E-Mail This Article to a Friend Final thoughts on Super Bowl XXXVIII BY CHRISTOPHER YOUNG

Are you ready for some football — to be put to bed for the off-season? The Super Bowl hangover lingers in New England, and that’s to be expected. Now Bostonians can finally understand why New Yorkers never get tired of seeing their beloved Yankees win year (1996) after year (1998) after year (1999) after year (2000). It’s addictive, and makes people feel good about themselves, their city (or region), and their team. All of a sudden everyone else is looking your way and expressing admiration and/or jealousy, instead of you looking their way. For New Englanders familiar with the Patriots’ history, this state of affairs remains difficult to grasp: that this bumbling gang of losers who were primarily known for a) their drunken, out-of-control fans inhabiting b) the worst venue in the NFL world in Schaefer/Sullivan/Foxboro Stadium, site of c) the infamous snowplow game and the alleged sexual harassment of a female Boston Herald reporter. Then, of course, there was d) the 1985-’86 team that reached the franchise’s first Super Bowl, only to set a record (at the time) for the most embarrassing loss (46-10 to Chicago in Supe XX) just prior to the exposure of a team-wide drug scandal. Bad enough? Of course not. The nadirs had to be the 1990 season, when the "Patsies" went 1-15, and 1992’s 2-14 campaign that brought the team thisclose to being moved to St. Louis by owner James B. Orthwein. That had been the legacy of the Boston/New England Patriots football club, and anything resembling a proud history was in short supply.

Fast-forward to 1993, the turning point, when Bill Parcells was hired as coach, and, immediately thereafter, Robert Kraft bought the team, ensuring its stay in the region. Parcells ultimately left, but CMGI Field — renamed Gillette Stadium before the first NFL game was played in it — was on the horizon, and the team’s fortunes had irrevocably changed. Of course, Mo Lewis’s hit on Drew Bledsoe also played a teeny-weeny part, but that’s a story for another day.

Sure, other NFL organizations also waited a long time for their first Super Bowl titles, among them the Giants (in the 21st edition), the Broncos (Super Bowl XXXII), and the Rams (their illustrious history in LA saw exactly zero crowns until they moved — instead of the Patriots — to St. Louis in 1995). But few of them had the record for futility and the ignominious history that the Patriots did. That is why so many long-time observers find it mind-boggling that not only are the Pats again newly crowned champions, but that they are being spoken of in terms of a model organization and potential long-term success. Can it be true that the Patriots have won as many Super Bowls as such long-established and revered teams as the Dolphins, Giants, and Broncos — and actually have more Roman-numeral titles than the Bears, Jets, Colts, Chiefs, Rams, Eagles, Bills, and Vikings? Yah, mon, ’tis true.

Now it’s nearly time to move on. But the following thoughts and images will stay with us.

• Tom Brady has as many Super Bowl MVPs as do NFL Hall-of-Famers Bart Starr and Terry Bradshaw, and more than were ever collected by legends Roger Staubach, Jim Plunkett, Jerry Rice, John Elway, or, indeed, anybody other than the 49ers’ #16. And Brady’s only 26. Maybe someday people will turn against him if he starts winning too much, but right now his charm, poise, and talent make him one of the most likable stars in the league, if not in all of sports. Would he ever had had the chance for all this glory if not for Bledsoe’s 2001 injury? Would he ever have had the opportunity to live such a wonderful life? Paging Clarence!

• If there’s any Patriot who can test the patience of outsiders and even the team’s fans, it’s wide receiver Deion Branch, whose second-year exploits admittedly helped lift the Pats to the championship. Yet his showboating antics go against all the team elements so stressed and valued by the organization, and he seems to be the sole member of the team who relishes being such a hot dog. Branch should instead watch the way long-time New England hero Troy Brown conducts himself. Still, aside from Branch (and perhaps safety Rodney Harrison, whose hard-hitting reputation often precedes him), this is a team built for the long haul, made up almost exclusively of character guys.

• How does the second championship differ from the first? For a lot of Pats fans, the second offers a sense of "Whew!" When you’re a 14-point underdog in the ’02 Super Bowl and nobody’s picking you even to cover the point spread, there’s a definite lack of pressure. When your team is picked by seven, and at least a third of the prognosticators in the country still feel that you’re going to lose the big game in spite of a 14-game winning streak, then there’s something to be leery of. Especially when the opponent really turns out to match up well and almost pulls off the dreaded upset. Two years ago, Patriots fans were ecstatic over the spectacular surprise of the 20-17 victory; this year it was no less exciting and gratifying, but there was more of a sense of relief. For the team’s backers, it proved that the 14-game win streak was legitimate, that the team was as good as they thought it was, and that their confidence in the team was justified by its talent. To be sure, fans around here could not imagine any outcome other than a Patriots victory, but if it had gone the other way — well, it would not have reached the level of Red Sox fans’ disappointment and resentment, but it would indeed have been absolutely shocking. After all, the Pats had not lost since September, and hadn’t even trailed in any game since mid-November. When New England does lose again, it will come as a disruption of the natural order to the team’s fans, much like the feeling you get when you turn on the faucet in the morning and nothing comes out. Undoubtedly, Patriots Nation, through no fault of its own, has been spoiled and has begun taking the team’s invincibility for granted.

• Before last Sunday’s game, many area fans admitted that nothing could top that sheer joy of the Patriots’ victory over the Rams in 2002, and a big part of the reasoning was that you can never improve upon the ideal scenario of a last-second field goal to win the championship. How could you? And even if another set of circumstances did somehow allow Adam Vinatieri yet another chance at unimaginable late-game glory, could it ever surpass the ecstasy of the first? After all, only two other Super Bowls ever were decided by a last-second field goal, and those were in Baltimore’s 16-13 win over Dallas in Super Bowl V (Jim O’Brien — not the Celts’ ex-coach — kicked a 32-yarder with five seconds left) and Scott Norwood’s wide-right FG that clinched a 20-19 victory for the Giants 20 years later. Yet all of a sudden, the stage was set again — by the same team in the same royal-blue uniforms — culminating in another furious last-minute drive. What were the odds? Who cares, as long as it restamped Vinatieri, Brady, coordinator Charlie Weis, and all the other members of the offense with the indelible imprint of clutch performers, and in turn provided fans with another opportunity to cheer like idiots?

• According to reports, Vinatieri changed cleats at halftime after missing the game’s first two field goals, thereby giving him greater traction when kicking the game-winner with four seconds left.

• Did Jake Delhomme just become a better quarterback late in the game, setting the stage for the back-and-forth scoring fest that saw 37 racked up in the fourth quarter? Well, chalk it up in part to the fact that New England lost two of its starting safeties to injury in the fourth quarter, including the All-Pro, Harrison, to a broken arm. Think the prospect of throwing deep against converted special-teamers Shawn Mayer and Chris Akins was a bit more inviting than throwing into the net thrown up by Harrison and Eugene Wilson? That being said, Delhomme’s performance that day was spectacular, and the adjustments he made to rebound from his one-for-nine opening 23 minutes was nothing short of remarkable.

• It was Ricky Proehl who scored the tying touchdown for the Rams with a minute and a half left in Super Bowl XXXVI, thereby tying the game at 17-17 and completing St. Louis’s rally from a 17-3 deficit. So who scored the tying TD against the Patriots two years later — but again left New England with a lot of time in which to stage the game-winning rally? Yep, Proehl again, who came to Carolina via free agency prior to this season and got to play in his third Super Bowl in four years, albeit only to result in his second heartbreaking loss.

• As the Patriots look to extend their 15-game win streak, they face the following line-up: their AFC East partners (Miami, Buffalo, and the Jets), Baltimore, Cincinnati, San Francisco, Seattle, and Indianapolis at home; on the road, they’ll take on the AFC East foes again, along with Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Arizona, St. Louis, and Kansas City. Look for the Indy game to be the Patriots’ home opener on Monday Night Football (hangin’ banner #2); the Rams and Chiefs games should also be prime-time affairs. In the meantime, fans can divert themselves in the off-season by speculating about which of those teams will be the first to defeat the Pats — and how long the streak will extend before it’s finally snuffed. For the record, the Dolphins hold the record of 18 consecutive victories (1972-’73).

And so the book closes on the 2003-’04 NFL season, and the year that started so haltingly downbeat — that hideous 31-0 thrashing in Buffalo — ends as spectacularly as the 2001-’02 season (strangely enough, that season also started off with a stunning loss — to the Bengals, a pathetic bunch who were coming off a 4-12 campaign).

All of a sudden, the Red Sox will again be facing the monumental task of matching the class, excitement, and, yes, success of their gridiron comrades-in-arms to the south.

As role models go, they could do a lot worse.

Congratulations, Patriots. You made forgetting the antics of Pedro, Grady, and Aaron Boone a helluva lot easier, and New England’s typical winter of discontent has turned out to be anything but.

"Sporting Eye" runs Mondays and Fridays at BostonPhoenix.com. Christopher Young can be reached at cyoung[a]phx.com