What Is Your Favorite Patriots Memory?
As part of the 50th Anniversary of the Patriots and the AFL, the team is asking for your help in voting for the top ten moments in franchise history.
It might be hard to pin down the top ten moments from this decade, never mind the previous four. The list of moments as selected by the team can be found at the Patriots website, and you have the opportunity to put together your own list.
Here is the official release from the team about the voting:
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 1, 2009
FANS TO DECIDE THE TOP 10 MOMENTS IN PATRIOTS HISTORY WITH ONLINE VOTE AT PATRIOTS.COM
FOXBOROUGH, Mass. – Football may be a game of inches, but it is defined in moments.
Starting today, Patriots fans can define the “Top 10 Moments in Franchise History” at Patriots.com.
There have been many memorable moments in the Patriots’ first half century of play and – in celebration of the franchise’s 50th anniversary season – a nomination committee took on the task of pooling together a collection of 50 snapshots in time that will take fans on a stroll down memory lane.
Fans will have the final say, creating their “Top 10 Moments” list by sorting and ranking their favorite moments from that list. Voting begins today and closes on Aug. 1.
The results will be announced starting in October with a series of features on “Patriots All Access” and in the pages of Patriots Football Weekly.
During the offseason and throughout the 2009 regular season, Patriots fans have been invited to discuss, debate and cast their votes in a series of 20 “Top 10 All-Time” lists on Patriots.com as part of the 50th anniversary celebration. The lists have chronicled all aspects of Patriots history, including the most recent “Top 10 Opponents of All-Time” list.
Now, focus shifts to capturing the most significant moments in the last 50 years. Some may have come with a kick, like Adam Vinatieri’s game-winning field goal in Super Bowl XXXVI, or with the spinning wheels of a tractor, like Mark Henderson clearing the path to victory in the “Snow Plow Game.” It might only have been one moment, but the memories can last a lifetime.
Elsewhere in Patriots news, one of my all-time favorite Patriots, Willie McGinest would love to come back and play his final season with the team that drafted him and for whom he played his first 12 season for. McGinest was the first draft pick made by the Kraft regime, and Jonathan Kraft has often sentimentally pointed that fact out. Can he still play? Not full time, but I could guess he might make a nice situational player, and his leadership and experience would be a plus.
Also, former Patriot Ellis Hobbs, traded to the Philadelphia Eagles during draft weekend, is making sure that he doesn’t burn any bridges with his former team. Hobbs was extremely complimentary towards the Patriots in an ESPN Radio interview, and might end up being the rare player that is actually more popular after being traded away.
We’re in July…that means by the end of the month we’ll be in training camp. Stay tuned for more details about our upcoming schedule as the month goes on.
I haven’t visited p.com yet, and its far from my ‘favorite’ moment, but an early shout-out to Tony Eason-to-Irving Fryar last second Hail Mary to beat the Rams in Anaheim.
Also, Bob Windsor catching a winning, broken-leg TD from Jim Plunkett to beat Fran Tarkenton and the Vikes at the Met.
There have been so many great moments over the last decade but those two always stuck out to me.
I remember that Eason-to-Fryar play…it was amazing. My parents were and are not sports fans, so the NFL was never on the living room TV growing up. My grandmother had given me an old B&W Philco TV for my eighth grade graduation, and I had it in my room. It had rabbit ears and tin foil on those rabbit ears, just to get reception of the Boston and Portland, ME stations. I remember sitting in my room watching that game and going nuts when Fryar caught it.
Great memory.
It was great because you never expect those plays to go in your favor. I remember watching glumly as they gave it a final shot.
Robert Weathers running for a long touchdown against the Bengals on a short yardage play is another, as the 85 Pats clinched a playoff spot.
I was at the stadium for that Bengals game, and I remember the Weathers play clearly, not just for what it did for the Pats, but also because at the moment he broke free we all jumped to our feet and someone behind us spilled a cup of what must have been something like Wild Irish Rose all over us. It was a mix of excitement, joy, disgust, and eventually shake-your-head laughter.
then, don’t forget: a few lovable Pats fans ran off with the uprights after the game and failed to note the power lines above their tailgate spot, almost getting themselves killed. Ah, Foxboro.