Super Bowl XXXVII Raiders entered the game favored to win in their first Super Bowl in 19 years. They were also the first franchise to appear in the Super Bowl in four decades (1960s, 1970s, 1980s, 2000s; the 1990s was the only decade that they did not appear in the Super Bowl). However, much of the media hype surrounded the Gruden trade prior to the season. This forced league commissioner Paul Tagliabue to issue a statement that he might ban all future trades for coaches involving draft choices because it might compromise the draft. A distraction for the Raiders was that starting center
Super Bowl XXXVI ranked the Patriots winning Super Bowl XXXVI as the second-greatest Boston sports championship of the decade behind only the Red Sox winning the 2004 World Series. After the Patriots won their first championship in franchise history, it started a run of a team in American sports from NCAA and the four major sports winning their first (or next) franchise championship with a wait of 17 years or more between titles. This streak is still continuing in 2018 after Philadelphia Eagles and Washington Capitals winning their first titles in their franchise histories. Beginning with the Rams' appearance in Super Bowl XXXVI,