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Patriots at ease with lack of respect theme this season
Still, the way the New England Patriots see it, if you have the former, the latter doesn't matter.
"We're used to it by now," cornerback Ty Law said. "We don't look at it as a respect issue."
The defending Super Bowl champions have grown tired of trying to make believers out of those who refuse to see the light — even if that light happens to be reflecting off the Vince Lombardi trophy.
"We do all our talking on the field," Law said. "If people want to look past us, that's fine. We're used to it, so it doesn't bother us anymore.
"I think it kind of got to us last year, and we always felt like we had something to prove. If they want to say the Patriots are a fluke (now), we can go back home and open our safe and look at our rings, and we can say that we accomplished something."
The 2001 Patriots did so much more than that.
Rebounding from an 0-2 start to make the playoffs — as the Patriots did after being given up for dead in the early going a season ago — that would have been accomplishing something. Doing so with an unknown second-year quarterback who replaced a fallen superstar, now that would have accomplishing something.
But winning it all?
Beating the Steelers in Pittsburgh with the AFC championship on the line?
Beating the Rams with a last-minute drive that denied St. Louis another Super Bowl?
That's not accomplishing something, that's shocking the world.
You'd think these Pats would have earned plenty of respect after pulling that off.
Yet, they were written off in many of the preseason publications and on many of the prognosticating broadcasts.
Will some people never learn?
The Patriots were 19th in total offense and 24th in total defense a year ago. They were tied for 13th in turnover margin. They were 17th in points scored and sixth in points against. Statistically speaking, the Patriots were as average as their old home in Foxboro was isolated and outdated.
And yet, there they were dancing beneath the confetti in New Orleans.
And yet these Patriots are dismissed as an anomaly, rather than lauded as champions.
That didn't stop the Patriots from adorning the cover of their 2002 Media Guide with the Super Bowl trophy, or Law from flashing his "Super Bowl XXXVI Champions" ring in the face of Steelers wide receiver Hines Ward, among others, during the offseason.
"I made sure everyone saw it," Law said. "We were proud of what we accomplished last year, but that was last year.
"This is a new year now."
Those who refused to believe New England could go all the way a season ago are seemingly just as adamant in their belief that the Patriots can't repeat.
Patriots coach Bill Belichick agrees, but only because repeating is that last thing on his mind as another season unfolds.
"That's not what it's really about," Belichick said. "Every year is a new year. Every team has to go out and establish its own level of play every single season regardless of what last year brought, good, bad or indifferent. With anything that has happened in the past, it doesn't really make any difference what anybody thinks about it one way or another, including us.
"I don't think it's as important as what is in the future, and that's where we try to stay focused."
Belichick said he enjoyed the Patriots' rags-to-riches championship for all of one day last February.
"It was great," he said. "I wish I could freeze that one."
After that it was back to business. Two days after New Orleans , elichick had turned his attention to the expansion list and the draft and to moving forward.
"Last season seems like a long time ago," he said.
It does, at that, but not so long ago that we shouldn't remember all these Patriots accomplished and all they're yet capable of achieving.
The rings on their fingers ought to stand as enough of a reminder.
The respect such jewelry normally demands remains optional for the terminally stubborn.
