Top 10 Villains In Patriots' History

With fifty years of Patriots football in the bank and some down time waiting for training camp to open, it seems appropriate for some Top 10 lists.  In this preliminary installment, I've selected the people who have been most detrimental to the Patriots' success.  Although some of them only symbolize the low moments, each have had a negative impact on the Patriots history.  Feel free to disagree, or add another name for discussion; this list should not be considered exhaustive.  Let the debate begin...

10.  WILLIAM "REFRIGERATOR" PERRY

Talk about an embarrassment.  Super Bowl XX started off pretty well for the Pats, but a quick 3-0 lead less than two minutes into the game clearly was not meant to last as the Bears put up 44 unanswered points.  Chicago's defense was legendary, with the Patriots limited to 123 yards on 54 offensive plays (they had negative nineteen yards in the first half) .  "The Fridge" gets the nod as the token villain of this debacle not only for helping anchor the defensive line during this Super shellacking, but he was also called upon to rumble the ball into the end zone from the one to make the score 44-3, the widest margin of the game (Ditka choose him to carry the ball over Walter Payton, who didn't score in his only Super Bowl appearance).  Bears DE Richard Dent may have been named game MVP, but Perry's blast for six was the iconic play in this one.

9.  DESMOND HOWARD

Our next villain is another hero for the opposite side during a Patriots Super Bowl loss.  After Curtis Martin's 18-yard jaunt cut the Packer's lead to six towards the end of the third quarter, the momentum finally seemed to be going New England's way.  That was until the ensuing kickoff.  Fielding it at the one, Howard, the former Heisman Trophy winner, sprinted ninety-nine yards untouched to once again make it a two score game.  With the two-point conversion, it ended up providing the final nail in the coffin, essentially ending the Patriots bid to bring home their first world championship.  Watching as a fifth grader, it appeared to me that rookie kicker Adam Vinatieri was clipped on the ill-fated return, and I still believe it should have been brought back.  A month earlier, Vinatieri had caught Dallas' Herschel Walker from behind to save a touchdown on a kickoff, so it seemed to me that it was not out of the realm of possibility that Adam would have made the play.  Howard was the first special-teamer to be named Super Bowl MVP, and his sprint played a large part in bringing the Lombardi Trophy back to Wisconsin.

8.  BERNARD POLLARD

The Patriots entered 2008 with sky-high expectations coming off their failed run at immortality the previous season.  A perfect regular season was little consolation after the loss in Super Bowl XLII, and the explicit goal of the new year was to bring a fourth championship back home to Foxborough.  Tom Brady, regarded as one of the best quarterbacks to ever lace them up, had broken Peyton Manning's TD record in 2007 and many projected him to be in the same ballpark the next year, going in the top five in most fantasy football drafts.  Unfortunately, he was destined to be the first quarterback to throw for fifty less touchdowns than the year before.  Week One against the Chiefs, little known safety Bernard Pollard lunged into Brady's knee as he was being blocked to the ground by RB Sammy Morris, tearing Brady's ACL and ending his season.  Backup QB Matt Cassel led the team to a 11-5 mark, but fell short of the playoffs on a tiebreaker to the Dolphins.  Pollard, while playing for Houston in 2009, again played a role in a season-altering Patriots injury.  In Week 17, he was the player Wes Welker was attempting to avoid as he cut and injured his knee, leaving the Patriots without their biggest receiving threat in the playoffs.  Welker is only expected back sometime in the middle of the 2010 season.

7.  JACK TATUM

Considered by many a villain in general, Jack Tatum terrorized opposing receivers as a hard-hitting safety for the Raiders in the 1970's.  His disregard for his own well-being in his attempt to defend the pass earned him the nickname "The Assassin" and has made him one of the most revered players in all of Raider Nation.  He left an especially painful memory for Patriots fans, as he ended the career of a promising young receiver named Darryl Stringley in a 1978 preseason affair.  Injuries are a part of the game, but Tatum has been vilified for never speaking or apologizing to Stringley after making him a quadriplegic.   Tatum is currently dealing with his own medical issues, as he lost all the toes on his left foot because of diabetes, and needs the assistance of a prosthetic leg.  Stringley passed away in 2007 due to a heart condition and pnemonia further complicating his football injury. 

6.  BILL PARCELLS

"The Tuna" was not always a villain in the eyes of Patriots fans, but his messy divorce from the team and his subsequent positions with divisional rivals has placed Parcells sixth on my list.  Winning two Super Bowls with the Giants in the 80's (with Bill Belichick as defensive coordinator), Parcells became one of football's legendary, tough, disciplinarian coaches, in the Vince Lombardi mold.  Hired by former team owner James Orthwein in 1993, he inherited a 2-14 Patriots team and selected Drew Bledsoe number one overall in the '93 draft.  In 1994, he won Coach of the Year honors by posting a 10-6 record, before falling to Belichick's Cleveland Browns in the wildcard round.  His relationship with the team started to get ugly when he publically feuded with ownership over who to pick with the seventh overall pick in 1996 (Robert Kraft got his way and selected WR Terry Glenn, while Parcells wanted a defensive player).  He led the Patriots to Super Bowl XXXI (with Belichick on board once again as DC and Glenn setting a rookie record with 90 receptions), but rumors about the coach's future in the weeks preceding the game was cause for distraction and New England subsequently lost the championship.   This falling out led to some shady dealings the following offseason as Parcells attempted to get out of his contract with the Patriots.  Parcells was eventually allowed to coach the rival New York Jets in exchange for a '99 1st round draft selection (used on Ohio State linebacker Andy Katzenmoyer) and some other lesser-valued picks.  Belichick and star RB Curtis Martin then followed Parcells to New York, and the Jets underwent a renaissance, arguably becoming the team to beat in the AFC East.  On top of all this, when Parcells left the Jets after the 1999 season, he tried to force Belichick to replace him as head coach in New York, but Belichick's tenure in New York was shortlived, resigning after one day on the job.  Soon Belichick would be hired by Kraft and lead the Patriots to their dynasty status in the 00's.  After a coaching stint in Dallas, Parcells once again became associated with an AFC East team, becoming the Executive Vice President of Football Operations for the Miami Dolphins, a position he still currently holds.

5.  PEYTON MANNING

The epic Patriots-Colts rivalry of the past decade has been fueled by the exceptional play of each team's quarterback.  Playing in the same division for over thirty years, it has only been since 2001 (the Colts' last year before being realigned to the AFC South) that this matchup has really heated up and taken on a level of national importance.  Considered the two best AFC teams for most of the last decade, their regular season meetings have been circled by many football fans immediately following the annual release of the NFL schedule, and their post-season meetings have been memorialized in NFL lore.  With the Colts riding obscene statistics into the playoffs, the Patriots were still able to best them in both in the '03 AFC Championship and the '04 Divisional round on their way to Super Bowl wins.  Manning was regarded by many as a quarterback that could not get over the hump, and with each visit to Gillette Stadium, Patriots fans would happily remind him of this.  With meaningless gaudy stats and no postseason success to show for it, most Patriots fans hoped he was destined to be just another Dan Marino.  That all changed in 2006, as Peyton finally got the monkey off his back and dispatched the Patriots in the AFC Championship Game (overcoming a 21-3 deficit in the first half) en route to winning Super Bowl XLI.

In 2007, both teams met in November undefeated, with the Patriots coming out on top 28-24, the game being the latest in the season that two undefeateds have faced off against one another.   They have been matched up in the regular season every year since 2003 because of their continued dominance of their respective divisions, and are scheduled to play once again this November in Foxboro.  For being the face of the Colts' franchise and for his rivalry with Brady, Manning has to be considered one of the biggest villains in Patriots history.

4.  DON SHULA, MERCURY MORRIS, AND THE 1972 DOLPHINS

The only perfect season in the history of the NFL belongs to these '72 Dolphins.  Beating the Patriots twice during that season (including a 52-0 win in Miami) isn't why these Dolphins take the fourth spot on my villains list.  During the Patriots' attempt to duplicate the achievement in '07, the Dolphins, through the continued grandstanding of Mercury Morris, made it clear that they didn't believe that the Patriots deserved to go undefeated, publicly stating that the "Spygate" scandal was a blemish no matter what their record may otherwise indicate.  With the Giants' upset in the Super Bowl, we were once again bombarded with images of old men popping champagne bottles and celebrating themselves as they do each year when the last unbeaten falls.  I would say the worst part of the loss was the inability of the Patriots to take that tradition away from them.  Additionally, their opinions on the Patriots' run at perfection were not applied to the Colts and Saints last season, as Shula admitted to wanting to see both undefeated teams in the Super Bowl, and claiming that he wouldn't mind sharing their distinction with such classy organizations.  This obvious lack of respect should place them as villains in the hearts of Patriots fans everywhere.

Looking at their perfect achievement, there were some hurdles that New England had to deal with during their run that the Dolphins of '72 had the luxury of avoiding.  Playing a 14-game regular season obviously helped, but, additionally, the quality of their regular season opponents was anything but spectacular.  Aside from a 20-10 win over the Chiefs in the first week, the Dolphins did not face a single team that finished with a winning record before the playoffs (and the Chiefs finished 8-6).  Analysts were truly surprised when they went on to win the trophy (they were not favored in Super Bowl VII).  But they should be given credit for finishing what they started, especially for going on the road and beating an excellent Pittsburgh team in the AFC Championship game (sound familiar Patriots fans?).  Just contrast that to the Patriots' run, in which they defeated all AFC division winners during the regular season (including the before-mentioned meeting with the 10-0 Indianapolis Colts), and even beat the eventual-champion Giants in week seventeen to secure the second ever perfect regular season.  The league was a much different place in 1972, and even going undefeated, the '72 Dolphins were not one of the best teams in NFL history.  I offer that not as opinion, but as fact.

3.  DAVID TYREE

The unlikeliest of heroes in the unlikeliest of upsets, David Tyree stole the show as the Giants went on to defeat the undefeated.  An unheralded receiver out of Syracuse University, Tyree was a relative unknown for most NFL fans before Super Bowl XLII.  Although we are all aware of his miraculous catch in the waining moments, it was his 5-yard TD reception that put the Giants up with eleven minutes remaining that really cements his place on this list.  I think that is all that really needs to be said about this career special-teamer.  C'mon Rodney, you gotta make that play, baby!!

2.  THE DENVER BRONCOS

Of all the teams in the NFL, the Broncos have been the biggest thorn in the Patriots' side, from the word 'Go' to the present day.  They squared-off in the first ever AFL regular season game with the Broncos squeaking by 13-10 at Boston University Field.  The series was closely contested while they both resided in the AFL, with the Patriots holding a slim 10-8 edge.  But the story quickly changed post-merger.  After Boston's win in Denver in 1968, the next Patriots victory in the mile high city would have to wait until the year 2000, with Bill Belichick's first victory as head coach.  Over the course of those 32 years, New England would go 0-11 in Denver, 3-13 overall, a paltry winning percentage of just under 19 percent.  Winning at home in '80, the Patriots would lose ten straight to the Broncos at either location, finally beating Denver 24-23 at home in 1999.  

The only two playoff meetings between the clubs both occurred in Denver and both ended the Patriots' hopes for a championship.  In '86 the Patriots weren't able to defend their AFC crown, losing 22-17.  This served as retribution for the Broncos, as they were left out of the tournament in 1985, despite tying New England with an 11-5 record (again, sound familiar Pats fans?).   The Patriots' quest for the only three-peat in NFL history ended with a 27-13 loss at Mile High Stadium.  You may remember the Patriots knocking on the door for the lead only for Champ Bailey to return an interception over 100 yards to the Patriots one-yard-line, effectively ending the game.

With former New England offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels now the head coach in Denver, it looks like this rivalry will continue, especially with some pundits calling the new Bronco organizational outfit "Foxboro West."

1.  BRETT FAVRE

Quick disclaimer: I personally have always hated Brett Favre.  Ever since Super Bowl XXXI, I have had an unreasonable disdain for the melodramatic gunslinger, and with the advent of the annual "Favre Retirement Watch", I'm sure many others, from Green Bay to New York, now share my sentiments.  But he holds a special place in the story of the Patriots, as he has played a hand in ending mulitple Patriot campaigns, losing games the Pats needed his team to win.

The first example of this was back in 2002.  A year after their stunning victory over the Rams in Super Bowl XXXVI, the Patriots were in a dogfight for the AFC East crown.  Needing a victory in their 1pm contest against the Dolphins and a Jets loss to the Packers later that afternoon, the Patriots won with a Vinatieri overtime kick to give themselves a shot.  The Packers, assured of at least a home playoff game but with the first-round bye still up for grabs, had everything to play for but were down 14-10 at the half.  Allowing 21 unanswered in the third, Favre was benched a minute into the fourth quarter.  With the Jet win, the Patriots' season was over.  How did it turn out for Favre and the Pack?  The next week they lost their first ever home playoff game to Micheal Vick and the Falcons, a streak that began in 1933.

The Packers once again changed the course of Patriots history in 2007, as they were unable to defeat the New York Giants in the NFC title game.  A boneheaded Favre interception (there have been a lot of those) in overtime led to a Giants field goal and the NFC crown.  The Giants, who the Patriots barely defeated by 3 in week 17 to clinch the NFL's first perfect regular season since 1972, knew that they could hang with the Patriots, and I believe that it was this extra confidence that kept Super Bowl XLII so tight throughout.  Its easier for me to blame Favre than Laurence Maroney or the offensive line, so that's what I'm gonna do here.  In an alternate reality, the Patriots defeat Green Bay in Glendale, get revenge for 1996, and are forever remembered for going 19-0.

After shedding tears at his retirement press conference prior to the 2008 season, Brett decided to give football another go, and after much ballyhooing, he was dealt to the New York Jets.  Beating the Matt Cassel-led Patriots at Gillette Stadium in overtime Thursday night in week 11, it seemed as if New York was in prime position to make a run to the playoffs.  Losing three of their next five, the Jets would not only need a win in the regular season finale at home versus the Dolphins, but would also need the Patriots to lose at Buffalo earlier that Sunday.  Once the Patriots won, however, it was New England that would need the help of New York, as only the division winner would be playoff-bound, and Miami held the tiebreaker.  Deep into the fourth quarter with the game in the balance, it was again an ill-fated Favre interception that ended the Patriots' year without a playoff appearance despite an 11-5 record.





So what do you think?  Who's ranked too high, and who's too low?  Did I miss someone completely?  Is my personal vendetta against Brett Favre clouding my judgement?  Who do you think is the biggest villain in Patriots' history??