Dolphins–Patriots rivalry

The Dolphins–Patriots rivalry is a National Football League (NFL) rivalry between the Miami Dolphins and New England Patriots.

The Dolphins joined the AFL in the 1966 season, being placed in the AFL Eastern Division alongside the Patriots, becoming divisional rivals with them. Following the AFL–NFL merger, the Dolphins and Patriots joined the National Football League (NFL) and were placed in the American Football Conference (AFC) and the AFC East.

The Dolphins lead the overall series, 64–55. The two teams have met three times in the playoffs, with the Patriots holding a 2–1 record.^[1]

While not as famous as some other rivalries, the rivalry has a long history that dates back to the 1960s. The beginning of the rivalry was dominated by the Dolphins, as at the time the Dolphins were one of the NFL's most successful teams, while the Patriots were one of the worst. However, this notion would change in the early 2000s when the Patriots becoming more and more successful, eventually culminating with the Brady & Belichick dynasty, while the Dolphins, and the rest of the AFC East, would become mired in mediocrity, only posting a few winning seasons, while the Patriots dominated the AFC East.^{[2][3][4][5][6]} The Patriots finally made the Super Bowl in 1985, having defeated Miami in the AFC Championship game to get there.^[7]

Starting in 1986, the rivalry was a little bit more even, with the Pats having a 7-game winning streak from 1986 to 1988. The Dolphins then took over the rivalry once again, winning 13 of the next 15 matchups between the 2 teams. Both teams had great quarterbacks in the 1990s, with the Patriots having Drew Bledsoe and the Dolphins with Dan Marino, both of whom appeared in at least one Super Bowl; Marino in Super Bowl XIX and Bledsoe in Super Bowl XXXI. The Dolphins continued to dominate the rivalry through the late 1990s with the Dolphins sweeping the Patriots in back to back years, 1999 and 2000.

Miami is one of 3 teams in the AFC with a winning overall record against New England (the others being the Denver Broncos and Kansas City Chiefs). Since 2003, the Patriots have dominated the rivalry, but not as much as their rivalries with their two other AFC East opponents.^[8][9] In 2004, one of the most famous moments in the rivalry happened where the Dolphins, 2–11 at the time, upset the defending champion Patriots, who were 12–1, in a game that has been known as "The Night That Courage Wore Orange".^[10] The rivalry briefly intensified in 2005 when Nick Saban (who previously served as defensive coordinator of the Cleveland Browns, coached by Bill Belichick at the time) was hired as the Dolphins head coach and when he nearly signed quarterback Drew Brees with the Dolphins, as well as in 2008 when the Dolphins became the only team other than the Patriots since 2003 to win the division.^[11] In Week 3 of the aforementioned 2008 season, the Dolphins used the Wildcat formation to throw the Patriots (who were without Tom Brady that year because of an ACL injury earlier in the season) off and went on to upset them, 38–13, snapping their 20-game regular season winning streak that dated back to December 10, 2006, which coincidentally, the Patriots were also beat by the Dolphins.^[12] In 2018, the Dolphins upset the Patriots in Miami for the second year in a row, this time with a last-minute hook and lateral scoring play in what is known as the "Miracle in Miami".^[13]

On February 4, 2019, the Dolphins hired a long-time Patriots assistant, Brian Flores (who had been with the team since their 2004 Super Bowl-winning season) as the 12th head coach in franchise history. In 2021, the rivalry intensified once again after the Patriots drafted Alabama quarterback Mac Jones, a former college teammate of Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa, whom Jones backed up in the first half of the 2019 season until a season-ending hip injury from Tagovailoa caused Jones to take the helms at quarterback for Alabama. Both quarterbacks led Alabama to national titles in 2018 and 2021, respectively. In 2022, the Dolphins hired former Patriots wide receiver Wes Welker to be their new wide receivers coach. Welker previously played for the Dolphins from 2004 to 2006 and the hiring would reunite him with Dolphins defensive coordinator and former long-time Patriots assistant Josh Boyer, whom was serving as a defensive assistant and later the defensive backs coach during Welker's tenure with New England (2007–2012).

Also notable is the fact that the Dolphins and Patriots are the only NFL teams to post undefeated regular season records following the NFL-AFL merger. The 1972 Dolphins finished with a 14–0 regular season record and went on to win Super Bowl VII, finishing the only complete perfect season in NFL history,^[14] while the 2007 Patriots were the first team to go undefeated in the regular season since the league expanded to 16 games, but famously lost Super Bowl XLII against the New York Giants. Additionally, both teams have had long-tenured coaches in Don Shula and Bill Belichick, respectively.^[15]

During the Dolphins–Patriots game in Foxboro on September 17, 2023, a Patriots fan died after an altercation with Dolphins fans.^[16] The Patriots fan, Dale Mooney, had confronted a Dolphins fan who had been arguing with his group before another Dolphins fan delivered two punches to Mooney, who fell unconscious and was later pronounced dead at a hospital.^[17] Despite the attack, an autopsy found that Mooney did not suffer a traumatic injury directly from the punches and instead succumbed to a "medical issue", which a witness to the altercation surmised was a heart attack from "getting worked up from the scuffle".^[18] Two men from Rhode Island, John Vieira and Justin Mitchell, were later charged in Mooney's death for assault and battery and disorderly conduct, but not for homicide despite the medical examiner ruling Mooney's cause of death to be homicide.^[19]

• List of NFL rivalries
• AFC East
• Celtics–Heat rivalry