Get ready for final step in coronation

Editor's note: My name is Todd Dewey. I'm 39, and I've been passionate about the Pats for as long as I can remember -- or since Steve Grogan was our quarterback in the mid-1970s. The Pats already have won three Super Bowls, but no other New England team -- or any NFL team, for that matter -- has been loaded with as much talent and as many weapons as this one. This is the Best Football Team Ever.

As a lifelong, die-hard Boston sports fan, it pains me to acknowledge this, but I know how New York fans -- minus their smug smirks and sense of entitlement -- must have felt when the Yankees used to win world titles back in the 20th century.

But the sad reality is when you're on top, everyone wants to drag you down, which explains why seemingly every sports fan outside of my native New England despises the three-time Super Bowl champion Patriots.

As someone who has lived and died with the Pats, Sox, Celts and Bruins since I was a little boy, it's hard to fathom how much hate is directed at my hometown team, but it doesn't matter what other people think. These perfect Patriots (18-0) are unstoppable.

Throughout this magical season, they haven't let anything deter them from their quest for sports immortality -- not Spygate, not cries about running up the score, not accusations of dirty play and not the 14 teams they've defeated in 18 games.

New England has proved its mettle by notching eight wins against seven playoff squads, including four division champions, and today it will silence its critics once again.

Patriots-haters, pay heed. The time for talking, crying and complaining is over.

This machine will steamroll the Giants in Super Bowl XLII to finish the first 19-0 season in NFL history and cement its status as the Best Football Team Ever.

It starts with coach Bill Belichick and quarterback Tom Brady, and the list goes on and on: Moss, Maroney, Faulk, Welker, Watson, Wilfork, Stallworth, Seymour, Seau, Harrison, Bruschi, Vrabel.

Belichick, the gray-hooded defensive mastermind, is virtually unbeatable when given two weeks to prepare and will have surprises in store for Giants quarterback Eli Manning, who is overdue for a postseason breakdown.

Eli need look no further for proof of this prophecy than his big brother Peyton, who suffered several Belichick-induced playoff meltdowns.

Do you want to witness a Giants upset and be subjected to more commercials with another member of the Manning clan? "Cut that meat. Yeah, you're feeling me."

Brady rarely does commercials, preferring to focus on football -- and supermodels. Hey, a guy's gotta live. Tommy Boy might be a pop culture icon -- all the chicks dig him, and all the guys want to be like him -- but he's the hardest worker on the team and always comes through in the clutch.

In short, Eli couldn't carry Brady's protective boot.

Before this season, Brady made do with no-name receivers and won three Super Bowls in four years. Watching him play with weapons like all-world wideout Randy Moss has been a thing of beauty.

The duo produced an NFL-record 23 touchdowns together, and each set individual single-season records -- for TD passes (50) and TD catches (23) -- on one serendipitous 65-yard play in New England's regular season-ending 38-35 win over the Giants.

Some believe that game is evidence New York can win today. But the Pats were missing a couple of starters in that one who are healthy now, and the Giants won't have a home crowd on their side.

A Giants upset also would open us up to endless blathering by Plaxico Burress, who guaranteed a 23-17 triumph by New York.

That's a huge slap across the face of the highest-scoring team in NFL history. New England, which does its talking on the field, scored 589 points this season, averaged close to 37 per game and won each contest by close to 20.

Burress should know there's only one Broadway Joe, just like there will be only one 19-0 team after today.

Contact reporter Todd Dewey at tdewey@ reviewjournal.com or (702) 383-0254.