A "Super" Bowl

I couldn't believe my ears. John Madden was telling me that, if he were the coach, he would lie down and wait for overtime. There's a bunch of people in the Boston area tonight who are glad he's not.

In what can only be called one of the greatest Super Bowl finishes ever, Tom Brady coolly and calmly moved his team 53 yards and into field goal range with 90 seconds left and no timeouts. Belichick knew that if they got near the Ram thirty-yard line, Adam Vinatieri would be true. He had never missed in a dome stadium. He still hasn't.

The Patriots defense did what no one thought they could. They essentially stopped the "greatest show on earth," the St. Louis Rams offense. Oh sure the Rams moved up and down the field at times, but that's what the Patriot D is designed for. It let's you move the ball all you want, but it doesn't let you score. They were only 24th in the NFL in yards allowed, but sixth in points allowed this season.

The Pats hit everyone and hit them hard. The tackling was picture perfect. It seems the coaches had emphasized minimizing yards after catch. That's where the Rams beat so many people. That's where the Patriots weren't going to be beat as hit after hard hit came as soon as the receiver caught the ball.

It was interesting to see what Belichick did to stop the Rams. He went with very few blitzes and five to seven guys on the line. He had faith that his secondary and linebackers could handle the receivers and Marshall Faulk out of the backfield. They did until the end of the third quarter. The fourth quarter belonged to the Rams. Warner passed his way through the Pats defense like he had been able to do to everyone else. It looked like the Rams had rallied themselves into overtime.

That is, until Tom Brady and the Pats offense, which had been almost an afterthought in the game, stepped up. Until that last drive Brady had completed 11 of 19 passes for 92 yards and one TD. All seventeen of New England's points had been set up by St. Louis turnovers. The offense had 214 yards and almost half of those were by bruising running back Antowain Smith. Everything pointed to a Ram victory in overtime...as long as they could eliminate offensive mistakes.

Brady would have none of that. He completed five of eight passes on the drive including two spikes to stop the clock. He threw for all 53 yards of the drive. He threw one away when he needed to. He did it all.

The play calling on the last drive was also magnificent. The only third down they had was on the game winning kick. They never put themselves in a bad situation.

This was a true team effort. From the player introductions, when the Patriots decided to come out as a team to the last play by the kicker, who would have been the MVP if it was given for play throughout the playoffs, this New England team played just that way. as a team. They defined teamwork and team play. They showed how you pick up a teammate if he messes up. They showed that the team is much better than the sum of its parts.

In the end, I guess it's appropriate. In this season that has been so tumultuous for the nation and the world, the champions of baseball and football weren't the teams that the consensus felt had the best talent. They were the teams that played the best together. They were the teams that believed in themselves despite what others said. They were the teams that didn't play by convention, but by heart and desire.

The Patriots wanted the win, not the overtime. They had the ball and needed to score. There was no thought to lying down. To be the best you have to go for it when you have the chance. Chances to be the best don't come along often in one's lifetime. New England was given that chance and they took it.

This year the best team in the NFL was a group of men who had a common goal, worked together and believed in each other despite long odds. They were Patriots that wore red, white, and blue in honor of our founding fathers.

Isn't that the way it should be?