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February 1, 2004
DYNASTY? Patriots have a chance to create new line of NFL succession
TORONTO GLOBE AND MAIL
In 1972, the Miami Dolphins became the only perfect team in the modern history of the National Football League, winning all 14 regular-season games, two more in the playoffs and, finally, the Super Bowl.
It's impossible to list the greatest champions in the sport without a nod in their direction. The fact that the average winning percentage of the teams they beat that year was below .400 and the fact that they entered the Super Bowl as betting underdogs to the Washington Redskins are now no more than pesky asterisks.
Any football fan can rattle off the best of the rest since the Dolphins ran the table: the 1985 Chicago Bears, 18-1 all told, outscoring opponents 456-198 in the regular season and an astonishing 91-10 in the playoffs; the Jimmy Johnson-Barry Switzer Dallas dynasty; the Bill Walsh-George Seifert San Francisco dynasty; the Steel Curtain Steelers; and the Bill Parcells New York Giants dynasty.
Or, pick a favorite season: the St. Louis Rams of four years ago, for their offense; the Baltimore Ravens of three years ago, for their defense; and the Denver Broncos, who after all of those Super Bowl failures became the last team to win two championships in a row.
So there's the context.
Now what do you do with the New England Patriots?
It's a tough question, one that was much debated in the week leading up to Super Bowl XXXVIII between the Patriots and the Carolina Panthers.
Predictably, during the absolutely unnecessary pre-Super Bowl off week, the discussion had already begun about respect, and how both teams somehow feel they haven't received an appropriate amount, given their lofty stature.
In New England's case, that may even be true, since, so far, few have been willing to concede the Patriots even a tiny corner of the pantheon. But if they win today, it would be their 15th victory in a row this season and leave them with a combined regular-season and postseason record of 17-2. On a percentage basis, that stands up against just about any, historically.
Unlike the great Bears team, the Patriots haven't been blowing out one opponent after another, and unlike the Rams or the Ravens, they don't appear to have revolutionized the game.
None of those teams, though, enjoyed a second act. They couldn't repeat, whereas the Patriots are in a position now to win a second Super Bowl in three seasons.
The other great teams that stayed at or near the top year after year did so before the NFL's salary-cap system made it nearly impossible to keep great teams together in the long term.
This is the era of parity in American football - mediocrity, the critics would have it - when a team such as the Panthers can go from a single win two seasons ago all the way to a championship game, and when both of last year's Super Bowl teams could miss the playoffs. (As a business strategy, it's terrific, keeping costs down and keeping hopes flickering, even for fans of the hopeless Arizona Cardinals, even if it works against the mythology of a game that has certainly never defined itself through one-hit wonders.)
The Pats didn't make the postseason last year, but these two Super Bowl appearances with largely the same cast of players might be the closest thing the NFL can produce to a true 21st-century line of succession.
That has to count for something in the grand scheme of things. As for the Patriots lack of star power or the few obvious Hall of Fame players on their roster, that can play both ways. Perhaps the Patriots are distinctive for their very lack of distinctiveness.
Quarterback Tom Brady admits he's slow as molasses, and New England's offensive line is supposed to be lousy, so why is Brady rarely sacked? The Patriots don't have a single great receiver or running back, but they move the ball and score enough points to win. And their defense, without a fancy nickname, without a Ray Lewis or Mike Singletary on board, shut down the high-flying Rams two years ago and handled everything the AFC had to offer this year.
The only marquee name here is the coach, Bill Belichick, and even he lacks the self-promotional skills that are usually part of the NFL genius package.
If New England loses today as the big favorite, no one is going to waste much energy assessing its place in history. A win, though, and however grudgingly, the Patriots must be part of the great fantasy match-up.
Could their defense have befuddled Joe Montana? Could Brady have survived with Richard Dent breathing down his neck? No way, you say, instantaneously. But then, that must be some set of mirrors that Belichick has stashed away.