Power Rankings: Denied Patriots have to get back in line

Updated Feb. 5

Perfectville, that mythical neighborhood created by the 1972 Miami Dolphins, is a really tough place to gain entry into, an ultra-exclusive area that features few in it.

The exclusivity of it makes any gated community, even those of the high-rolling stars, seem as if they're open to all of us. You can't buy your way in, either. You have to earn it.

Tom Brady heads off into the sunset for now -- better luck next season. (Getty Images)

The New England applied for entry but got turned down when a group of blue-collar New York Giants proved the Patriots weren't good enough.

Sunday night's Super Bowl XLII gave us another valuable reminder of why we love sports so much. The seemingly unbeatable is always beatable.

The Patriots 17-14 loss ruined their chance at a 19-0 season, allowing them to stake a claim as one of the greatest, if not greatest, team of all-time. We were ready to anoint coach Bill Belichick as the greatest coach and Tom Brady as the greatest quarterback.

Now they have to spend the next six months hearing how they choked it all away. They are the biggest Super losers of all-time.

Yes, the Baltimore Colts were bigger favorites when they lost to the New York Jets in Super Bowl III, but the Colts weren't unbeaten. They weren't trying to get into Perfectville.

Now the Patriots appear to be facing a tumultuous offseason. In addition to the sting of hearing how they gagged their season away, they have the Specter (as in Arlen) hanging over their heads.

They thought the spying scandal was long gone when they were caught early in the season, but now we get word there might be another tape, one in which they filmed the St. Louis Rams' walk-through before Super Bowl XXVI. If that is found to be true, Belichick could be facing a year-long suspension, which ultimately could lead to him walking away for good. There is talk among some in the league that the Patriots ownership wouldn't need much to send him packing.

Winning Super Bowls, they tolerate his boorish behavior and off-field dalliances. But if he's caught in another scandal, watch out.

Belichick, in his usual standoffish way, shrugged off a question about the latest allegations after Sunday's game. "I don't know about that," he said. Then again, he shrugged off a lot of questions, his bitter-beer face showing all the pain he was feeling inside.

His classless walk off at the end of the game, leaving the field with one second left in the game and a snap still to take, was vintage Belichick. How about losing with some class? Then again, some say he doesn't win with class so why should we expect him to lose with it?

The Patriots will also have to decide what to do with Randy Moss, who can become an unrestricted free agent after the season. He did little in the postseason, although he did have a touchdown catch Sunday after catching 23 of them in the regular season. He says he wants to come back to New England, but you can bet he won't take the home-team discount if that's what the Pats are thinking.

Then there's the aging defense, especially at linebacker. And wasn't that graying safety Rodney Harrison who gave up the two biggest completions Sunday night?

It will be a long offseason for the Patriots, one they thought they'd spend talking about their greatness.

Who didn't think they would start the 2008 season atop all the power rankings? But instead they are in the two hole, behind the Giants. If the two teams played 10 times, the Pats would probably win seven of them, which means they are probably the better team and should be in the top spot. Bodog.com sent out a list of odds for next year's Super Bowl and the Patriots are the favorites at 4-1. The Giants are 10-1, behind the Chargers and Colts and tied with the Cowboys.

But Super Bowl winners always take the top spot in the first set of our rankings that close out this season and peek ahead to 2008.

There will be another three or four sets of these rankings before we kick off the regular season, one after free agency, another after the draft and one or two more before the regular season opens.

New England thought they had the top spot locked until we kicked it off for real. The Giants took that from them and they took something far more important.

They took away their slide card for entry into that elite community known as Perfectville.

Now they have to wonder if they'll ever get in.