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Todd: ...depending on both the upcoming result of SB XLIX, and how you want to look at it, has been either seven or fourteen years in the making.

It’s been fourteen years if viewing the totality of the Tom Brady/Bill Belichick era of the New England Patriots and their place in the history of NFL dynasties.

It’s been seven years if viewing Sunday night’s game as a return to the scene of the crime, where football immortality was stolen from the Pats by a missed interception and a crazy helmet catch in the Super Bowl that Must Not Be Named.

In either event, I’m just glad we’re finally talking about a game!  At least for this weekend, we can take a break from watching America’s latest reality TV show, PSI: Foxborough.

While watching this latest Pats playoff run, it’s easy to forget that the 2014 season didn’t start like one destined to end in Arizona.

Remember the trade of Logan Mankins, and then how shaky the offensive line looked back in September?  Remember that embarrassing Monday night loss in Kansas City, when some folks were calling for rookie Jimmy Garoppolo to take over at quarterback?

That 2-2 start now feels like a distant memory, much as it did for the 2-2 Patriots of 2003.  Back then, a rookie center (Dan Koppen) helped stabilized the offensive line and the Pats won two playoff games at Gillette and then their second Super Bowl, playing under the retractable roof of Houston’s Reliant Stadium back on February 1, 2004.

Eleven years to the day later, the Pats season has the chance to end with another Lombardi trophy.  Although this time around, the roof at the University of Phoenix Stadium will be left open.

It’s appropriate that in their latest attempt to add a punctuation mark to the end of their long dynastic football sentence, the Patriots face a team on Sunday that in many ways is their mirror image.  Just as it’s appropriate that if Seattle Seahawks are to become the first team to win back-to-back Super Bowls in a decade, they have to defeat the team that last did it.

This is the first Super Bowl featuring both head coaches over sixty years old; if you can believe it, Bill Belichick and his record 21 postseason wins comes in as seven months younger than the coach he replaced in Foxboro, Pete Carroll.  If you can also believe it, back in the late 1990s I continuously defended then-Pats coach Carroll as the right man for that job, while my co-blogger told me otherwise…yes Mike, you were right again!

Could SB XLIX come down to which coach out-thinks the other?  Both Belichick and Carroll are willing to take chances and use the occasional trick play when needed.  Both New England and Seattle have scored touchdowns on passes not thrown by their starting quarterbacks (Julian Edelman, and Seattle punter Jon Ryan).

As for those QBs, Tom Brady currently holds just about every postseason passing record imaginable, including a 20-8 playoff record, and is about to appear in his record sixth Super Bowl.  But the comparisons to his counterpart Russell Wilson are striking.

Both have similar records their first three seasons as a starter (Brady 40-12, Wilson 42-13) and have each taken their teams to two Super Bowls.  Wilson hopes to match Brady by winning his second Lombardi (interesting stat—Wilson is a perfect 10-0 in his career against teams with Super Bowl-winning QBs, including Brady’s Pats back in 2012).

Each team features an immense offensive talent that will be at the top of the opposing defense’s game plan.  Seattle features Marshawn Lynch, who is called ‘Beast’ because he’s so difficult to tackle, while the Pats have their own beast in Rob Gronkowski, who, even for talented safety Kam Chancellor, will be a challenge to bring down.

The debate over the best cornerback in the NFL comes down to the two playing on Sunday.  Richard Sherman can boast all he wants because he can back it up, while 8-year veteran Darrelle Revis is finally playing on the game’s biggest stage, and his play this year is a large reason the Pats are back in the Super Bowl for a record-tying eighth time, all in the last three decades (an incredible feat when you think about it).

Both teams also have great kickers—Stephen Gostkowski led the league in scoring, while Needham, MA native Steven Hauschka finished tied for fourth, not to mention had the honor of me calling his name during a radio broadcast back in 2004 (pretty sure the only football player in all my years of Division 3 college play-by-playcalling that made it to the NFL).

Some final stats to munch on: winning the turnover battle is a huge key to victory in the Super Bowl, as teams that do it are 36-3.  In addition, the twelve SB teams that all returned an interception for a touchdown are a perfect 12-0.  Remember Ty Law in SB XXXVI?

The white uniform theory: the team wearing white is 30-18 all-time and has won nine of the last ten Super Bowls.  As the designated visiting team, the Pats will be wearing their white jerseys.  They’re 1-1 in the big game wearing white, and were wearing them when they won their last SB ten years ago against Philadelphia.

Time not on Brady’s side: although all-time the Super Bowls are an even 24-24 split between the older and younger QBs, the younger QB has won eleven of the last thirteen games.  At Brady’s current age (37-1/2), he would be the second oldest QB to ever win a SB—only 38-year old John Elway back in 1999 was older.

This game shapes up as one where either the metaphorical baton is passed to perhaps the NFL’s next dynastic franchise, or the current holder of that claim bookends an impressive fourteen year run of success.  Even though many of the numbers go against the Pats, here’s hoping they’re wrong: Patriots 26, Seahawks 23.

Mike: Wow, does this mean we can finally play the game? I am so sick of all the talk up to this point, that I have been actively avoiding it, because I am convinced that if I hear another so-called "expert" discuss football air pressure, I am going to snap.

But now that it's game time, it's time to get excited! This has the potential to be one of the most exciting Super Bowls in a while. You've got clearly the two best teams in the NFL battling it out for the championship, and you can't ask for anything better than that!

I really can't get a feel on who has the edge for this one. On one hand, I can see the fearsome Seahawks defense giving them the big advantage, but then I get to thinking about how the Patriots can put up points almost at will.

Todd has really done a great job breaking down the game, and yes, Todd thank you for recognizing that I was right about Pete Carroll way back when. He's developed into a good coach now, but he was going nowhere when he was with the Patriots.

Anyway, my pick shouldn't come as a big surprise, considering I am a life-long Pats fan...Pats win 21-17.

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