{"id":680425,"date":"2026-01-15T23:34:19","date_gmt":"2026-01-15T23:34:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/680425\/"},"modified":"2026-01-15T23:34:19","modified_gmt":"2026-01-15T23:34:19","slug":"patriots-name-rooted-in-revolutionary-history","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/680425\/","title":{"rendered":"Patriots name rooted in revolutionary history"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\t\t\t\t\t\tAs the New England Patriots get ready for Sunday’s playoff game, fans aren’t just celebrating the team. They’re also celebrating the history behind the name itself.Ask 10 New England fans, and each will likely give you a different version of what the word “Patriot” means to them. “We’re the red, white and blue team,” said one fan at Gillette Stadium on Thursday. “We are America.””I think the name ‘Patriot’ definitely has a deeper meaning because of the history of the area,” another fan said.>> Download the free WMUR app to get updates on the go <> PATRIOTS ON WMUR: Patriots to host Texans for next playoff game Sunday at 3 p.m. on WMUR-TV <<\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\tFOXBOROUGH, Mass. \u2014 \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

As the New England Patriots get ready for Sunday’s playoff game, fans aren’t just celebrating the team. They’re also celebrating the history behind the name itself.<\/p>\n

Ask 10 New England fans, and each will likely give you a different version of what the word “Patriot” means to them. <\/p>\n

“We’re the red, white and blue team,” said one fan at Gillette Stadium on Thursday. “We are America.”<\/p>\n

“I think the name ‘Patriot’ definitely has a deeper meaning because of the history of the area,” another fan said.<\/p>\n

>> Download the free WMUR app to get updates on the go<\/a> <<<\/p>\n

University of New Hampshire history professor Eliga Gould, a lifelong Patriots fan, said the word “patriot” meant something very specific at the time of the American Revolution.<\/p>\n

“A patriot at the time of the revolution was someone who loved his or her country,” he said. “They love their country more than sometimes they love their government.”<\/p>\n

While Massachusetts often gets the spotlight when it comes to Revolutionary War history, Gould said New Hampshire played a critical role, even before the famous shots were fired in Lexington and Concord. <\/p>\n

He said the idea of standing up for your beliefs is part of why the Patriots name resonates so strongly across all six New England states.<\/p>\n

“The Patriot logo and name is a source of tremendous pride and in ways that kind of harks back to the first patriots during the Revolution,” Gould said. “We’re from New England. This is where it all started, right? So, you know, it’s only natural that up here our team would be the Patriots.”<\/p>\n

>> PATRIOTS ON WMUR: Patriots to host Texans for next playoff game Sunday at 3 p.m. on WMUR-TV <<<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As the New England Patriots get ready for Sunday’s playoff game, fans aren’t just celebrating the team. They’re…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":680426,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2050],"tags":[7,4463,1167,249,2326,2094,6,208,99420],"class_list":{"0":"post-680425","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-england-patriots","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-history","10":"tag-new-england","11":"tag-new-england-patriots","12":"tag-newengland","13":"tag-newenglandpatriots","14":"tag-nfl","15":"tag-patriots","16":"tag-revolutionary-war"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115901737706828811","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/680425","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=680425"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/680425\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/680426"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=680425"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=680425"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=680425"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}