Tomorrow, the New England Patriots will host the Los Angeles Chargers in the NFL’s divisional playoff round. The two teams are no strangers to meeting with their seasons on the line: they also met in 2006 and 2007, both games won by the Patriots. Their playoff history, however, goes back farther than that. It goes back all the way to January 1964, in fact, when the two teams met to compete for the AFL title.
Despite finishing their inaugural season with a losing record, the new Patriots franchise was able to turn the corner quickly and become one of the American Football League’s best teams over the seasons that followed.