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December 30, 2007

Patriots: 16 and oh yeah!

Bill Burt

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — The 2007 New England Patriots ain’t done yet. Not by any stretch, with January and one potential date in early February ahead.

But as anyone in America will attest, even those many millions rooting for the blemish, this has been incredible.

All you had to do was watch the Patriots celebrate in the final seconds and as the final gun sounded to understand the meaning.

They made history. And we’re not talking about the individual honors like touchdowns thrown, caught and points scored.

They won them all, from Sept. 9 through last night.

Part of the Patriots problem, if you want to call it that, is they accomplished something that has happened only once before in the modern era of the National Football League, and made it look almost too easy doing it.

The fact that the Patriots won all 16 games, or 16 one-game seasons as Patriots players are taught to call it, is one thing. Even more impressive, they were expected to do it as far back as April, soon after acquiring Randy Moss, and they did it.

Then there were the speed bumps they overcame, from “spygate” to running-up-score-gate to handshake-gate. There were other hills to climb, too, including the “guarantee” by Pittsburgh no-name safety Anthony Smith and the wins in Indianapolis and Dallas.

Along the way they became America’s Team. Everybody, even those with a passing interest in this crazy and brutal sport, watched. But this is not a surprise because Patriots games have broken records on every network that televises NFL games — NBC, CBS, ESPN and now the NFL Network.

Last night’s game got the treatment of a presidential debate or a national disaster. You couldn’t help but find them on channels 4, 5, 7, and 9 even if you had tried.

In fact, that happened because a few politicians, including one of our local guys, Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., threatened to break apart the NFL if it didn’t offer the game to the entire country (initially, only the little-seen NFL Network was going to televise the game).

Imagine that? With so many problems around the world and this country, the Patriots trumped them all last night.

Over the last month and particularly the last week, every sports radio or television program worth a spit in America showcased the Patriots’ many storylines and “path to perfection.”

It really is amazing how far this organization has come in such a short time. In 1993, their public relations department was begging the local public to buy the last 10,000 seats for their season finale so the game wouldn’t be blacked out.

As of today, there are 55,000 fans on a waiting list for Patriots season tickets.

If the Patriots don’t finish the job and win their next three games, beginning two weeks from now at Gillette Stadium, this accomplishment of winning every regular season game they played won’t mean as much.

But that’s a worry for another day. This is a time to celebrate perfection and Sweet 16.

Enjoy.



Bill Burt can be reached at bburt@eagletribune.com.

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