Congratulations to the New York Giants and New England Patriots for earning your way into the Super Bowl.

As a Viking fan one is used to finding a reason to pull for one team or the other playing on Super Sunday. A Viking fan has to decide how much loyalty he beholds for another team that might be from the same division, same conference, or one the fan hates to a lesser extent than the other team.

If the AFC was anyone besides New England, I would root for the Giants since I am an NFC kind of person. Even that goes only so far because I could never root for the Packers or Bears no matter who they were playing. The Lions don't affect me - I dislike the Tampa Bay Buccaneers more than I do the Lions. It is probably because Minnesota has owned Detroit for so many years that I didn't develope a dislike for them. In fact, I root for the Lions when they are playing the Packers or Bears. I confess, last year I rooted for the Colts to beat the Bears.

I should be grateful to the Giants for beating Green Bay in the NFC Championship game at Lambeau field in brutal, frigid conditions. Good on ya New York Giants. Imagine Bret Favre throwing an interception at a crucial moment near the end of a game. I've been waiting for the old Bret Favre to show up all season and he finally did on Sunday.

Thank the good lord for sparing us from two weeks of a Bret Favre love-fest by the media.

I used to listen to The Sporting News radio coverage and I remember in 2001 when the Patriots started the year 0-2 and one of the NFL reporters opined that New England might be the worst team in the NFL. Drew Bledsoe got injured on a vicious hit by the Jets' Vilma and this rookie QB named Tom Brady took over for him. The Patriots won the next four games. They were not pretty wins, but counted just the same.

The Sporting news interviewed Brady who was pleasant, humble, and said all the right things. He said the team was responsible for the four wins and he was merely holding the job until Bledsoe recovered. He said once Drew was healthy, the job of starting QB still belonged to Bledsoe.

Except the Patriots kept getting better and better and Bledsoe never got his job back.

I live in the Pacific Northwest and we don't see many Patriot games out here - at least we didn't in 2001. I didn't see Brady play until the play-off game against Oakland - the famous Tuck-rule game played in the snow. The Raiders were the better team and had more talent at most positions and they played okay for  being a California team performing in the snow.

As everyone knows, the Pats won thanks to a miracle 45-yard field goal by Adam Vinateri in snow so thick you couldn't see the ball. What an amazing game - thank goodness I recorded it just on a whim.

Next up the Pats travelled to Pittsburgh and despite being heavy underdogs, defeated the Steelers ( thanks in part to Drew Bledsoe). Then it was on to the Super Bowl against the "Greatest Show on Turf" - the St. Louis Rams and their powerful, unstopable offense.

But Bill Belichick somehow did hold them to 17 points - because the man is a certified genius. And Tom Brady wins Super Bowl MVP. It was all so perfect - after the terrorist attacks of 9/11, the winning Super Bowl team would be called the Patriots because America was a very patriotic place to be.

The Patriots fascinate me, on so many levels. I am not jumping on their bandwagon because the Minnesota Vikings are fixed in my soul and I believe it is physically impossible for a true fan to cut yourself free of the team you worship. The Vikings have owned my heart for 40 years and I wouldn't have it any other way.

But I can lust after the pretty red Ferrari on the other side of town as long as I am discreet about it. And now that the season is over and my team has missed the play-offs again, I am free to openly enjoy the best team in the history of the NFL.

Look for the Patriots to perform like a well-oiled machine on Super Bowl Sunday. The game will be a blowout much to the chagrin of the casual football fans. Life's a bitch then you get a one-sided Super Bowl. Try to enjoy the commercials.

I'll be okay. Like I said - the Patriots fascinate me.