What was the first Super Bowl won by the New England Patriots?
Super Bowl XXXVI
Super Bowl XXXVI was an American football game between the National Football Conference (NFC) champion St. Louis Rams and the American Football Conference (AFC) champion New England Patriots to decide the National Football League (NFL) champion for the 2001 season. The Patriots defeated the Rams by the score of 20–17. It was New England's first Super Bowl championship, and the franchise's first league championship of any kind.[lower-alpha 1] The game was also notable for snapping the AFC East's long streak of not being able to win a Super Bowl championship, as the division's teams had lost eight Super Bowls in total (prior to the Patriots victory in XXXVI). It would be the last time the Rams reached a Super Bowl during their time in St. Louis; the team would return to Super Bowl LIII as the Los Angeles Rams 17 years later, where they will play a rematch the Patriots.
List of New England Patriots seasons
Since Bill Belichick was hired as the team's head coach in 2000, the Patriots have finished first or second in the AFC East every year except Belichick's first season, with both second-place finishes caused by tiebreakers. Over that time, they have won five Super Bowls, nine AFC Championship Games, and sixteen AFC East titles, while amassing a regular season record of 201–71. The team's quarterback over that same period, Tom Brady, has been awarded the NFL Most Valuable Player (MVP) three times, and the Super Bowl Most Valuable Player four times; he is one of only five players named Super Bowl MVP more than once, and the only one named 4 times.