World Champions
by Lindsey Gaspard

If anyone had said at the beginning of the year that the New England Patriots would win the Super Bowl, they would have been laughed at.  If anyone had said at the beginning of the year that the New England Patriots would the Super Bowl without Drew Bledsoe at quarterback or Terry Glenn at wide receiver, they would have been laughed out of town.  Okay, maybe out of the country.  But they did, and nobody can laugh at that.

Week 1 – Patriots loss, 23-17.  Week 2 – Patriots loss, 10-3 and a much bigger loss than a statistic.  Drew Bledsoe, the team’s beloved quarterback, was severely injured with a crushing hit from the Jets’ Mo Lewis.  He sheared a blood vessel in his chest and suffered massive amounts of internal bleeding.  No one will ever know how close he came to dying, but he pulled through.  But the team had to carry on without him.  In came a sixth-round draft pick from Michigan , Tom Brady, a second-year man who had completed only one pass in the NFL before Bledsoe’s injury.  His first game as a starter was exciting, a 44-13 win over the Indianapolis Colts.  But then came a huge loss against the strong Miami Dolphins the next week.  It was beginning to look a lot like the same old Patriots.  Some reporters suggested not even watching the rest of the season…it was going to be too depressing.

Good thing we didn’t take their advice.  Brady recovered from the loss and won two more for the team, but not without his favorite receivers, Troy Brown and David Patten, and running back Antowain Smith.  In the second Indianapolis win, Patten became the second player in NFL history to throw for a touchdown, catch a touchdown, and run for a touchdown.  The “star” receiver, Terry Glenn, refused to show up for practice and did not play in games.  Brady was becoming the Patriots lifesaver, showing remarkable accuracy and very few mistakes.  He hadn’t thrown any interceptions at all, setting a new NFL record for most passing yards without an INT.  But then there was the Denver game.  Brady, in a noisy and vibrating Mile High stadium, finally started throwing to players other than his own.  He threw four interceptions in the 4^th quarter, sealing the Broncos victory.  But he bounced back with resilience and won his next game and the next.

The St. Louis Rams.  The very name struck fear in the hearts of their competitors.  Known as the most explosive offense and probably the best team in the NFL, they crushed strong opponents right and left, using an efficient quarterback, Kurt Warner, and the fastest, most powerful back in the league, Marshall Faulk as weapons, not to mention a speedy pair of receivers in Isaac Bruce and Torry Holt.  But the Patriots and their excellent coaching staff were undaunted.  They were used to being the underdogs.  They knew they could win the game, and they almost did, were it not for a controversial “fumble” by Patriots running back Antowain Smith at the goal line.  Another mark in the loss column.

Although that wouldn’t be their last controversial call, it would be their last loss.  Coach Belichick’s decision to keep Brady at quarterback rather than a now-healthy Drew Bledsoe turned out to be a smart one.  The Patriots, with renewed energy, managed to beat unbeatable foes—the New Orleans Saints, the New York Jets, and Miami Dolphins, along with wins against the Cleveland Browns, Buffalo Bills, and Carolina Panthers.  And all of sudden, they were in the playoffs.  And they had a first round bye.  Imagine that.

Their first opponent in the postseason was the Oakland Raiders, boasting Brady’s college teammate Charles Woodson in the defense, and Jerry Rice and Pro Bowler Rich Gannon in the offense.  The game was one Patriots fans, and no doubt the football world, will remember for a long time.  It was snowing heavily.  The ground was covered with four inches of snow in the fourth quarter and the Patriots were playing their last game at Foxboro stadium.  After another contro-versial but correct incomplete pass/fumble decision by referee Walt Coleman, Tom Brady and the Patriots drove down the field, unstoppable by the Oakland team.  Adam Vinatieri’s kick tied the game and sent it into overtime, resulting in another kick, almost invisible in the snowstorm, that sealed the win and the divisional title for the Patriots.

The Steelers had been called the best team in the AFC since the beginning of the season and had been predicted by many to go to the Super Bowl.  Now that the team they were playing for the conference championship was going to be the Patriots, they felt they had a Super Bowl berth sealed.  Think again, Pittsburgh .  After trash-talking all week long, they showed up to the game no-doubt unprepared for what they were about to face.  As Tom Brady yet again began to drive down the field for a touchdown, the team began to hit him low and late.  After being hit hard twice, he was knocked down a third time, this time not bouncing up like he had all season.  Brady had sprained his ankle, but there was a quarterback on the sidelines who had been waiting for a situation like this to happen since Week 10.  Drew Bledsoe resumed his position with a bang, firing three passes to David Patten, one of them for a picture-perfect touchdown in the endzone.  The Steelers were stunned as they watched the Patriots “take the game away”, demolishing their high-powered offense by shutting down running back Jerome Bettis and receivers Hines Ward and Plaxico Burress.  Troy Brown put in a good performance with another one of his punt returns for a TD, and a field goal block/lateral for TD.

The football world was border-lined shocked that the Patriots were in the Super Bowl.  The Rams had been a given since Day One, but the Pats?  The Patriots had never won a Super Bowl…never.  And, they said, it sure didn’t look like they were going to now.  After the buzz about who would start at QB subsided (Tom Brady got the nod), analysts began to discuss just how badly the Patriots would lose.  The Pats were 14-point underdogs, but it was a spot they were used to, after being overlooked for the majority of the season.  With their Pro Bowl quarterback on the mend and practices going smoothly, there was nothing to worry about on New England ’s side.  But the Rams practices were described as “sloppy” and their coach as “frazzled.”  If they weren’t giving their best in practice, what would the game be like?  But nobody wanted to talk about that.  After a stirring, patriotic pre-game show (which Brady slept through) the games began.  The Patriots chose to come out of the “tunnel” as a team, as they had done all season, showing their complete team spirit and camaraderie.  They came out as a team, and they played as a team.  By halftime, the point at which some had said the game would be over, the majority of the world (minus Patriots Nation) was in disbelief.  The score was 14-3.  14-3 Patriots.  Ty Law had intercepted a pass from Kurt Warner and returned it for the touchdown and Brady had drilled a ball to David Patten after a fumble recovery by Terrell Buckley for another.  In the third quarter, Vinatieri kicked a field goal, bringing the score up to 17-3, after Patriots Otis Smith caught another of Warner’s passes.  But the game was not over yet.  The Rams could explode at any time, and although “explode” might not be the word to choose, they certainly came back.  The Rams were close to scoring their first touchdown when Warner fumbled near the goal line.  Tebucky Jones recovered and returned it for 97-yards, but it was called back and nullified because of a holding penalty.  Warner ran it in for a touchdown later on.  The Rams tied it up with a minute and a half left at the clock.  Commentator John Madden advised the Patriots to play for overtime and hope for the coin toss.

Good thing we didn’t take his advice.  Belichick and offensive coach Charlie Weis sent Tom Brady and the offense out to go for it.  All year Tom had been excellent in the no-huddle offense, in the 2-minute drill.  This was the drive of a lifetime and he (and his famous ankle) were up to the task.  He fired off passes to J.R. Redmond (11 yds.), Troy Brown (23 yds.) and Jermaine Wiggins (6 yds.), spiking the ball twice and throwing it out of bounds once to stop the time.  The offense had managed the clock perfectly, and now it was up to New England hero Adam Vinatieri to kick a 48-yd. field goal with 7 seconds on the clock.  The kick was perfect. 

The Patriots astonished the world by winning the Super Bowl.  They have been called a team of luck, a team of destiny; but the one name they can truly be called by is World Champions.  Has a nice ring to it.