It’s not easy at the top. Everyone’s gunning for you and can’t wait to see you fail. They say everyone loves a winner. Until you try to keep winning, that is. And then they don’t love you anymore.

Such is the case with the New England Patriots. Derided for years as one of the laughing stocks of the NFL, it all changed in 2002 when they defeated the heavily-favored “Greatest Show on Turf” Rams in Super Bowl XXXVI. It was called a fluke at the time and no one believed that the Patriots would be back. But back they came, winning a total of three Super Bowls in four years. Now head coach Bill Belichick is hailed as a genius and quarterback Tom Brady draws comparisons to the legendary Joe Montana.

Somewhere between that first Super Bowl win and this weekend, the Patriots went from lovable success story to a hated, arrogant, lucky team in the eyes of many. The whole postgame episode with LaDanian Tomlinson last week drove the point home: Everyone hates the Patriots.

But this a team that has shown that they excel when everyone is against them. They are two wins away from accomplishing what only one other team has ever accomplished: Winning four Super Bowls in six years. Only the Pittsburgh Steelers of the ‘70s pulled off that trick. I wonder how that team was viewed nationally at the time. Did people get sick of them winning as well?

There’s a strange combination of things that go on with teams that win multiple championships. First, there’s the human nature element of wanting to see other teams win. It gets boring watching the same team win over and over again. (Unless it’s your team.)

Then there’s the compulsion to tear down whoever is on top. Think about it. Michael Jordan took those two years off between sets of three NBA titles. The scuttlebutt is that it was a hush-hush “suspension” for his gambling problem. Is that the truth, or was it just a tale designed to tear down the top dog? This week’s Patriot-bashing makes me ask the same kind of question. Are they truly an arrogant team full of sore winners or is everyone just trying to find fault with the team of the decade?

Here’s the other problem the Patriots face. They have no true rival. In the ‘80s, the Lakers and Celtics had a great rivalry. And since they took turns winning eight titles (five by Boston and three by Los Angeles), there wasn’t a consensus hatred toward either team. But the Patriots are more comparable to Jordan’s Bulls (six titles in the ‘90s with only Jordan’s semi-retirement preventing eight straight). The only teams that have prevented the Patriots from winning the Super Bowl in the last five years are the Jets and the Broncos. The Jets won in New England in the second-to-last game of the 2002 season, keeping the Patriots out of the playoffs that year. Last season, the Broncos handed the Patriots their first (and so far only) playoff loss under Belichick.

But neither the Jets nor the Broncos won the Super Bowl those years. So it’s the Patriots and everyone else. And don’t call Patriots-Colts a rivalry. To have a true rivalry, both teams need to win big games. It’s akin to calling the pre-2004 Red Sox-Yankees skirmishes a rivalry. If the Colts win this weekend, then we’ll talk. But we all know that’s not going to happen. Peyton Manning and the Colts cannot beat the Patriots in the playoffs. We do all know that, right?

And therein lies the other part of the Patriots-bashing. Check out any NFL message board this weekend and you’ll see what I’m talking about. Patriots fans—after years of torture—are reveling in this team’s fortune. And the lack of (or perceived lack of) national acceptance of this team’s greatness brings out the worst in some Patriots fans.

So the Patriots and their fans become Public Enemy #1. The new Yankees. Hated, despised, and rooted against from all four corners of the globe. To my fellow fans I say this: Enjoy the ride. Years from now we’ll look back on this time as one of the greatest runs in sports history. And we won’t be alone. History has a way of magnifying greatness.

In the meantime, just because everyone else on earth will be rooting for the Saints to beat the Patriots in the Super Bowl, don’t worry about spoiling that magical ending. Just enjoy the ride.

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Championship Weekend Picks

Last week vs. the spread: 2-2
Playoffs: 6-2

The final three playoff games last weekend were all won by 3 points. If this weekend’s games come anywhere close to matching the fun of those games, then the twelve straight hours spent on the couch will all be worth it. Oh, who am I kidding? Any day spent on the couch watching sports is worth it. Settle in for the final Sunday of wall-to-wall football before Super Bowl XLI.

NFC Championship Game
New Orleans (+2½) over CHICAGO

Let’s start with the JV game. I sat there last week and wondered how a team with a shaky quarterback, an overrated defense, and a lousy coach could advance to the NFC Championship Game. And then I realized that two of them were playing each other, so one of them had to move on. All I want to know is what the Bears’ coaching staff was thinking during the final 2:15 of regulation. The Seahawks had a 4th down coming up with the clock running and the game tied. The Bears were certainly getting the ball back at some point, and they would either be tied or trailing—and yet they let the clock run down to the two-minute warning instead of taking a timeout. Worse, with less than 15 seconds remaining in regulation and the Seahawks once again facing a 4th down, the Bears waited until the clock ran down to 2 seconds to call a timeout. Of course, that left the Seahawks with enough time to do only one thing: Try to run a Hail Mary play. Talk about brilliant clock management and decision-making.

I’m not going with the Saints because of sentimental reasons . I’m going with the Saints because they’re the better team. They have the better quarterback (by far) and the better coach. When you’ve got those two check marks in your favor, you should win the game, no matter whom (or where) you’re playing.

And for those who think the Saints can’t win in the cold confines of Soldier Field, think about this: The Saints won their last three road games, with two of them coming against playoff opponents. Dome teams might be 0-9 in Championship Games outdoors, but that’s not going to matter. I honestly don’t even think this one will be close. Prediction: Saints 34, Bears 20

AFC Championship Game
New England (+3) over INDIANPOLIS

After the Saints are done accepting the trophy in the middle of Soldier Field, it will be time for the match-up of the weekend. Patriots-Colts. I just watched the NFL Network replay of the regular season game these two played. I kept wondering one thing: How on Earth did the Patriots lose this game? Tipped passes, fumbles that went out of bounds, fantastic catches by Colts receivers, and questionable play-calling by the Patriots were the highlights. And the Patriots still had the ball with under two minutes left, down by 7. Their offense is playing at a much higher level now and the defense—which lost Rodney Harrison to injury early in the previous game—has made the adjustments that have made the unit more effective.

Everyone keeps talking about how well the Colts’ defense is playing in the playoffs. But they’ve gone up against a team in the Chiefs that refused to change its play-calling even when running up the middle against a 10-man front wasn’t working, and a team in the Ravens that ran the worst offense in a playoff game I’ve ever seen. What Colts fans should be concerned about is their offense. 23 points against the Chiefs? At home? And no touchdowns against the Ravens last week? It’s not going to get any easier against a defense that just held San Diego—the best offense in the NFL this season—to 21 points.

Last night I watched Super Bowl XXXVI in its entirety (thank you, NFL Network). And I was struck by three things. First, how astoundingly bad the telecast was. Pat Summerall and John Madden were worse than I ever remembered. It felt like a preseason game and they were working out the kinks. It’s hard to believe that was six years ago. If the score weren’t on the screen for the entire game I would have thought it was a game from the ‘80s. Second, U2 is one of the most legendary bands of all time. Other than the Beatles, no other musical group in rock history has grabbed the spotlight so effectively as they did at halftime of that game (when they did a tribute to the victims of 9/11) and during the pregame of the Saints’ opener this year (the first game in New Orleans since Hurricane Katrina). When tragedy hits, bring in U2. They rock the house.

Finally, the third thing that struck me while re-watching Super Bowl XXXVI was the fact that the Patriots beat that year’s best football team by out-coaching, out-scheming, and out-muscling them. The Patriots clearly did not have the better stats (24th in total defense that season) or players. And yet there they were, from the opening play until the final gun, dominating that game.

Brady’s top weapons that day were Troy Brown, David Patten, Jermaine Wiggins, J.R. Redmond, and Antowian Smith. You’re telling me an older, wiser Brady, can’t get it done now when his top weapons are named Reche Caldwell, Jabar Gaffney, Troy Brown, Corey Dillon, and Laurence Maroney? I beg to differ. It’s the 2001 playoffs all over again, as Brady—with the Larry Bird-like quality of making those around him better—wills his team to the Super Bowl. Again. Prediction: Patriots 24, Colts 20

Enjoy the ride.

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