Per order of the NFL, the Patriots will be the Boston Patriots for their four Legacy Games this year (the others are against Denver, Tennessee, and Miami). When the Patriots issued their injury report Friday, the heading over the names of the wounded (Tom Brady/shoulder was on there for the millionth straight week) read “Boston Patriots.’’
I love it. Pat Patriot is back, kicking Flying Elvis to the curb. The red and white is back, in place of the blue and silver. And the Patriots are representing Boston, just like the Red Sox, Celtics, and Bruins.
Next thing you know, Peter Fuller will be selling Cadillacs on Commonwealth Avenue, Ken Harrelson will be opening a sub shop on Massachusetts Avenue, and Don Kent will be delivering weather reports from Soldiers Field Road.
Our local team was the Boston Patriots from 1960 until 1971, when the first stadium in Foxborough was built. They played at Boston University, Boston College, Fenway Park, and Harvard. Nothing “New England’’ about that. They played where the Beanpot schools lived. They played in Boston.
It didn’t have to change. The Detroit Pistons never stopped being the Detroit Pistons, not even when they moved to Auburn Hills, Mich., which is just as far from Motown as Foxborough is from Boston.
This stuff goes on all over the country. The Tampa Bay Rays play their games in St. Petersburg. The Los Angeles Angels play in Anaheim, and they’ve been the Los Angeles Angels, the California Angels, the Anaheim Angels, and the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. The Phoenix Coyotes play in Glendale, Ariz. (site of Super Bowl XLII), and the Ottawa Senators play in Kanata, Ontario. The Dallas Cowboys were in Irving, Texas and are now in Arlington, Texas. The Cleveland Cavaliers for years played in Richfield, Ohio, and the Washington Bullets and Capitals spent decades in Landover, Md.
So why can’t the Patriots of Foxborough be the Boston Patriots?
Before Billy Sullivan invented the AFL franchise, there had been Hub football teams known as the Boston Redskins, Boston Bulldogs, Boston Bears, Boston Shamrocks, and Boston Yanks. None of them survived.
