Monday, Feb. 2, 2004 | 9:09 a.m.
Dean Juipe's column appears Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. His boxing notebook appears Thursday. Reach him at [email protected] or (702) 259-4084.
The dynasty and Hall of Fame comparisons remain intact. New England can consider itself the finest football team of the era and Tom Brady may yet have his bust on display in Canton.
Both points, great conversation pieces that they are, were in doubt until the final seconds of Super Bowl XXXVIII.
Winning the National Football League championship for the second time in three years, the Patriots did something highly unusual Sunday in Houston: They became only the fourth betting favorite in the history of the Super Bowl to win but not cover the point spread.
To Brady and his teammates, such incidentals could not have mattered. They are the champions -- again.
In the end it was the team that finished ahead -- and not the hoopla, the security issues or the NFL cracking down on casino parties in Las Vegas -- that counted most. On the strength of a Brady-led final drive and an avenging 41-yard field goal by Adam Vinatieri with four seconds to play, New England escaped with a 32-29 victory in a game that will look good years from now on paper when a printout of Brady's credentials is distributed to the Hall of Fame induction ceremony crowd in Ohio.
A little premature? Perhaps, but Brady is four seasons into a wonderful pro career that already has drawn comparisons to Joe Montana. Two Super Bowl victories speak for themselves.
But he could have been the goat, too, having thrown a poorly plotted pass that was intercepted by Reggie Howard in the end zone with the Patriots leading 21-16 in the fourth quarter and looking to put the game away. Yet in the rush of offensive fireworks that followed, it was a slipup that New England fans will easily forgive if not conveniently forget.
But that's the kind of game it was: hits and misses, some shoddy play and then something spectacular, a lapse or two before everything clicked.
It could not, at face value, be called one for the ages. But it could pass for a decent day's entertainment, which hasn't always been the case for a game that frequently tries and fails to live up to its hype and surrealistic name.
Two weeks of advance notices led to every scrap of information on the teams and players being exposed to the public. No secrets escaped attention.
Yet the game did not follow its scripted plan. A consensus in Las Vegas was that the Patriots were swifter, smarter and more fluid than the cloddish Panthers, and that Brady would rifle passes and pick the NFC reps apart.
Bettors climbed aboard the New England bandwagon and drove the betting line to 7.
For much of the game the Patriots appeared to be obviously superior, even if the usually dependable Vinatieri shanked one field goal and had another blocked. Those misfires aside, the Patriots never trailed until Jake Delhomme and Muhsin Muhammad put the Panthers ahead 22-21 with a touchdown pass midway through the fourth quarter.
Aside from Janet Jackson losing her top at halftime and a male streaker (initially costumed as a referee) revealing himself just before the second-half kickoff, the game was devoid of outside interference and turmoil. The players frequently shook hands between plays, helped each other up and forgot about the fact a high-security perimeter had been set around Reliant Stadium.
Likewise, once the game got past its opening 26 minutes and 55 seconds of scoreless play, those in Las Vegas who paid to watch it at a casino set aside their fears of an NFL raid. The league may be frowning on the practice of making casino customers pay to see a game that's on free TV, yet the legalities of such a move are but nuances for attorneys around here.
In the long run it was all about the game, and the game became New England's 15th consecutive victory. A little tougher than expected, a little more suspenseful than need be, a little too erratic to be classified as a gem, it nonetheless provided the Patriots and Brady with everything they wanted.
They are the team of the moment and he is the debonair, polished, winning quarterback every era welcomes and needs.
Dynasties? Halls of Fame? They and he are working on it.
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