Let's face it... The 2007 Giants are like the ultimate turd in the punch bowl.

[PatsFanInVa]

I thought they were mediocre. Just look at the surrounding seasons for the Giants. I think the OP is right in that no one really views the 2007 as true champions, just a team that got lucky. Heck, even nfl.com recently put together a story ranking the best Patriots Superbowl teams, and 2007 was #1.

I can't speak for any other fanbase or any other fan, but for me, the 2007 loss had to be the single most painful moment in my sports-watching history, and that includes SB20 against the Bears, Bucky effing Dent, and Bill effing Buckner. Don't get me wrong, the Holocaust was worse and all, but that was, to me, the Worst Thing Ever To Happen In Sports.

That said: They won. We lost. They did not "get lucky." Luck plays its part in every game, and every team is paid in part for how it manages risk (under various guises... clock management, the 2-point-conversion decision, 4th and 1 calls, self-inflicted safeties, etc.)

It doesn't matter really how we choose to remember it because we're not on the team.

But for the team itself those Giants SBs are part of the whole tapestry of what's happened in the past. The Patriots are extremely robust against the temptation to believe that the past predicts the future.

However, painful though they might have been, the SBs against the Gintz constituted a test for BB/TFB's will to win. In the immediate sense they failed that test. Success breeds success and failure breeds failure. They both learned at heart what BB has always preached: that the past does not predict the future.

BB has maximized our chances to win the SB throughout his tenure, with the obvious understanding that playing in 8 SBs will likely result in a certain number of SB trophies, unless you're Buffalo or Minnesota (or until recently, Denver.)

His understanding that you have to take seriously wiping the slate clean has been a great advantage. TFB/BB's ability to rebound after losing 2 to win another 2, and soon, possibly, 3... is testament to the toughness of this franchise's character.

Chalking the losses up to "luck" is a satisfying way to talk about losses, but I am certain there are Seattle and Atlanta fans who rely, in part, on the same narrative (with the predictable "it's all fixed" and "they cheat" narratives complementing the argument from probability.)

 

[maust]

If you are indeed a Boston sports fan over 40, then you should know that Bill Russell is the greatest team sport athlete of this, or any, era.

Hence the term 'of the modern era' which has for some reason been defined by pundits as beginning in 1970. Russell is the all time greatest team sports athlete period. A point I never fail to bring up to the kidlets when they have their ridiculous Jordan/LeBron discussions within my earshot. I have reached an age and am confident enough in my own Boston fandom that I don't need to cast aspersions on another's, particularly based on poor reading comprehension.
I joined up here after experiences on other boards had become insufferable. So far this community has been fairly welcoming, minus a few thin skinned and/or reading comprehension challenged folks and one of them even reread the original post and sort of apologized. It's something real men do when they are wrong.