My dad, Alfred R. Trippel, was born almost 90 years ago and he died in August, 2005, from staff MRSA he got while in the hospital getting his slipped disks fixed. Well, "they" won't say that but that's what I think.

A diehard NFL "New York football Giants" fan his whole life (as well as baseball Giants 'til they moved to Frisco, and also the Brooklyn Dodgers--and he hated the Yankees, pure and simple...one thing he passed on to me)...well, for all the grief the Giants gave him in the latter 60s and 70s, until Parcells took over and pretty much got rid of the "loser" in the Giants pretty much for good (okay, LT had something to do with it as well), they rewarded him with a few Super Bowl victories, the biggest being, of course, Supe 42 over the team I like to call the "Patsies."

And, on this day, the 89th anniversary of his birth on July 7th, 1920, I say "thank you, dad" for loving me, encouraging me to be a football fan, a few other things, and also for your Giants keeping my Dolphins the still only undefeated team in NFL history.

I don't remember the year...'84? '85? Anyway, I haven't paid much attention to NFL football since around that time, until January 2002 when God appointed the New England Patriots to be the Super Bowl winner.

Oh my gawd, you think, another one of those Religious Right freaks. Heck no. In fact you can take Pat Robertson and blow it out his butt.

But I do run a Christian blog here.

Anyway, the 2001 Pats were God's team. Was the Dallas Cowboys still America's team? If this doesn't sound familiar, then you didn't follow football 20 years ago.

So the Pats are God's team...but was it really because of September 11, 2001?

Rational exhuberance, to use Al Greenspan's phrase (No, Al doesn't write sports columns!), said "yes" but history said "no." Perhaps God preferred the new Pats logo. I much liked the old Continental Army guy in the three-point-stance; on their new helmets I couldn't tell the difference easily between the Pats and Broncos this past playoff game won by the Horses. Yeah, yeah, I know: Pats management changed the logo so they could feel disassociated from the old days when Miami ruled the AFC East and the Pats were the Patsies.

So. did Brady and Co. win Super Bowl 36 (and 38 and 39) because  they are called the Patriots? Is it significant that in each game they won by 3 pts.?

History says "no." History, meaning human and football suggests otherwise. The Pats simply were in the right place (there is no better place to begin a so-called "dynasty" than the AFC East--which has been either very strong or very weak in the past almost 40 years--at the right time (after the Bills, who ruled it in the earlier 90s, had quit, and after the Dolphins, who ruled it the rest of the time, realized they had nothing to show for Dan Marino's spectacular play [note: is Peyton Manning the Dan Marino of the 21st century?] and for screwing over Don Shula), with the right coach (Bellichik, or is it Billechek? I write it one way but I say it the other way!). And yes, because despite everything else, the Jets are still the Jets.

And speaking of history, I have serious problems with calling the Pats or anyone else in  recent football history a "dynasty." When one thinks sports dynasties they immediately think the New York Yankees, who had dominating teams lasting decades and which gave rise to the call, "Break Up the Yankees!" Also, the 50's, 60's, and 70's Montreal Canadiens also qualify, as well as the Celtics of the 60s and John Wooden's UCLA Bruins of the 60s and 70s (I'll never forget that 1974 NC State win over UCLA which effectively ended the Bruin Dynasty).

However, in defense of the notion of dynasty in football I have to admit that due to the nature of the game--it is often brutal--shorter "dynasties" may suffice; even so, the teams that come closest to actually having dynasties are the Steelers of the 70s and the 49ers of the 80s (and maybe the 60s Packers and perhaps the 71-74 Dolphins, if only because they did go unbeaten in 72-73).

Whether you think the Pats were a dynasty of not, it was fitting that it ended this past Saturday, and the Broncos ended it. First of all, the Broncos, in the late 70s, who, along with the Raiders (appropriately!), assured the world the Steelers would not win another Super Bowl for a few years after 9 and 10 by winning the AFC in 1977. In other words, Denver was trying to build a mini-dynasty of their own (and, like the Bills, they accomplished that by winning AFC championships throughout the 90s). so why is it fitting that the Pats "dynasty" came to an end? Perhaps to make room for "Dolphin Dynasty II" (hah hah!) under Rick Saban (and Gus Ferotte? Surely I jest!).

And speaking of the Steelers...I can't be a Steeler fan because I root for some other team (no, it's not the Bungles...er, the Bengals), but if I could I would. This is a team that took about 30 some odd years to go from outhouse to powerhouse overnight from 1971 to 1972, dominated the later 70s, made the playoffs into the 80s, and, after rebuilding, went to the Super Bowl again into the 90s, and, now that they have rebuilt again, are poised to do it again, all Bengals aside. I have nothing but respect for the Pittsburgh Steelers.

But back to where I started this...I have watched games occasionally since that 2002 Super Bowl. My son started watching games late in the 2004 season when I noticed the Pats looked like they were going to wind up winning another Super Bowl, a second-straight, and I just knew someone, either a player or management, would label the Pats a "dynasty." After that I went to my other blog and said that this labelling would be the end of the Pats dynasty. You see, football historically, when a team called itself a dynasty that signalled the end of it. Example: after Miami's second straight (Supe 8), the Miami Herald blared this headline-- "Dolphin Dynasty? You Bet Your Superfish!" About a month later, Csonka, Kiick, and Warfield were headed to the fledgling WFL, which ended that fledgling dynasty!

Next: LIF 102: If Life Imitates Football, it'll be Steelers vs. Panthers (and why the Seahawks are the Bengals of the NFC)

Snorky