First the stats and facts......Gino was the only player to average over ONE HUNDRED POINTS per year for his entire eleven year career......AND he never missed a game.....Adam Vinateri is there now.....nobody else.....
Cappelletti also averaged SEVEN point four points per game for his entire career.....NOBODY has even hit SEVEN......Vinateri is at six point nine......JAN STENARUD, already in the Hall of Fame, is the closest with FIVE point nine points per game......Vinateri is a lock for the Hall when he retires BUT GINO CAPPELLETTI is still not there......
Hopefully Mr. Kraft, Robert and Jonathon, will use their influence to bring this huge injustice to the attention of the Hall's voters.......
NOW, for some history from one who has lived it.....ME......In the fifties all the Boston football fans rooted for the N.Y. GIANTS.......WE had no home team......Some wealthy Texas people struggled to start the old AMERICAN FOOTBALL LEAGUE.......They were on the verge of it BUT needed one last team......Then up popped Billy Sullivan and a few investors {DOMENIC DIMAGGIO} the most prominent and came up with the quarter million dollar entrance fee.....TEN shares at twenty five thousand dollars each........and a small television contract sealed the deal.....FOR NOW......
NOTE:---Many wondered why the AFL founders didn't want anything to do with BOSTON.......
HERE'S more history.....These guys were older NFL people and hated Boston because the football fans here wouldn't support three NFL teams that came to Boston and failed......That's right youngsters......The Boston Yanks, Dodgers and BRAVES who changed their name to REDSKINS......The other teams faded away but the REDSKINS moved to WASHINGTON......and have done pretty well....
The BOSTON Patriots were horrible their first year and part way through the next year Sullivan fired LOU SABAN and promoted B.C. legend MIKE HOLOVAK to head coach......Mike quickly shaped them up and made them a TEAM, complete with the "Patriot swagger" and a leader in GINO CAPPELLETTI......Two years later they won the AFL Eastern title and went on to play in their version of the super bowl......Yes, we lost BUT, there's a little known story there that I'll tell you about in a week or so.....Stay tuned........
The point is that, with strong leadership by Cappelletti and his TEAM the BOSTON PATRIOTS
were capturing the hearts of the BOSTON FANS.......It wasn't common knowledge BUT the early years had the AFL in a difficult position and, if BOSTON collapsed that might very well be the end of the AFL......They would not have been considered competition for the NFL and there would never have been any MERGER.......They'd just file their bankruptcies and float away......Imagine what effect that would have had on our football world.......NO merger and NO SUPER BOWLS.......
Back to Cappelletti......HE, and his guys, made a perfect Patriot's Public Relations team, never turning down ANY charitable requests for appearances and ALWAYS free of charge......As their popularity grew Gino, with some investors, opened a night club called "THE POINT AFTER" which quickly became THE PLACE TO GO.......Now this was the dawning of the BOBBY ORR, big bad BRUINS days as well as the Ken Harrelson "Impossible Dream" Red Sox playboys......The girls went to "socialize" with the big name athletes and the guys......well they went where the girls were, etc......
Suddenly all the girls were at the Patriots games and the Pats were playing before full houses.....
Boston NOW had it's own HOME TEAM......Gino always was available to sign autographs, as well as all his guys who never turned down requests for public appearances........
The late, great Boston Globe football writer, Will McDonough used to say that Gino did everything but park cars and sell popcorn......THAT's how important he was to the team......
Final analysis tells me GINO CAPPELLETTI could very well have been hugely responsible for saving the BOSTON PATRIOTS.....and changed the course of the NFL.....Can anybody imagine life in Boston without TOM BRADY and all those super bowl wins???
Hopefully Mr. Kraft and some of you readers out there will make enough of a squabble to bring this injustice to the NFL commissioner. GINO CAPPELLETTI SHOULD BE IN THE HALL OF FAME.....
NEXT.....The unknown story of the BOSTON Patriots FIRST playoff.......stay tuned......