20 years of dominance and success has only poured fuel on the fire of several intense rivalries between the New England Patriots and other NFL teams.
The New England Patriots have been around for 60 years now. Over the course of that time, they’ve made quite a few enemies around the NFL.
In the very beginning, the Pats mostly flew under the national football radar, finishing first in their division and making the playoffs just once in the old AFL days.
Outside of a surprise run to Super Bowl XX in 1985, New England didn’t make a lot of noise in the ’70s or ’80s either, winning the AFC East just twice and making only five postseason appearances in two decades of competitive play.
Things started to turn around in the ’90s under Bill Parcells and Pete Carroll, especially with the arrival of Drew Bledsoe at quarterback. The Patriots became more disruptive — particularly within the AFC — as other franchises outside of New England’s own division began to take notice.
And then, finally, we all know what happened when Bill Belichick and Tom Brady arrived in 2000. This dynamic duo reshaped the identity of the Patriots forever en route to six Super Bowl titles and numerous other individual and team accolades.
Primarily because of the Belichick/Brady partnership, the Patriots are now one of the most despised (and admired) teams in professional sports.
They are the subject of intense ire and consternation for many franchises and fanbases around the country … but only a worthy few deserve a reciprocal level of loathing from New England’s own players, coaches, alumni, and fans.
For example, as much as the Steelers may consider the Patriots a primary antagonist, Pittsburgh hasn’t really been much of a stumbling block for New England this millennium.
Denver, on the other hand, was always a difficult place for New England to win in — even before Peyton Manning arrived at QB — but the Broncos also just barely miss the cut for this list, mainly because they and the Pats have so rarely both been good at the same time throughout history.
Kansas City looks like they’ll be a thorn in New England’s side for decades to come now that Patrick Mahomes has received his massive contract extension, but that rivalry is still relatively new. Perhaps if this list gets revisited in a few years, the Chiefs will crack the top five.
For now, though, all three of those teams are honorable mentions.
Let’s take a look at and power rank the five franchises that represent the Patriots’ greatest historical rivals as of 2020 … starting with a very familiar division foe at No. 5.
Honorable Mentions: Pittsburgh Steelers, Denver Broncos, Kansas City Chiefs
5. Buffalo Bills
The New England Patriots have played more games against the Buffalo Bills throughout history than all but one other team in the NFL. They’ve met 119 times in the regular season, and they also went head-to-head once in the playoffs.
While it might seem unusual to slot a team the Patriots have combated so many times this low on a ranking of all-time rivalries — especially when that team shares a division with them — the Bills simply don’t elicit the same kind of furor and vitriol from the Pats and their fans as certain other squads.
For starters, New England has largely had Buffalo’s number over the course of their shared existence in the NFL. The Patriots own the all-time regular season series by a 75-43-1 margin, and they’re also 1-0 against the Bills in the postseason.
If we’re looking at decades, the Patriots hold a 4-2 edge over the Bills there as well. New England and Buffalo alternated decades during the 20th century, with the Patriots winning the ’60s and ’80s, and the Bills winning the ’70s and ’90s.
The Patriots have positively smashed the Bills into submission though since the turn of the century, going 35-5 against their rivals to the west since 2000.
Of course, the major caveat here is that we could be experiencing a sea change in the Bills/Patriots rivalry now that Tom Brady is gone.
Buffalo is a trendy pick to win the AFC East for the first time since 1995 this season, as many analysts think that if anyone’s going to do it, the Bills are the best-positioned to finally usurp the division crown from the Pats.
Until and unless that happens though, this rivalry belongs at the bottom of this list.
4. Indianapolis Colts
Let’s just be honest and call this what it is: The Colts/Patriots rivalry is really just the Peyton Manning/Tom Brady rivalry.
Those who are newer or younger fans of New England probably don’t know that the Colts once shared a division with the Pats for many, many years. From 1970 to 1983, the Baltimore Colts were one of the five members of the AFC East alongside the Patriots, Dolphins, Jets, and Bills.
Even after they moved to Indianapolis, it wasn’t until divisional realignment in 2002 that the Colts switched over to the AFC South.
Because of this history, the Patriots and the Colts actually played each other quite frequently for over 30 years.
That said, the rivalry between these teams really only rocketed up a notch with the ascendance of Manning and Brady into the upper echelon of NFL quarterbacking.
Though Manning came into the league two years earlier (and with substantially more fanfare and expectation already on his shoulders), both signal-callers really hit their primes and came into their own at the exact same time.
The result? Some truly epic head-to-head matchups over the years.
Brady won the first six meetings, including two that occurred in the postseason. Manning then won five of the next seven, including one playoff game (although Brady missed the 2008 meeting; Matt Cassel started that game for the Pats), before missing the 2011 matchup and then becoming a Denver Bronco in 2012.
All told, Brady went 8-4 against Manning while the two QBs were with the Pats and Colts, respectively — including a 2-1 edge in the playoffs. Brady also went 3-2 against Manning’s Broncos, though the two Denver wins were both in AFC Championship Games.
This was arguably the best rivalry in the entire NFL during the 2000s, but it lost a great deal of luster when Manning left in 2012. The Patriots are 7-0 against the Colts post-Manning — including two dominant wins in the postseason.
3. Baltimore Ravens
Of the five rivalries on this list, the Ravens/Patriots competition certainly qualifies as the most recent — in part because the Baltimore Ravens didn’t even exist until 1996.
Don’t let that newness fool you though … these two teams absolutely hate each other.
Ex-Raven Terrell Suggs and ex-Patriot Tom Brady probably best encapsulated the spirit of this rivalry in their mutual distaste for one another.
Suggs famously refused to refer to Brady by name for many years, calling him “pretty boy” or “12” or “New England’s quarterback” instead. A year ago, he dismissed Brady’s remarkable longevity as “not shocking” considering the way QBs are more heavily protected by rules today.
Suggs even went so far once as to call Brady’s Super Bowl championships “questionable.”
Of course, the enmity goes both ways … especially if you’re a Ravens fan.
Many Patriots haters over the years have accused Brady of unfairly drawing more roughing-the-passer penalties than he’s probably due, and it usually has something to do with Brady getting hit or sacked and gesticulating wildly at the refs around him to throw a flag. This certainly has happened more than once with Brady and Suggs in the past.
Moreover, Brady did once say this of the Ravens, too: “They talk a lot for beating us once in nine years.”
While that type of ‘scoreboard’ comment certainly didn’t go over well with Maryland residents at the time, the Patriots could back it up then. New England was 5-0 against Baltimore all-time until the Ravens’ road victory in the Wild Card game after the 2009 season in Foxborough.
Since that time, the series has become much more balanced, with New England holding a narrow 5-3 edge against Baltimore.
Also consider the fact that the Patriots are just 2-2 overall against the Ravens in the postseason — including a 15-point loss at home in the 2012/2013 AFC Championship Game — and it’s easy to grasp why there’s such a juicy history here.
Throw in the whole Julian Edelman/Danny Amendola double pass playoff game during the 2014 season — when Ravens head coach John Harbaugh nearly lost his mind over Bill Belichick’s clever exploitation of the eligible/ineligible receivers gimmick — and you’ve got a slam-dunk selection at No. 3 on this rivalries ranking.
2. Miami Dolphins
Because of the way the old AFL did its scheduling, the New England Patriots didn’t face the Miami Dolphins nearly as frequently as they did the Buffalo Bills or the New York Jets.
As a result, the Pats and Fins have met on 13 fewer occasions in the regular season all-time than New England has met its other two modern-day division foes.
It really doesn’t matter, though … because while the Patriots enjoy a .634 regular season win percentage against the Bills and a .550 percentage against the Jets, they actually have a losing percentage (.481) against the Dolphins.
New England would need to sweep Miami during the season series in 2020 and then again in 2021 just to tie up the all-time series between these bitter enemies.
And without trying to sound too pessimistic, it’s probably not likely to happen that way.
It stands to reason that if Bill Belichick remains the head coach of the Patriots for several more years to come — and if he keeps New England perched firmly atop the AFC East — then maybe, just maybe, the Pats will overtake the Fins in the all-time series before Belichick retires, though.
As much as Belichick seems to be closing in on George Halas and Don Shula in the all-time head coaching victories record book, you’d have to think he’s aware that he could simultaneously surpass Shula and have the Patriots surpass the Dolphins too before all is said and done.
Of their three division rivals, most New Englanders will tell you they probably fear Miami the most on a year-in, year-out basis.
For context: While Tom Brady went 32-3 against the Bills and 30-8 against the Jets (including 1-1 in the playoffs) as the quarterback of the Patriots, he went just 23-12 against the Dolphins — a mark that also includes a 7-10 record on the road in southern Florida.
For all the success New England has enjoyed this millennium, hardcore Fins fans are quick to point out the moral victories their team has secured at the Pats’ expense during this same era. Perhaps the most two notable examples are the Miami Miracle/Miracle in Miami and the failed 19-0 season.
The Dolphins certainly deserve credit for the former after the stunning way they pulled out that walk-off win two years ago; they had next to nothing to do with the latter, though, other than being twice vanquished by the Pats on their path to glory during the 2007 season.
Unfortunately, the Dolphins probably celebrated as much as the Giants did after Super Bowl XLII … because New York’s victory ensured that Shula’s 1972 Miami team remains to this day the only undefeated team to win a Super Bowl in NFL history.
Needless to say, there’s no love lost between these rivals.
1. New York Jets
Pictured above are two of the most annoying and most despised NFL figures in New England Patriots lore: Eric Mangini and Rex Ryan.
Mangini actually used to be a revered figure around Boston, known to fans as the “Mangenius” who took over for Romeo Crennel as New England’s defensive coordinator in 2005 after winning three Super Bowls with the Patriots as a defensive assistant under Bill Belichick.
The rest, of course, is well-known to both New England fans and NFL followers alike: Mangini left the Patriots to become the new head coach of the New York Jets in 2006 and was the primary whistleblower the following year when he accused Belichick’s Pats of filming his Jets during the 2007 season … a scandal that would forever be known after as “Spygate.”
Mangini didn’t last very long in the Big Apple, getting fired after another dismal season in 2008.
His replacement was another pouty, outspoken, obnoxious figure to Patriots fans: ex-Ravens defensive coordinator Rex Ryan.
Ryan made headlines right away during his introductory news conference as Gang Green’s new head coach:
“I never came here to kiss Bill Belichick‘s rings. I came here to win, let’s put it that way … I’m certainly not intimidated by New England or anybody else.”
Ryan’s Jets then proceeded to back up his brash talk by going just 4-9 against Belichick’s Patriots over the next six years. The highlight if you’re a Jets fan was a surprise road victory over the Pats in the Divisional round of the 2010 NFL playoffs. The lowlight if you’re a Jets fan was unquestionably Mark Sanchez’s butt fumble on Thanksgiving 2012.
Beyond just Mangini and Ryan, there’s a ton of historical animosity between the Patriots and the Jets. The two clubs came into the AFL at the same time and played in the same division, and they came into the NFL at the same time and played in the same division.
MetLife Stadium is far and away the closest geographically to Gillette Stadium. Boston and New York have a long-standing rivalry in sports, too, whether it’s Red Sox/Yankees, Patriots/Jets, Celtics/Knicks, or Bruins/Rangers.
This rivalry also is notable for its shared head coaches: Mike Holovak, Pete Carroll, Bill Parcells, and Bill Belichick himself — although Belichick infamously resigned as head coach of the Jets at his introductory news conference and before he ever coached a game for them, taking the Patriots HC job instead.
Without a doubt, the New York Jets are the No. 1 all-time rival of the New England Patriots.