Pessimistic Pete

It's the middle of July, so time for hypothetical history questions.

Would you trade the first three Patriots championships (2001, 2003, 2004) for the last two (2007, 2011)? Meaning, we would have lost those three, but won the last two.

Pros

19-0
-That team is, without a goddamn doubt, forever known as the GREATEST team of all-time, period. Something that would never be surpassed and most likely never equaled either.

18-1 gone
-Naturally, in turn, being on the wrong side of the biggest disappointment ever is now gone.

We are no longer one team's b****
-We would have lost to three separate teams, instead of getting beat by the same team twice, a team from NEW YORK at that. In turn, the Giants also become our b****. It sucks that no matter what, the Giants will forever have 18-1 on us.

Everything is post-"Spygate"
-Yes, we all know Spygate is insanely overblown and misunderstood, but the reality is most opposing fans still consider us "cheaters" and those informed seemed to be in the minority.

Cons
3 > 2

I'm sure this will be one star'd, but I thought it was at least interesting enough to think about.

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naF staP

Yes I would. A perfect season plus my son wasn't old enough to care about the first 3. We would have celebrated together all night had they won the last two.

ausbacker

No. 3 superbowls for 2? In what universe is 2 greater than 3? There is no reasonable opinion that can be put forth to exchange 3 for 2.

Armchair Quarterback

No Goddammit, 01,03,04 were righteously earned. 07 and 11 were passively given away by poor game plans and Pats players coming up small in big moments. They earned the first three titles, should of had six but it is what it is. You can't wish away bad performances or switch one championship for another. And the reason they won the first three was because of the players they had on defense.

Deus Irae

Patriots rookies report to camp on the 19th.

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"The object in life is not to be on the side of the majority, but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane."
- Marcus Aurelius

NSPF

A team wins a Super Bowl every year. It can't be helped. No team has ever managed to win all 19 games. IMO, going undefeated and being the best team EVER is more impressive than winning 3 Super Bowls. However, the Patriots didn't just win three SBs, they won three SBs in four years, which is extreme dominance in itself. So what's better, 19-0 or three out of four?

I don't think you can go wrong either way honestly. Add in the 2012 Super Bowl and you REALLY can't go wrong.

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"His name is Zoltan Mesko. You do NOT drop Zoltan Mesko."
"Zoltan Mesko: Tower Mage"

UK_Pat37

Not really. Yeah 19-0 would have been great and all that, but we still had arguably one of the best teams...definitely offence...in NFL history.

2001 was just special; the circumstances, the odds...everything. 2003 and 2004 was domination on defence and I love to see that.

Is it getting frustrating, having to make excuses for two Super Bowl losses to the Giants? Yup, absolutely. But the fact remains that it is unbelievably hard in today's NFL to make the big game and we have made 5 in 11 seasons and won three of them. It would be remarkable if we had won all 5 in that span because it just doesn't happen.....especially with the structure today.

I'm not going to complain with what we have got. We should be competetive for another 3 odd years at least...and more if Mallett pans out. We have a very young defence with a good mix of veteran leadership...the future is pretty bright!

Don't dwell on what could have been but celebrate a rare form of success

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brdmaverick

I'm not sure I'd be able to mentaly handle the Patriots losing three Super Bowls in four seasons.

Sure, losing the past two Super Bowls four years apart is disheartening as well, but the pain of that is mitigated by the fact that we at least won 3 of 4 earlier.

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brdmaverick

The original poster does raise an interesting point about the 19-0. I mean, that is something special in itself. I'm sure we would all love 19-0, so let me take this hypothetical a step further. If you could trade a SB 42 win for one of our actual SB wins, which SB would it be?

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UK_Pat37

That's a much more interesting way to look at it..2004 for me without a doubt. As I said in my previous post, 2001 was just special. 2003 was one of my all time favourite seasons (since I started following in 1999) and I wouldn't trade that game in a heartbeat...what a Super Bowl that was to watch even if it was an absolute nail biter. One of the best Super Bowls ever played.

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