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. 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). This was the last Super Bowl to feature the St. Louis Rams; after relocating to Los Angeles in 2019, the Rams returned to the NFL's championship game in Super Bowl LIII, in which they were again defeated by the Patriots.