The New England Patriots are a professional American football team based in the Greater Boston area. The Patriots play their home games at Gillette Stadium in the town of Foxborough, Massachusetts. The team is part of the East Division of the American Football Conference (AFC) in the National Football League (NFL). An original member of the American Football League (AFL), the Patriots joined the NFL in the 1970 merger of the two leagues. The team changed its name from the original Boston Patriots after relocating to Foxborough in 1971, although Foxborough is a suburb 22 miles (35 km) away from downtown Boston. Since the arrival of current head coach Bill Belichick in 2000, the Patriots have become one of the most successful teams in NFL history. They are third in appearances in a Super Bowl with seven (the Pittsburgh Steelers and Dallas Cowboys each have 8), and have the most appearances in the last 25 years. They have won all but two AFC East titles since 2001, and have not had a losing season since 2000. Before Belichick arrived, the Patriots had only notched consecutive playoff appearances twice in their history. Between 2001–2010, the Patriots set a record for most wins in a decade (121, different from conventionally bounded decades, 2000–2009, 1990–1999, etc.; this record references any ten-year stretch; second is the 1984–1993 San Francisco 49ers, with 120 wins); they broke their own record in 2011 (2002–2011 – 123 wins), and again in 2012 (2003–2012 – 126 wins – nearly 13 regular season wins per season). Between 2001 and 2005, the Patriots became the second team in NFL history (after the Dallas Cowboys) to win three Super Bowls in four years (Super Bowl XXXVI, XXXVIII, and XXXIX), and the eighth (and most recent) to win consecutive Super Bowls. The Patriots, however, were defeated by the New York Giants in Super Bowl XLII, after winning the first 18 games of their 2007 season. They were defeated again by the Giants in Super Bowl XLVI. During Belichick's tenure with the team along with quarterback Tom Brady, the Patriots have also compiled the longest winning streak consisting of regular season and playoff games in NFL history, a 21-game streak from October 2003 – October 2004. The Patriots' rivalry with the New York Jets is considered one of the most bitter rivalries in the NFL. Patriot fans rally in front of Boston City Hall following the Super Bowl XXXVIII championship The Patriots have appeared in the Super Bowl seven times. The team advanced to the playoffs four times before appearing in Super Bowl XX in 1986, losing to the Chicago Bears. The team also appeared in Super Bowl XXXI in 1997, losing to the Green Bay Packers. The Patriots won their first Super Bowl in 2002, defeating the St. Louis Rams. Their next recent Super Bowl victory was in 2004, where they defeated the Carolina Panthers. Their most recent victory was in 2005, where they defeated the Philadelphia Eagles. Since their last victories, they have made Super Bowl appearances in 2008 and 2012, where they lost to the New York Giants both times

Gillette Stadium

The Seattle Seahawks are a professional American football franchise based in Seattle, Washington. They are members of the West division of the National Football Conference (NFC) in the National Football League (NFL). The Seahawks joined the NFL in 1976 as an expansion team along with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. The Seahawks are owned by the estate of Paul Allen, co-founder of Microsoft, and are currently coached by Mike Mcdonald. Since 2002, the Seahawks have played their home games at Lumen Field (formerly CenturyLink field), located south of downtown Seattle. The Seahawks previously played home games in the Kingdome (1976–1999) and Husky Stadium (1994, 2000–2001). The Seahawks are the only NFL franchise based in the Pacific Northwest region of North America and thus attract support from a wide geographical area, including Oregon, Montana, Idaho, and Alaska, as well as Canadian fans in British Columbia and Alberta. Seahawks fans have been referred to collectively as the "12th Man", "12th Fan", or "12s". The Seahawks' fans have twice set the Guinness World Record for the loudest crowd noise at a sporting event, first on September 15, 2013, registering 136.6 dB during a game against the San Francisco 49ers and again on December 2, 2013, during a Monday Night Football game against the New Orleans Saints, with a then record-setting 137.6 dB. Over the years the Seahawks have had some notable players on the team, including Steve Largent, Dave Brown, Jim Zorn, Dave Krieg, John Randle, Kenny Easley, Curt Warner, Joe Nash, Brian Blades, Cortez Kennedy, Joey Galloway, Walter Jones, Steve Hutchinson, Shaun Alexander, Matt Hasselbeck , Marcus Trufant and Russell Wilson. Largent, Kennedy, and Moon have been inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame, as was Jones in 2014. Easley, Jones, Kennedy, Krieg, Largent, Warner, and Zorn have been inducted into the Seahawks Ring of Honor, along with cornerback Dave Brown and defensive end Jacob Green. The Seahawks have won nine division titles and three conference championships. They are the only team to have played in both the AFC and NFC Championship Games. They have appeared in three Super Bowls, including Super Bowl XLVIII where they defeated the Denver Broncos 43–8 to win their first NFL title. However, the Seahawks went on to lose Super Bowl XLIX to the New England Patriots, 28–24. They are also the first, and to date only, post-merger expansion team in NFL history to advance to play in consecutive Super Bowls. As per one of the agreed parts of the 1970 AFL–NFL merger, the NFL began planning to expand from 26 to 28 teams. In June 1972, Seattle Professional Football Inc., a group of Seattle business and community leaders, announced its intention to acquire an NFL franchise for the city of Seattle. In June 1974, the NFL gave the city an expansion franchise. That December, NFL Commissioner Pete Rozelle announced the official signing of the franchise agreement by Lloyd W. Nordstrom, representing the Nordstrom family as majority partners for the consortium. In March 1975, John Thompson, former Executive Director of the NFL Management Council and a former Washington Huskies executive, was hired as the general manager of the new team. The name Seattle Seahawks ("Seahawk" is another name for Osprey) was selected on June 17, 1975 after a public naming contest which drew more than 20,000 entries and over 1,700 different names. Thompson recruited and hired Jack Patera, a Minnesota Vikings assistant coach, to be the first head coach of the Seahawks; the hiring was announced on January 3, 1976. The expansion draft was held March 30–31, 1976, with Seattle and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers alternating picks for rounds selecting unprotected players from the other 26 teams in the league. The Seahawks were awarded the 2nd overall pick in the 1976 draft, a pick they used on defensive tackle Steve Niehaus. The team took the field for the first time on August 1, 1976 in a pre-season game against the San Francisco 49ers in the then newly constructed Kingdome.