tom Brady happened.
Suddenly, New England wasn’t a bad place to play if you were looking for a Super Bowl championship. The championship run went longer than expected, but shorter than most fans hoped for. Who knows what the future holds with Mike Vrabel and Drake Maye and this version of Patriots Nation playing. All I know is that we have been to 4 more Super Bowls than any other franchise and we are tied for the most Super Bowl wins ever. So, things are not that bad for New England when it comes to football in the Northeast. We need to relax, soak it all in and enjoy being on the top of the professional heap, because New England and the Patriots are the kings of the mountain!
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John Cardullo, sportswriter. John is a lifelong Rhode Islander. His sports experience is extensive, as a player, coach and sponsor of youth and high school sports. He has been the Public Address Announcer for the CCRI Men’s and Women’s Soccer teams. Both the Cranston East and Cranston West football, Cranston East Boys and Girls basketball for 12 years before moving onto the Central, Juanita Sanchez and Mt. Pleasant football teams. Also, Central HS Boys and Girls Basketball, Scituate High School Boys and Girls Basketball, Johnston High School Girls Basketball, Boys Volleyball, Girls Softball, Boys and Girls Soccer teams, and CLCF football.
John has been involved in Men’s softball for 61 years, starting as a batboy for his father’s team in 1964. He moved to the teams scorekeeper then became a player in 1975, and created the men’s team, Players Corner Pub, that went on to win 20 State Championships in their 35 year history. In the 1990’s he published the statewide softball magazine “The Fielders Choice”which was dedicated to all topics related to adult softball. As a feature writer, John and the publication won several media awards. In 2019 he was elected and inducted into the Rhode Island Slow Pitch Softball Hall of Fame which he also helped create. John is a softball umpire in Warwick, Rhode Island.
In his spare time John golfs with his life long friends in season. After retiring from the printing Industry after a 45-year career, he now writes specialty sports columns for RINewsToday.com, is still actively engaged in the high school sports scene, and will soon launch a radio show/podcast on high school sports.