From Little Pond County Road! We bring you, the Superbowl. Summerall and Madden's last hurrah on Fox. I for one was a little veclempt, though we listened to Gil and Gino instead (before you say "sacrilege", I recorded the TV personalities, so I can listen to them anytime I want. For those of you who are not Pat Summerall fans, shame on you. I can take or leave Madden, but now all we have is Al Michaels or Gumbel. Doh! Anyway, the party was a bit disjointed, with Pat not getting the day off (but spending his pre-game time with us and posing for some celebration photos), Nelly and Beth in parts unknown, but in front of a TV somewhere, with Will and Amy having their anniversary (who schedules an anniversary on the Superbowl? Jeez!), and Mark and Michelle quarantined with two sick bambinos. We had David, Melissa and Lauren, Dan and Mel, and John and Janine. All year, we were told how bad we were. Let's look back shall we?

• September- ESPN's Berman says, "This year, the Patriots have Drew Bledsoe, and not much else."
• After two losses, nobody said anything, the team is officially off the ESPN radar.
• After Drew went down, ESPN mentioned that Brady attempted to pull the win out, but failed, then said, "There goes the season. They have lost their leader."
• Patriots start winning, Brady becomes player of the month in October, and yet, the Patriots are still picked to lose each week against mediocre teams on Inside the NFL
• Patriots develop a method for winning, "Bend but do not break D", Red Zone defense is best in league, but Pittsburgh and Baltimore have the only Defenses worthy of note on ESPN.
• The term "Team of Destiny" comes out of the woodwork (probably by the same guy {Shaugnessy} who coined the curse of the bambino crap.) Boston Sports writers need to just GO AWAY! I mean it. Patriots took offense to the term, so did I. It not only devotes far too much time to making ourselves feel like there is a mystical power stopping us or enabling us to win a championship (the only force I know of is Cigarette Smoking Man's obsession with blocking the Buffalo Bills from winning the Superbowl), it belittled the combination of hard work and skill that it takes to win games. The team's skill was still being denied by the media.
• On Inside the NFL, 3 guys picked the Raiders, and 2 picked the Pats (are we seeded higher as a fluke? Aren't we playing at home? Isn't it supposed to be cold that day? Isn't it going to snow?) Is there one professional media person paying attention to this team? Apparently not.
• New Englanders have to endure nonstop coverage of the "controversy" on the Immaculate Incompletion.
• Inside the NFL unanimously picked the Steelers (including guest Tony Seragusa), saying that we just can't cut it against their big time D. Still no word on the Patriots D.
• The media focuses on Kordell Stewart's words, "Some days, the better team doesn't win." after getting picked off twice and stomped all day. The bus was stopped, Slash was crushed, Pats prevailed.
• Glanville goes against the grain (Marino, Dawson, Collinsworth, Seragusa, Bonaconte), and picks the Pats, Swami gives us the cover... but still the loss... and then...
• I had this feeling all week, and argued my way through it with coworkers about it. Then I got the call from Michelle Pramuk, who said, "I just have this feeling. We are going to win." And I said, "I've had that same feeling all week. We are gong to win."
• The Patriots are introduced as a team. At that point there was no doubt who was going to win this football game.

I told my friend (Jets fan), that I will take a scrappy team over a "finesse" team any day, because once you lose your composure as a finesse team, its over. We forced them out of their zone, and they never got it back. Now we are the Champions, and I don't want this to end... Here are the pics.

(click on the picture for a larger version)
Janine & Mel	David, John and Lauren	John and Lauren	Lauren	Lauren
		Some here in spirit	and others also	Preemptive celebration
The real celebration	We won the Superbowl	We won the Superbowl	We won the Superbowl	We won the Superbowl