1990 New England Patriots season

The 1990 New England Patriots season was the team's 31st, and 21st in the National Football League (NFL). It was the first year for head coach Rod Rust, who was looking to improve on the 5–11 mark from the year before that cost Raymond Berry his job, despite the fact that Berry led the Patriots to the playoffs twice in his tenure.

The Patriots instead finished the season with a record of 1–15, the worst record in franchise history. They finished last in the AFC East Division and last in the NFL. The roster still had a number of All-Pros and regular contributors from their successful teams of the 1980s, but many of them were past the peak of their career, and the team lacked any young talent to replace them. After the team started 1–1, they would go on to lose their next fourteen games, many in humiliating fashion. Off the field, the team and its management were embarrassed by the harassment of a reporter during a locker room interview.

The 1990 Patriots scored a meager 181 points the entire season, the seventh-lowest of any NFL team in the 16-game season era, and recorded a -265 point differential, the third-worst of any NFL team since the AFL–NFL merger, bettering only the 1981 Baltimore Colts, and the winless 1976 Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

17 years later, the Patriots won all 16 regular season games, becoming one of two teams since the AFL-NFL merger to have both a one-win season and an undefeated season (the Miami Dolphins were 1–15 in 2007, 35 years after their historic 17–0 campaign).