Here's a question: Would the Patriots' players and coaches exchange their 2007 season with the 2007 season of the Giants? Of course, in public, to a man, they'd say, "Forget the records we set, we'd rather have won the Super Bowl." But my guess is that they'd rather have their 2007 season, oh-so-incomplete as it was, than the Giants' trophy. Twenty years from now, football purists will be hard-pressed to remember much about the 2007 Giants. The 2007 Patriots, on the other hand, will never be forgotten. The first 16-0 regular season; the first team to win 18 games in a season; the highest-scoring team in football history; more touchdown passes than Buffalo, Miami, Minnesota and San Francisco combined; 39 seconds shy of perfection. In terms of memory power, New England's accomplishments exceeded what the Giants did, even if Jersey/A got to stand in the confetti shower on the sliding tray in Arizona. All New England needed to do was stop a third-and-11 snap with 45 seconds showing, and the word "perfect" would have shimmered into view. The snap was not stopped, because nobody's ever been 19-0 and most likely nobody ever will be. But to come so close -- that will not be forgotten.
As for the conventional wisdom that New England had its day and will now decline, consider the following. Currently the Patriots are on a 23-2 run, with their only losses being final-play defeats by that year's Super Bowl champions: the Colts and then the Giants. Decline? The Patriots are one terrific football team. One question is will the football gods exact vengeance on the Patriots for all the bad karma they created with poor sportsmanship aka "if you can stop us, than stop us" in 2007? If you asked me the team I would NOT want to play in September, I would say New England.
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