The key play in the second quarter of Super Bowl XXXVI had to be the Ty Law interception of Kurt Warner, returned for a touchdown and a 7-3 Patriots lead. Warner, under siege from oncoming rusher Mike Vrabel, has to hurry his throw to the right side, where Law awaits and scampers untouched to the end zone. Warner is unable to pursue the fleeing Law because Vrabel has decked him just as he released the ill-fated pass. My question is this: why wasn’t Vrabel penalized for roughing the passer, since he whupped Warner upside the head as he came through for the tackle? Nahh, I don’t think it was a penalty either, but this was pretty much the exact same play as the controversial roughing-the-passer call that referee Ben Dreith made in that 1976 Oakland-New England playoff game. As most New Englanders bitterly remember, the controversial call extended a Raiders’ scoring drive, leading to the winning TD and ultimately a Super-Bowl victory for the Raiders a few weeks later. Dreith to this day contends that he flagged Ray Hamilton not because he hit Oakland QB Ken Stabler late, but because he slammed Stabler in the head with his forearm as he engulfed the embattled quarterback. Sure looked like we wuz robbed back then, and got away with it this time. Imagine how last Sunday’s game turns out differently if that interception is negated, and a 15-yard penalty is tacked on to that Rams’ drive? I shudder to think.

Do you think FOX Sports commentator John Madden would have advised Kurt Warner, John Elway, or even Trent freakin’ Dilfer to " take a knee " with 1:21 left in regulation? Well, he did exactly that to wonderboy Tom Brady and the Pats’ coaching staff during the telecast, saying that their lousy field position (their own 17), the time remaining, and the lack of timeouts could only lead to disaster if they attempted to drive down the field into field-goal range. Luckily, the coaching staff had the guts and the confidence, and the players sealed the deal by making the plays to get kicker Adam Vinatieri within his distance to boot the momentous game-winner. Kudos especially to Brady for eluding a fierce rush early on in the drive, and to halfback J.R. Redmond and receiver Troy Brown for getting out of bounds to stop the clock on key pass plays.

Speaking of stopping the clock, imagine this scenario. Vinatieri kicks the winning field goal, and pandemonium breaks loose on the field as the confetti drops and the Patriots celebrate the championship. But wait! Rams head coach Mike Martz notices that there were two seconds left on the clock when the kick went through the goalposts! He notifies the referee, who decides to go to the replay booth to verify! Oh no! He determines that there is one second left on the clock, and the Patriots must kick off to the Rams one last time. Barring a miracle of epic and heartbreaking proportions, the Patriots most likely do tackle the kick returner and confirm their Super Bowl title. But think about how long it would have taken to get the situation back under control on the Superdome turf; to clear the field of all of the spectators, photographers, and other riff-raff that had stormed the field, and most importantly, sweep up all of that confetti? Talk about anticlimactic. The Patriots would have had to stand around in agony for a half an hour for a kickoff that could quite possibly have been returned for the game-winning (and trophy-stealing) touchdown. Wouldn’t that have been typical for a fandom that’s waited all its life for a professional football title. Yikes.

I just have this odd feeling that this Vinatieri fella will go down as one of the best and most clutch kickers in the game, en route to a Hall of Fame berth Ohio someday. Not many kickers are in the Hall, and you better be pretty special to get to Canton on the basis of your kicks alone, but this guy has never missed a kick in a domed stadium. Never. In six seasons. And what if the South Dakota kid missed that 45-yarder in the blizzard back in January? Or even the overtime kick? Talk about changing the course of history. No one could have blamed him if he had missed either one, but let’s not even think about giving what might have happened if New England had had to give the ball back to the Raiders under those circumstances. I know, that game is now ancient history, but I happened to tape it, and looking back on some weird goings-on late in that game which turned the tide, I can’t help but remember a couple of interesting plays. During one, a Pats receiver juggles the ball on the sideline, only to be rescued by another receiver right behind him, who grabs the deflection out of mid-air before falling out of bounds. Complete! But why are two receivers one-in-front-of-the-other, anyway? There was another similar play, where two Patriots receivers somehow end up side-by-side just over the first-down marker, and one catches it for the critical first down. Again, who ran the wrong route? And what if they happened to both fight for the ball and manage to both drop it? Destiny, indeed.

Do you think that all teams will ultimately have to do without the pre-game introductions, and come out as a team, as the Patriots did prior to the Super Bowl? It was a nice gesture, and certainly appropriate for a team of lunch-pail guys. But ultimately some of these traditions will wear thin or need to be done away with because people get sick of ’em — witness the Wave, the traditional Gatorade shower, and end-zone dances, among others. I’ll be curious to see if the Patriots in particular will go back to the individual-player pre-game introductions, especially for their first game at CMGI Field this fall.

CMGI Field. It may take a while to get used to saying that, and you might not even get much of a chance to do that if CMGI, a corporation that's treading water financially, ultimately forfeits the naming rights. But I will say this: having seen the stadium from field-level a few weeks back, I can tell you that no matter what its official name ends up as, the complex itself will be the best thing that ever happened to the New England sports fan. FleetCenter? Hah. With rows that will allow people to get in and out without other people having to get up, with concourses so wide that you could practically land a small plane in them, and a set-up where every single seat is facing the 50-yard line, the Patriots (and the Revolution) are indeed going from the very worst sports facility to the absolute best. Fans probably won’t even notice the heated field and the state-of-the-art drainage system (or even the set of exit doors which are located directly behind the Patriots’ bench — but not the visitors’, who will have to trudge all the way to the exit in the corner of the stadium — that will allow the home team to get into the locker room that much quicker), but the fact is that the Kraft family has not just built a new stadium with its own money, but has in fact built practically the best stadium money can buy with its own money. There’s still a lot of work to be done before the stadium opens for soccer in May, but Lordy, those devoted fans accustomed to those aluminum benches and that cold wind whipping across the plain are in for the surprise of their lives. In the words of Animal House’s Flounder, " This is gonna be great. "

Let’s enjoy this Patriots championship season as long as we can, because lord knows the 1918 Red Sox fans thought that they too could get used to this run of world championships, but the 2002-03 NFL schedule isn’t doing the defending Super Bowl champs any favors. While New England no doubt earned the title by defeating three of the best teams in the NFL during its playoff run, the fact is that the Patriots were playing a last-place schedule and only played five marginal and one legitimate playoff team in its 16-game regular-season slate. This fall we’re going to get a first-place schedule, and eight teams that reached the 2002 post-season (Jets twice, Dolphins twice, Raiders, Steelers, Packers, and Bears), plus a few teams that were on the cusp (Denver, Tennessee, and Minnesota). We will get the Lions (maybe even the traditional Thanksgiving game in Detroit) and the Bills (twice), but none of them can be considered absolute gimmes. Having a bull’s-eye on your back as defending champs is bad enough, but think about what the season opener could very well be: Monday-Night Football at Oakland. I’m sure the hooligans that worship at the altar of the Silver and Black will be on their best behavior that night. Here’s an idea: pack up some snowballs in the fridge right now, and book the flight to Oakland as soon as the game date is confirmed. Unpack the fridge prior to your departure, pack ’em away, and start a snowball fight in the Coliseum bleachers just prior to kickoff.

Raiders fans — they’ll love it!