Why the NFL needs the Patriots to go 19-0

By Os Davis  |   Thursday, August 09, 2007  |  Comments( 55 )

New England Patriots
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At the risk of becoming very unpopular in 31 NFL markets, hear me out on this one.

The single best thing for the league in 2007 is for the New England Patriots to go undefeated through the regular season and the playoffs.

As is well-documented everywhere in print media and online, this calendar year has made the sports page about as depressing as the obituaries section while steadily surpassing the police blotter column in horror stories.

Baseball and soccer, cycling and basketball, even wrestling - wrestling, for Red Smith's sake - are replete with greedy athletes, unlikable record-breakers, shameless and selfish glory hounds, boring champions, violent off-field incidents and steroids, steroids everywhere.

And our National Football League is replete with scandals and frankly disturbing stories, from Shawne Merriman and the alleged performance-enhanced bunch to the punchline that is the Cincinnati Bengals; from two-sport star Pacman Jones to He Who Shall Not Be Named presumably formerly of the Atlanta Falcons. Heck, even the Iraq war invaded sports with the dark story of Pat Tillman's death and military machination of the truth.

Now we could talk about the league's image problem caused by such incidents but speaking frankly, that would be BS. Sundays and pro football are ingrained in American culture; since Roger Goodell's gang has long had a monopolistic stranglehold on the game, the league isn't worried about income or fan disinterest yet, not with 10 teams' worth of Bengals.

The truth is, however, that the Pacmen in the game are indeed a distraction, the fans' version of having Terrell Owens in the locker room. Is the NFL 2007 edition fated to go down in sports history as the year the league's most dynamic player was revealed to be a psychopath?

The league has big problems, but there's a big solution: The Patriots could pull off the unthinkable.

What's great about a 19-0 New England team?

The Patriots are potentially the best team story in all of sports in my lifetime (and trust me, I'm probably older than you). In terms of reputation, these guys have run one entire gauntlet already. Left for dead in Week 3 of the 2001 season, New England ran with an unknown quarterback leading a bunch of unknown and upset the mighty Greatest Show on Turf in one of the truly great Super Bowls ever played. "No Name Defense?" Hah! These guys were an entire roster of so-called no names.

Yet, three years later and after back-to-back nearly flawless seasons in 2003 and 2004, the Patriots had become as hated as a mutant offspring of Barry Bonds and Apollo Creed. If they ran the table in 2007, the Pats could conceivably win over fans again like they did back when Tom Brady was a novelty. What a story.

Enough with the hype: How about some honest history. You may recall a poll question posted in January over at the online version of The Worldwide Leader in (American) Sports which asked something to the effect of, "If the Indianapolis Colts win the Super Bowl, is Peyton Manning one of the top five quarterbacks of all-time?" Such deliberate manufacture of hype and the rush to employ the "greatest all-time" label are perhaps the most annoying tendencies in all of sportswriting today.

Those 1972 Miami Dolphins, however, enviably have the numbers to show they truly turned in the all-time greatest football season: 17-0 says it all. Should the 2007 New England Patriots go undefeated, we will have a story to tell the kids, the grandkids and anyone within reminiscing distance - that we saw really the greatest ever.

Nice guys should sometimes finish first. Wasn't it good last season to see nice guys like Peyton Manning, Tony Dungy, and Jeff Saturday hoist the Lombardi Trophy? How about seeing Jerome Bettis off at the top the year before? Wouldn't it be swell to see guys like Troy Brown and Tedy Bruschi receive the highest honor one more time before they retire? I think so.

Geniuses, too, should sometimes finish first. Whether you love or hate the Patriots, you've simply got to admire the game plans. Bill Belichick's bunch - AFC Championship game last season not withstanding - have mastered the fourth-quarter last-minute offense and the defensive schemes consistently foil everyone except Mike Shanahan. Belichick's game plans for Super Bowls XXV (when he was defensive coordinator for the New York Giants) and XXVI are in the Hall of Fame.

Like all greats, Belichick has helped the game's evolution along, the first multiple-time champion of the salary-cap-ruled 21st-century NFL. It is rumored that football's Zen master may not re-up with the Pats when his contract expires in 2008; that being so, I believe the man deserves to go out at the top of his game, as the late, great Bill Walsh did.

Finally, there's 2008 to consider. Imagine the speculation should the 2007 Patriots take it all, win every game, deny the '72 Dolphins their annual champagne toast; should Belichick in fact leave the team; should the offseason see the one-year contracts depart for more ascendant squads (calling Randy Moss...). The excitement to see how long the streak can continue and the mad desire of non-Patriot fans for their team to crush the beasts will keep the game itself as a lead news story again.

And isn't that how it should be?

Waiting for history to unfold all year round at RealFootball365.com.
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About Os Davis

Os Davis has taken a twisted route to get to RealFootball365.com in his nearly 17 years in professional writing, working in any number of capacities in the sportswriting, news reporting and film criticism worlds. In print media, Os has served as editor at a few publications, including Albuquerque's...
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