New England Patriots Trivia
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8correct to beat the crowd
This Patriots trivia quiz has 98 free questions with answers and runs from Billy Sullivan's 1959 AFL franchise, the Pat Patriot logo and a homeless decade of borrowed stadiums, through the Super Bowl XX and XXXI defeats, to the dynasty: the 199th pick, the Snow Bowl, Vinatieri's kicks, 16-0, Malcolm Butler, 28-3 and the 13-3 win over the Rams. It closes with the post-Brady years, Drake Maye and Mike Vrabel's turnaround. Use it for a Foxborough tailgate, a New England bar quiz or to settle who in the family really knows the team. The easy questions any casual fan will get; the hard ones dig into draft slots, halftime acts, retired numbers and the details of the famous plays. Every answer was checked against encyclopedic sources before it went live, and each question explains itself as soon as you pick.
30 of 98 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which Boston business executive was awarded the eighth and final AFL franchise on November 16, 1959?
Billy Sullivan
Billy Sullivan kept the Patriots until 1988, when losses from his family's bankrolling of the Jacksons' 1984 Victory Tour forced him to sell the team he had founded.
Q 02The Patriots' 1971 Foxborough stadium originally carried which beer company's name?
Schaefer
Schaefer Stadium, named for the brewery that bought the rights, gave the Patriots a home of their own after a decade spent borrowing Boston fields, Fenway Park and Harvard Stadium among them.
Q 03The Patriots' logo from 1961 to 1992 showed a Revolutionary War minuteman doing what?
Hiking a football
Hiking a football: the minuteman began in 1960 as a newspaper cartoonist's sketch, and the team's owner liked it so much that he adopted it as the club's logo.
Q 04The Patriots' logo unveiled in 1993 is popularly known by what nickname?
The Flying Elvis
The Flying Elvis nickname stuck because fans thought the gray minuteman's face, with its streaming red, white and blue hat, resembled a young Elvis Presley.
Q 05Which team crushed the Patriots 46-10 in Super Bowl XX?
Chicago Bears
The Chicago Bears, with Richard Dent as MVP and William 'The Refrigerator' Perry scoring a touchdown, routed New England 46-10 after the Patriots had won three road playoff games as a wild card.
Q 06Which Patriots quarterback replaced a struggling Tony Eason during Super Bowl XX?
Steve Grogan
Steve Grogan replaced Tony Eason, who went 0-for-6, in the second quarter of Super Bowl XX and threw the Patriots' only touchdown pass, to Irving Fryar.
Q 07Who was the first special-teams Super Bowl MVP, with a 99-yard kickoff return in Super Bowl XXXI?
Desmond Howard
Desmond Howard struck on the very next kickoff after the Patriots had closed to within six points, and New England never scored again in the Packers' 35-21 win.
Q 08Which head coach left the Patriots for a division rival after Super Bowl XXXI?
Bill Parcells
Bill Parcells quit within a week of Super Bowl XXXI, still angry that owner Robert Kraft had overruled his wish for a defender in the 1996 draft and taken receiver Terry Glenn.
Q 09Robert Kraft's 1994 purchase blocked the Patriots' move to which city?
St. Louis
St. Louis was the seller's home city, but Kraft, who already owned the stadium, refused $75 million to release the team from its lease there and bought the club himself.
Q 10Before New England, Bill Belichick was head coach of which team from 1991 to 1995?
Cleveland Browns
Bill Belichick coached the Cleveland Browns from 1991 to 1995, going 36-44 with one playoff trip, and was fired after the franchise's move to Baltimore was announced.
Q 11In December 2024, Bill Belichick was named head football coach of which university?
North Carolina
North Carolina gave Bill Belichick his first college job, on the campus where his father Steve had been an assistant coach in the 1950s, when Bill was a toddler.
Q 12With which overall pick of the 2000 NFL draft did the Patriots take Tom Brady?
199th
199th overall, in the sixth round: six other quarterbacks were taken before Tom Brady, who went on to win a record seven Super Bowls.
Q 13Tom Brady played his college football for which school?
Michigan
Michigan: Brady arrived seventh on the depth chart, and even as a senior he had to share the job, playing the first quarter before Drew Henson took the second.
Q 21Which two performers were involved in the Super Bowl XXXVIII halftime 'wardrobe malfunction'?
Janet Jackson and Justin Timberlake
Janet Jackson and Justin Timberlake ended their halftime duet with the exposure that brought CBS a $550,000 FCC fine, later thrown out in court; the Patriots beat the Panthers 32-29.
Q 22Which receiver was Super Bowl XXXIX MVP with a record-tying 11 catches against the Eagles?
Deion Branch
Deion Branch caught 11 passes for 133 yards in the 24-21 win over Philadelphia, tying Dan Ross and Jerry Rice's Super Bowl record, and was named MVP without scoring.
Q 23Gillette Stadium, opened in 2002, was originally known by what name?
CMGI Field
Q 14Whose injury in 2001 opened the door for Tom Brady to become the Patriots' starter?
Drew Bledsoe
Drew Bledsoe suffered a sheared blood vessel in his chest from a Mo Lewis hit in week two of 2001, and Tom Brady kept the job when Bledsoe was fit again.
Q 15Who was the Boston Patriots' first head coach when they began play in 1960?
Lou Saban
Lou Saban coached the Boston Patriots from their 1960 debut until he was fired five games into 1961 and replaced by Mike Holovak; Saban later won two AFL titles with Buffalo.
Q 16Which Raiders defender's hit on Tom Brady triggered the Tuck Rule ruling?
Charles Woodson
Charles Woodson's corner blitz knocked the ball loose, but referee Walt Coleman ruled on replay that Brady's arm had been moving forward, making it an incomplete pass.
Q 17Super Bowl XXXVI, the Patriots' first title, was the first Super Bowl ever played in which month?
February
Super Bowl XXXVI fell on 3 February 2002 because the schedule slid a week after the September 11 attacks; the Patriots chose to be introduced as a team rather than individually.
Q 18Whose interception return gave the underdog Patriots their first lead of Super Bowl XXXVI?
Ty Law
Ty Law stepped in front of a Kurt Warner pass and ran it back for a touchdown, and the Patriots, given little chance against the Rams, never trailed again.
Q 19Vinatieri's kick made Super Bowl XXXVI the first ever won in which way?
On the final play
On the final play: no earlier Super Bowl had been won by a score as time expired, and the kick sealed one of the game's great upsets, over a team favoured by 14 points.
Q 20In 1982's 'Snowplow Game', a plow cleared a spot for the Patriots' winning field goal against which team?
Miami Dolphins
The Miami Dolphins lost 3-0 after Mark Henderson, a prisoner on work release, drove his plow across the snow-covered field to clear a patch for kicker John Smith.
CMGI Field was the name sold to internet company CMGI before the 2002 opening; after the dot-com bust that deal was scrapped and Gillette bought the naming rights.
Q 24What structure at Gillette Stadium reaches 218 feet and offers 360-degree views of Foxborough?
A lighthouse
A lighthouse has marked the stadium's entrance since it opened; the 2023 rebuild, billed as the tallest lighthouse in the United States, turned it into a tower fans can climb to an observation deck.
Q 25Which receiver set an NFL record with 23 touchdown catches for the 2007 Patriots?
Randy Moss
Randy Moss cost the Patriots only a fourth-round draft pick in a trade with Oakland, then caught 23 touchdown passes to break Jerry Rice's record of 22.
Q 26Who ended the 2007 Patriots' perfect season in Super Bowl XLII?
New York Giants
The New York Giants won 17-14 after David Tyree's helmet catch kept the winning drive alive, leaving the Patriots 18-1 after an 18-0 start.
Q 27The 2007 'Spygate' penalty punished the Patriots for videotaping which team's sideline signals?
New York Jets
The New York Jets, coached by former Patriots assistant Eric Mangini, were the team taped in the 2007 opener; the NFL fined Belichick $500,000 and took a first-round pick.
Q 28Which undrafted rookie's goal-line interception with 20 seconds left sealed Super Bowl XLIX?
Malcolm Butler
Malcolm Butler, an undrafted rookie from West Alabama, jumped Russell Wilson's slant to Ricardo Lockette at the goal line, moments after Jermaine Kearse's juggling catch had set up first-and-goal.
Q 29Which pop star opened the Super Bowl XLIX halftime show riding a giant golden mechanical lion?
Katy Perry
Katy Perry rode in on a giant golden lion to 'Roar' and later shared the stage with Lenny Kravitz and Missy Elliott, with the dancing 'Left Shark' stealing the show.
Q 30Who first replaced Tom Brady during his Deflategate suspension?
Jimmy Garoppolo
Jimmy Garoppolo was 21-0 up in his second start when a shoulder injury knocked him out, so rookie Jacoby Brissett finished that win and started the next two games.