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New England Patriots

Reinstate the Red!

By Ryan McGowan

Bob Rafter was there at the beginning, and it wasn’t pretty.

“I was at the first preseason game with Elvis,” Rafter, 28, of Phoenix, but a Franklin (Mass.) native, said, referring to the current Patriots logo, which debuted in 1993 to replace the original “Pat Patriot”, the beloved icon that adorned the team’s helmets since the franchise’s first season as a charter member of the AFL in 1960.  “There were literally planes flying overhead dismissing Elvis.”

Rafter is not alone in Patriots Nation in his nostalgia for the original red-dominant uniforms.  Despite the franchise’s extended run of success since that ’93 season (which, not coincidentally, was the beginning of the Bill Parcells/Drew Bledsoe era), many fans clamor for a full-time return to the iconic jerseys of the team’s past.

Since the chance of jinxing the team’s success by switching uniforms at this point is pretty much moot, it needs to be said: the Patriots need to bring back the red jerseys and the Pat Patriot logo.