Doug McKinney | Staff Writer

2/08/02

Most football fans were expecting to tune into Super Bowl XXXVI expecting that the St. Louis Rams would come out of New Orleans as the Champs.  On paper it didn't look too favorable for the New England Patriots to come out as winners.  Hell, most journalists out there were saying it wasn't even supposed to be a close game.  People were going around stating the game was going to be "The Big Easy" for the St. Louis Rams, implying the Patriots wouldn't stand a chance.  But there was just something in this year's Super Bowl that left a million of other football fans and myself believing that the Patriots stood a chance.

Was it the connection of irony in their team name and the strong Patriotic pride America has had the past 6 months?  Was it the fact that the Patriots declined to introduce their starters and just be introduced as a team?  Or was it because the Pats had such a storybook season with the quarterback controversy and the 1-3 start then what better way to end the season by winning the Super Bowl, and having the man, Tom Brady, who led them out of those rough times to go on and earn the Super Bowl MVP.

Let's look back, and take a stroll down memory lane of last Sunday's game.  With 1:30 left in the game, as John Madden sat next to his soon to be retired partner Pat Summerall for the last time, Madden claimed this would be the first ever Super Bowl overtime.   He would soon be proved wrong.  Patriots coach Bill Belichick gave QB Brady the go ahead signal, as Brady put together a Joe Montana look-a-like drive, setting up the game winning 48-yard field goal by Adam Vinatieri, and giving the Patriots their first Super Bowl championship in franchise history.

The St. Louis Rams offense, for years now have been rated amongst the top in the NFL, looked very much confused out there on Sunday night.  The Pats D shocked Kurt Warner.  They kept him off balance by blitzing, rushing three men and playing multiple defensive backs against him.  I¹ve never seen Warner as hesitant as he was on Sunday, not to mention, his timing of getting the ball off was way too slow.  The defensive backs didn't give up many big plays and delivered some pretty good hits.

On the other side of things, if you were to take a glance at the Patriot's offensive starters for this years Super Bowl back in August, you probably wouldn't have recognized most of the names.  In fact the only two names you would most likely recognize is wide receiver Terry Glenn and quarterback Drew Bledsoe, but they didn't even play. Instead, Tom Brady, the sixth-round pick who replaced the $100 million arm in Bledsoe, decided to step up.  Guys like Troy Brown, who had once been waived by the Patriots and has been hanging around with the special teams for some time now, and Antowain Smith, a running back who didn't stay too long in Buffalo, have also decided to step up and now are team leaders.

  Brady has been the center of attention all year long.  Even though he didn't have the best numbers in Sunday's win, he has led this team to the top.  However, much of Brady's success this year, and the success the defense had on Sunday was made possible due to the coaching of Bill Belichick.  "Nothing against Brady, but the MVP for us was Belichick, because we all knew he'd come up with something to stump them," Patriots safety Milloy said.  "When you've seen him do it time and time again, like we have, you come to believe in the man. A lot of people have the 'genius' label in this league, but he's one of the guys who really deserves it. We were all confident we could stop them.²

Ok back to the present.  In their joyous celebration on Tuesday, in front of 1.2 million screaming fans, Milloy told the crowd pretty much what the Patriot team wanted to say as a whole.  "They labeled us underdogs, they gave us no respect. We've got our respect now, right?" he said, before leading the crowd in a monstrous chant of "We're No. 1!"

The win gave underdogs throughout the whole nation truth that there is hope, and gave gamblers some helpful advice to be careful on who you bet. Patriot's cornerback Ty Law, stated "a lot of bookies are mad at us right now."  Law, who intercepted a Warner pass and took it 47 yards to put the first points on the board for the Patriots, continued, "but we don't give a damn. We're the champs."  Yes they are the champs.

  They are champs that have shown all of us football fans, just because they don't have the names of Marshall Faulk, Warner, or Torry Holt, they have names like Brady, Lewis, Brown, and they are damn proud to have them.  They are the champs that have shown us that it doesn't matter what the game looks like on paper, just wait to Super Bowl Sunday to do your criticism.  The 2001-2002 New England Patriots showed us last Saturday that if they can overcome hardships, then our patriotic country could do the same.