Patrick Sullivan is a former American football executive who served as general manager of the

New England Patriots The New England Patriots are a professional American football team based in the Greater Boston area. They compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) AFC East, East divisio ...

from 1983 to 1990.

Early life

The son of Patriots founder Billy Sullivan, Sullivan was a ballboy for the first Boston Patriots team. In 1976, he graduated from

Boston College Boston College (BC) is a private Jesuit research university in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts. Founded in 1863, the university has more than 9,300 full-time undergraduates and nearly 5,000 graduate students. Although Boston College is classifie ...

New England Patriots

After graduating college, Sullivan spent two years as the manager of

Schaefer Stadium Foxboro Stadium, originally Schaefer Stadium and later Sullivan Stadium, was an outdoor stadium in the New England region of the United States, located in Foxborough, Massachusetts. It opened in 1971 New England Patriots season, 1971 and served ...

. In 1979, he was named assistant general manager. On February 17, 1983, Sullivan was promoted to general manager. During his tenure as general manager, the Patriots had a 66–65 record and made the playoffs twice, including an appearance in

Super Bowl XX Super Bowl XX was an American football game between the National Football Conference (NFC) champion Chicago Bears and the American Football Conference (AFC) champion New England Patriots to decide the National Football League (NFL) champion for ...

. After the Patriots 1985 Divisional Playoff victory against the

Los Angeles Raiders The Los Angeles Raiders were a professional American football team that played in Los Angeles from 1982 to 1994 before relocating back to Oakland, California, where the team played from its inaugural 1960 season to the 1981 season and then agai ...

, Sullivan was struck by Raiders linebacker

Matt Millen Matthew George Millen (born March 12, 1958) is a former American football linebacker and executive. Millen played 12 years in the National Football League for the Oakland and Los Angeles Raiders, San Francisco 49ers, and Washington Redskins, ...

on the head. Millen hit Sullivan in retaliation for Sullivan's heckling of Raider

Howie Long Howard Matthew Moses Long (born January 6, 1960) is an American sports analyst and former professional football player. He played in the National Football League (NFL) for 13 seasons as a defensive end, spending his entire career with the Raide ...

from the sidelines. After ''

Boston Herald The ''Boston Herald'' is an American daily newspaper whose primary market is Boston, Massachusetts, and its surrounding area. It was founded in 1846 and is one of the oldest daily newspapers in the United States. It has been awarded eight Pulit ...

'' reporter

Lisa Olson Lisa Olson is an American sports journalist. Her work has been featured in the anthology, "The Best American Sports Writing". She was previously a sports columnist for the ''New York Daily News'', and the first female sports columnist for the ''S ...

complained of being sexually harassed in the Patriots' locker room, team chairman and majority owner

Victor Kiam Victor Kermit Kiam II (December 7, 1926 – May 27, 2001) was an American entrepreneur and TV spokesman for Remington Products, and the owner of the New England Patriots football team from 1988–1991. He was well known for his turnaround of Remi ...

sought to suspend Sullivan. However, National Football League Commissioner

Paul Tagliabue Paul John Tagliabue (; born November 24, 1940) is an American lawyer who was the History of the NFL Commissioner, commissioner of the National Football League (NFL). He took the position in 1989 NFL season, 1989 and served until September 1, 2006 ...

stepped in and prevented the suspension. On December 20, 1990, Kiam named

Sam Jankovich Sam Jankovich (September 10, 1934 – October 30, 2019) was an American sports administrator who held several positions, including athletic director at the Washington State University and the University of Miami. He also was the CEO of the New E ...

CEO of the Patriots and gave him complete control of the organization. On January 29, Sullivan announced his resignation.

Post-Patriots

Since 1993, Sullivan has served as President of Game Creek Video, a company he founded that provides television production trucks for sporting events.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sullivan, Patrick Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Boston College alumni National Football League general managers New England Patriots executives Buckingham Browne & Nichols School alumni