Analysts trying to gauge the Patriots’ place in NFL history should look back three decades to a different sport on the opposite coast.
There’s another three-time champ that won without overwhelming opponents: the 1972-74 Oakland A’s, the rollicking outfit of future Hall of Famers Reggie Jackson, Catfish Hunter and Rollie Fingers, plus clutch performers Joe Rudi, Sal Bando and Gene Tenace.
On the surface, the low-key Pats and the over-the-top, in-your-face A’s couldn’t be more dissimilar. Both teams, however, won championships by prevailing in close games.
New England has won its nine postseason games in the Bill Belichick era by an average of seven points. During Oakland’s three-year title run, the A’s were 14-5 in one-run playoff games, 9-3 in the World Series. Not once in any of Oakland’s 21 postseason wins did it score more than five runs.
Yet Oakland beat the Big Red Machine Cincinnati Reds in the 1972 World Series, twice won over Earl Weaver’s powerful Baltimore teams in the ALCS and defeated the 102-win L.A. Dodgers in the 1974 World Series.
Both the Patriots and A’s succeeded because their whole was greater than the sum of their individual parts.
