Recap Part 1 - Disaster? Or Achievement?: A Season in Perspective
“Gentlemen, we will chase perfection, and we will chase it relentlessly, knowing all the while we can never attain it. But along the way, we shall catch excellence.”
―
Vince Lombardi
First team ever to go 18-1 and not win the Super Bowl. Doh!!! 
― User
Run it up baby!, Patsfan Forums,
Feb 6, 2008
For seven years, Phoenix University Stadium remained the site where a promising attempt at history went disastrously wrong. It was the site where the Patriots lost their first Super Bowl under Bill Belichick. It was the site of the biggest loss in Tom Brady’s career -- a narrow but heart-breaking loss to Eli Manning and the New York Giants (17-14) that denied him what would have been his fourth Super Bowl ring. How much did this loss sting? So much so that when the clock ran down to the final second, and the Giants uncurled their celebration flags, Belichick ran to the center of the field to quickly congratulate his friend Tom Coughlin, and then jogged into the locker room. There was one second left on the game clock, but it was too painful to stay and wait out the game any longer. In 60 minutes, all the of the Patriots historic records, the 16-0 regular season, the individual awards, the All-Pro recognition, and heavy anticipation from fans around the world, went up in smoke.
The entire fan base suffered as their team’s championship hopes vanished. In the days and weeks that followed, Patriots fans went numb and tried to tune out whenever they could– they couldn't bring themselves to listen to sports radio without trembling. Television sets were turned off in a desperate attempt to avoid constant replays of David Tyree pinning the football against his helmet, just out of the reach of Rodney Harrison. A loss of this magnitude – so unforgettable, yet so unreal – will always leave a mark on fans and players alike. Brady once called the memory of that game
“an awful feeling in [my] stomach for a lot of years. As time goes on, I still can't watch highlights from that game.”
The loss could not have come at a worse time for the franchise. Just a day before the Super Bowl, Arlen Specter, a Senator from Pennsylvania, ignited a media frenzy when he began to inquire why the NFL destroyed tapes from the Spygate incident. At the same time, reports were leaked to the press, claiming that the Pats had illegally taped the St. Louis Rams’ walkthrough the day before Super Bowl XXXVI in New Orleans. The scandal amounted to a televised tar-and-feathering of an entire franchise that had just been humiliated in its biggest Super Bowl loss yet. Cries of Spygate and Videogate crept into every broadcast related to sports media, and a nation already averse to the Patriots became even more convinced that Belichick and his players were “cheaters" guilty of unsportsmanship.
Even seven years later, a week before Super Bowl XLIX, 2015 Brady still had a revealing response when asked about his first Super Bowl appearance in Arizona.
“Disappointment. We were so close to accomplishing something special; something rare."" “We conquered the regular season," said Asante Samuel, shortly after Super Bowl XLII.
“We conquered the playoffs. [But] What does it mean if you don't win the Super Bowl?” It means you only get one chance at 19-0, and that opportunity comes at the Super Bowl, on football’s biggest stage, with the eyes of the world arrayed on your team. Deep down, I thought the Patriots were going to win this one. The Patriots thought they were going to win. And a week before Super Bowl XLII, the Boston Globe was advertising, on Amazon.com, a book titled
19-0: The Historic Championship Season of New England's Unbeatable Patriots. “We set high expectations, now we go down as 18-1, and that is one big zit,” said Ellis Hobbs.
“It is one big blemish. We choked. We choked at the end.” Game over. Season over. Legacy tarnished. It was the only way an 18– 1 record can ever be a negative: when it could have been— and needed to be— 19–0.
Fortunately for us, seven years removed, the memories of those '07 and '11 Super Bowls have suddenly lost their effect on us. The dark clouds that used to hover over Pats nation, the ever-elusive fourth ring, the stench of allegations and scandals, all receded into irrelevance once Brady led the Patriots to a magnificent comeback in the 4th quarter, in what was undeniably, the most thrilling Super Bowl in recent memory. It was a full 60 minutes of gut-wrenching, and heart-pounding football, fought to last yard and the final seconds of the game. And in one gigantic clutch play by an undrafted rookie, Malcolm Butler had removed the ghost of Tyree forever, and reduced the memory of Super Bowl XLII to an anecdotal backdrop – one which, however tragic, would later set the stage for a championship win seven years later, and crown Tom Brady as the Greatest Quarterback of All Time!!!
But where does this leave the 2007-08 Patriots? I think many years from now, the 2007-08 Patriots won't be forgotten. Unlike most Super Bowl losers, they'll be remembered as the team that couldn't handle its own high-stakes expectations; as the undefeated team that picked the worst possible time to lose, just when it mattered the most. But anybody who tells you this is only telling one part of the story. The other part is just as significant: The 2007 season might have ended badly for the Patriots, but the undefeated season -- in and of itself -- represented something special. It was the very pinnacle of success in modern professional football, and I consider it to be one of the biggest achievements in NFL -
no - in all of pro sports!
You already know the story: Not long before that fateful Super Bowl Sunday in Glendale, the Patriots had entered the game coming on the heels of the single most winning team season in NFL history -- a five month thrill ride that included a perfect regular season of 16-0 and an equally impressive run through the AFC playoffs. Ten of its regular-season wins were by a margin of 17 or more points and only four of its opponents came within a single score of beating the Patriots. Their unbeaten season was the subject of historic superlatives as they broke record after record and mowed down opponent after opponent. They won all of their games in September … all of their games in October … all of their games in November … all of their games in December… and all of their games in January. And they won all their games across four quadrants of the calendar. They started winning in the late summer heat, and began annihilating their opponents in the autumn. Then they faced off against some of their toughest opponents through a cold and bitter winter, and still remained unbeaten. In fact, they won so much that the only real question was whether the Patriots were winning
too much. This was a streak towards perfection unlike anything seen before; and for a time it looked as though the Patriots were on track to win their fourth Super Bowl in just a seven year period.
On the field, the 2007 Patriots team were a fan’s dream. This was not your typical football season, in which the Patriots needed our tears and hopes to get them through. Our job was to simply sit back and watch them dominate the NFL. Everything we’d ever wanted in a championship team was there—a ball-hawking defense, an unstoppable deep threat, an effective third-down passing game, and an opportunistic special teams-corps. They were a talented, charismatic bunch with a flair for the dramatic. They had the highest scoring offense of all time, with a superstar quarterback and a freakishly athletic wide receiver – each shattering then setting NFL records. They had a resourceful defense composed of veterans with unmatched experience. And even with all those components in place, it was impossible to believe that the New England Patriots were somehow steamrolling through the league, advancing from one victory to the next.
This team was a true juggernaut!!! Sometimes, it was downright cringing to watch them play. After Spygate broke, they started running up the score on their opponents, scoring 38 or more points in eight individual games, and letting everyone know that they meant business! This was a team that knew how to be ruthless and knew how to be efficient. The usually miserable airwaves of WEEI hummed with glee, because for a brief moment, our team seemed invincible. Other clubs around the league -- eager to hand the Patriots their first loss -- started making games against the Patriots their own personal "Super Bowl." The Eagles, the Ravens, the Steelers, and even the Jets put everything they could into their games, only to come up short. The wins just kept on piling up – one after another.
The past is history…but it always remains historic. In the end, the 2007 Patriots were not perfect nor did the season end well, but they were the baddest, biggest, luckiest group of winners the NFL has ever seen… and boy was it fun to watch them play.
I encourage you, to share you favorite memory of the 2007 season, or comment on whatever record or statistic that most stands out to you.
Or you can carry on the debate....does any of this even matter if we lost the Super Bowl?
