There is an abundant treasure trove of quotes from former Colts executive and current ESPN/Sirius XM football analyst Bill Polian when it comes to the Patriots.

Polian has famously claimed that he had a first-round grade on Tom Brady, which is a thing that can't possibly be true. The Patriots snatched Brady up in the sixth round of the 2001 NFL Draft, but they were technically lucky to do so; it wasn't some brilliant draft strategy to pass on the greatest quarterback of all time multiple times. Also: If Polian loved Brady, he should have drafted him and stopped him from eliminating the Colts a bunch of times. 

But his comments about the Patriots aren't always kind. For instance, during his Sirius XM NFL Radio show Tuesday, Polian apparently pointed out, via Hector Longo of All22.com, that the Patriots almost lost the Super Bowl.

"Tom Brady was a quarter away from losing the Super Bowl last year pretty decisively," Polian said.

That is an accurate statement. But he followed it up by pointing out that the Patriots are "not as great as people think they are."

"They are a great team. They are not as great as people think they are. They're not invincible," Polian said. "What they are is exceptionally well-constructed and exceptionally well-coached. But, Tom Brady isn't going to play forever. He showed some signs of being human last year on a number of occasions, including in the Super Bowl."

OK so, we don't have the full context of Polian's statement here, per se. He is clearly acknowledging that the Patriots are a very good franchise. But he's also detracting from a team that just won its fifth Super Bowl since 2001 under Bill Belichick and Brady. 

And of course the Patriots aren't "invincible." They haven't gone 16-0 every single year under Brady/Belichick, nor have they won every single Super Bowl since the two took over, nor have they even won every single Super Bowl in which they've played. 

The Patriots lost two Super Bowls (2007, '11) to Eli Manning and the Giants. In 2006, Brady lost to Polian's Colts and Peyton Manning in the AFC Championship Game. They've fallen in the first round and they've fallen in the final round. They are inherently not invincible. 

But they are also absolutely, 100 percent as good as people think they are. Football isn't easy and winning Super Bowls is really difficult. Brady and Belichick have five together in the span of 16 years. 

Brady has indeed shown some flaws. He wasn't great in the first half of Super Bowl LI, and he admitted as much. But he is 39 and he did set the record for touchdown-to-interception ratio during the 2016 season. That's not terrible. And he did set the record for most completions and most passing yards in a Super Bowl as the Patriots rallied from down 25 points to gutpunch the Falcons for the greatest comeback in Super Bowl history. Also not terrible. 

You could theoretically make the case that the Patriots are an Adam Vinatieri field goal, a John Kasay kickoff, a Russell Wilson interception and a Matt Ryan fumble away from only having one Super Bowl title. Sorry, they weren't losing to the Eagles. But that's just the nature of the game. 

The Patriots are not lucky: Tom Brady has won 77.3 percent of the games he has started for New England (including postseason). They are a dominant dynasty and, if anything, they might actually be pretty underrated at this point.