One of the biggest days in America–Super Bowl Sunday–won’t be ignored here in Oxford.  We’ll have a huge party with a lot of American expats, nachos (sadly, Mexican food is very much missing in the UK–though they are opening a Chipotle spin-off in Oxford soon!), and my British friends who want to understand the game (though they don’t understand all the commercial breaks).

Who am I for?  The Patriots.  I went to two years of high school in New England, and I developed a liking for them.  I like the way they play, I like the way they are coached, and I like the entire team concept about them.  One professor of mine at Virginia, Stephen Innes, gave a lecture in my course on the history of the American Revolution the day after the Patriots won their second Super Bowl.  Mr. Innes was a lifelong New Englander at heart and a diehard Patriots fan.  The whole lecture went, “The New England Patriots in football are like the real-life New England Patriots.  The strength of the colonists was their team mentality and interchangeability.   The British tried to catch Paul Revere the night of his ride.  But that would have been no use.  If he had been caught, ten men would have stepped in his place to do his job.  The Patriots face injuries, salary cap constraints, and bad luck, but they manage to respond as a team to get the job done.”

The analogy holds.  In this age of salary-cap dominance, you really have to scout well, think smart, and play as a team to sustain any kind of excellence in the National Football League.  The fact that the Patriots are 18-0–and on the verge of perfection–is incredible by any means.  Part of it is a unique team mentality.  Part of it is great coaching and management.  Bill Belichick is a coaching savant.  I was intrigued by this ESPN article about Ernie Adams, the best-kept secret in football.  Videotaping scandals aside, I hope the Patriots do it.

ERB