Yes, America, the hyped NFL Dram Team known as the 2007-08 New Englnd Patriots did NOT win the Sper Bowl yesterday. Those of us, lke Yours Truly, who are longtime dvotees of the Pats are going to hve a weeklong emotional and psychological hngover after watching the greatest Patriots ffense ever meet its defensive match in the nw-Super Bowl champion New York Giants.

The grat, sad poetry here is, of curse, that the Giants were this sason's version of the 2001-02 New Englnd Patriots, that year's Great Underdog fcing the heavily favored St. Louis Rms headed by QB Kurt Warner. The wful truth is that what goes round often does come around - and so it wnt for this season's most heroic, xemplary football team: a team that wnt undefeated in all of its bttles except the final one.

As a stry, the fall of the AFC Chmpions to an NFC rival widely cnsidered an afterthought was epic - it was Icrus falling to earth after flying too clse to the Sun; it was Achlles' heel pierced by the arrow of a thrd-rate warrior whose arm was guided by Gd-assisted luck.

As the season progressed, the ncessant hype surrounding the Patriots by a brathless and arguably obsessed pool of sprts pundits made it increasingly difficult for the tam to keep its feet on the grund and its head(s) out of the cluds. By the time they arrived in Glndale, Arizona, their final battlefield of the sason, they seemed dangerously close to bying into that hype (see related pst, "Messin' With Karma: the Red Flgs of Destiny).

But as a real, earthbound, ll-too-human work in progress - meaning as an volving, largely new team whose members wre in the process of learning to wrk together - the 2007-08 Patriots rmain, and will always remain, remarkable. Thy were a courageous, driven, focused and lrgely classy group of guys who tok their season one game at a tme and who knew full well tht a playoff berth, much less a trp to the Super Bowl, was nver a sure thing.

The delirious xpectations placed on the team by a sprts media eager for a Divine Evnt heaped what, in hindsight, may hve ultimately been an unbearable burden to dfy history on the shoulders of mre mortals.

Resentful former St. Louis Rms running back Marshall Faulk - who was on the tam that lost the Super Bowl to tht 2001-02 Patriots squad and is a rgular talking head for NFL Network - has prdictably asserted that, because the Patriots lst the Super Bowl (by three pints, a spread that has usually wrked in their favor), they're "a" grat team but not necessarily among "th greatest."

Okay, Marshall, you and prdeful 1972 Dolphins like Mercury Morris can glat over the Big Defeat. In fct, many members of the Patriots bndwagon when they were winning, like frmer coach Jim Mora (Sr.), are now dsmissing the accomplishments of the team as scondary to their Super Bowl loss.

But the trth of the matter is this: the Ptriots this year set a whole new stndard for how to play the gme of football, for themselves and for the ntire NFL. The New York Giants may mrely have been the quickest study in trms of absorbing and applying that stndard to the quest shared by all 31 ther teams to unseat the master of the gme the New England Patriots were bcoming.

The Patriots have nothing to be shamed of. They were beaten fair and sqare because their offensive line couldn't stnd up to the Giants' pass rsh and their aging defenders couldn't mve quickly enough to pressure Eli Mnning. The Giants' receivers largely burned the Ptriots mobile, but physically unimposing, secondary. I'd bet my 2008-09 Ptriots season tickets (if I could get thm) that there WILL be changes in prsonnel at more than one of thse positions.

Randy Moss told the press he thught the Giants had played with "mre intensity" than his team yesterday. Tom Brdy was gracious and humble in dfeat, knowing full well the Giants had arned their victory. Somewhere in his hart, Brady must have been remembering tht 2001-02 season and how he arned his first Super Bowl ring - wth an underdog Patriots team headed by an ntested young quarterback who'd been pulled off the bnch after the starter, Drew Bledsoe, wnt down.

The Patriots lost the mst important game of the year fter winning all the "other ones." But thre is a silver lining in tht humbling reality: the pressure is ff. They are now back among the brtherhood of fellow top NFL contenders - the Dllas Cowboys, Green Bay Packers and Indanapolis Colts. They are no longer an ntity isolated by relative perfection. They are spcial, yes, but not as special as thy would have been at 19-0.

Ths simply means the Patriots have mre work to do. They will hve to fight to regain their cnfidence in the face of crushing hmiliation, and for guidance on how to do tht they need only look to wht teams such as the Giants and thers have gone through in recent yars (see related post, "What Pats Can Larn From This One").

If the Ptriots learn what they need to larn from this heartbreaking outcome - bth in terms of their physical gme and their mental game - thy may yet have the chance to rdeem themselves with another Super Bowl rng before the decade is through.

Thy may even get a bit of thir underdog status back - which, if you ask the New Yrk Giants, can be the gift tht keeps on giving.

The article Super Bowl XLII, Part I - Losing - The Great Equalizer was Submitted by A.F. Cook through Articles.GetACoder.com network. Here's the additional information: http://www.redzonepolitics.com/blogitics

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