PSR Showdown
Are The 2007 Patriots The Best Ever?

ABSOLUTELY
By Tony DeFazio, PSR

The New England Patriots are the best team in NFL history.

Those are not easy to words to read here in the Steel City, but they are true.

When an entity accomplishes something that has never been accomplished before-in any arena, not only sports-it's a mark of true greatness.

Last season Sid Crosby did something that had never been accomplished before when he became the only teenager ever to win a scoring title in any major North American sports league. Roberto Clemente is the only player ever to have the mandatory five-year post-retirement waiting period for baseball's Hall of Fame waived. Chuck Noll is the only NFL head coach to win four Super Bowls - although that may change in a few weeks.

You get the point.

And no team in the history of the NFL has ever completed an undefeated 16-game season. Until these Patriots, that is.

Another mark of true greatness is when a team or player so dominates that the rules or strategy of a game must change.

Pitcher Bob Gibson so dominated National League batters in the late 1960s that Major League Baseball was forced to lower the mound.

Former Steelers cornerback Mel Blount so dominated AFC receivers in the 1970s that the NFL was forced to change the bump-and-run rule.

Dick LeBeau's 3-4, zone-blitz schemes changed the way NFL teams played defense in the 1980s. New England is doing the same thing today.

You say the Pats can't be the best because they don't run the ball?

But I say that's what makes them great.

The Patriots have managed to slice their way through the NFL this season without even the hint of a running game. Tom Brady, Randy Moss and Wes Welker are setting passing records left and right without the benefit of a rushing attack. That's supposed to be impossible to do over the long haul - in fact, it HAD been impossible. Up till now. The Patriots are changing the way NFL teams can win games.

And when they win Super Bowl No. 4 in a few weeks, even their detractors will be forced to acknowledge their greatness.