plays
Boston College at Fenway Park in 1916
The Boston game The Boston Game is thought to be the origin of
American football, played by
New England prep schools. In 1855, manufactured inflatable balls were introduced. These were much more regular in shape than the handmade balls of earlier times, making kicking and carrying more skillful. Two competing versions had evolved during this time; the "kicking game" which resembled soccer and the "running" or "carrying game" which resembled
rugby union. hybrid of the two, known as the "Boston game", was played by a group known as the
Oneida Football Club. The club, considered by some historians as the first formal
football club in the United States, was formed in 1861 by schoolboys who played the "Boston game" on
Boston Common. They played mostly among themselves early on; though they organized a team of non-members to play a game in November 1863, which the Oneidas won easily. The game caught the attention of the press, and the "Boston game" continued to grow throughout the 1860s.
Early professional football The first professional
National Football League (NFL) franchise in the city was the
Boston Bulldogs, who only played a single season (in 1929) since relocating from
Pottsville, Pennsylvania. The
Boston Braves were established in 1932, under the ownership of
George Preston Marshall. At the time the team played in
Braves Field, home of the
Boston Braves baseball team in the National League. The following year, the club moved to
Fenway Park, home of the American League's
Boston Red Sox, whereupon owners changed the team's name to "Boston Redskins." To round out the change, Marshall hired
William "Lone Star" Dietz, who was thought to be part
Sioux, as the team's head coach. However, Boston wasn't much of a football town at the time and the team had difficulty drawing fans. In fact, the
1936 NFL Championship Game was moved to the
Polo Grounds in New York City due to apathy and low support in Boston. In 1937, Marshall moved the franchise to Washington, D.C. In 1944, the
Boston Yanks were established (the 3rd NFL franchise in Boston's history), playing their home games at Fenway Park and competing until 1948. The Yanks are the only officially defunct NFL team ever to have the
first overall NFL draft pick. They had it twice, in 1944 and 1946. Both times they selected a quarterback from the
University of Notre Dame:
Angelo Bertelli (1944) and
Frank Dancewicz (1946), both
Massachusetts natives. Owner
Ted Collins moved his "defunct" Yanks franchise to New York City in 1949, where it continued for one year as the Bulldogs and two years known as the
New York Yanks.
Modern professional football is the home stadium of the NFL's
New England Patriots In 1959, Boston businessman
Billy Sullivan was awarded a franchise in the
American Football League (AFL), the
Boston Patriots, bringing professional football back to Boston. Throughout the 1960s, the team lacked a permanent home field, playing at
Boston University Field (at the time still known and configured as
Braves Field),
Fenway Park,
Harvard Stadium, and
Boston College's
Alumni Stadium. In 1970, the
AFL merged with the
NFL and the Patriots joined the league (the AFL- NFL merger was announced in 1966, the first season of
Super Bowl competition). The following year, the franchise was re-named the New England Patriots. From 1971 to 2002, the team played at
Foxboro Stadium in the town of
Foxborough, Massachusetts which is located 22 miles (45 km) southwest of downtown Boston. Unlike most major American cities, Boston was slow to get a professional-caliber stadium, which stymied past attempts at top-tier football in the city prior to the Patriots' arrival. Largely due to the stadium issue, the Patriots are the only football team in the Boston area's sporting history to survive more than five years. The 2002 season brought the opening of
Gillette Stadium, located next door to Foxboro Stadium. Businessman
Robert Kraft, who at the time owned Foxboro Stadium and the team's lease for it, purchased the team in 1994 for $175 million, ensuring the Patriots would remain in New England amid a shuffle of owners and rumors of a relocation to
St. Louis. The team experienced a
recent surge of success, mostly with the turn of the century. The team has made 12
Super Bowl appearances and won six of them –
XXXVI (2001),
XXXVIII (2003),
XXXIX (2004),
XLIX (2014),
LI (2016),
LIII (2018),
LX (2026) – and became the only team to go
16–0 in the regular season (in 2007) since the NFL expanded to a 16-game schedule in 1978. Notable people among the team include head coach
Bill Belichick and star quarterback
Tom Brady, who among others would help make the Patriots consistently successful. The Patriots won 21 games in a row from 2003 to 2004, including winning
Super Bowl XXXVIII. The only substantive challenge to the Patriots came from the
United States Football League's
Boston Breakers, who played at Nickerson Field in the upstart spring league's inaugural season. However, by the end of that season, it was clear that Nickerson Field was too small and too outdated even for temporary use. Unable to find a more suitable venue, the Breakers moved to
New Orleans the following season. ==Rugby union==