Exaggeration? Smerlas-speak? Maybe. Just a little. But it's hard to remember more hype, hope, and runaway optimism for a New England sports team that has yet to hold a single practice.
There was a time when we expected the Celtics to win the championship every spring. It was a local birthright in those golden days of the late 1950s throughout the '60s. It was the same when Bill Walton was added to the mix after the Celtics lost in the 1985 NBA Finals.
The Bruins of the early 1970s earned the same expectations. And when the All Star-studded, home run-hitting Red Sox got young Dennis Eckersley from the Indians in spring training '78, we were pretty sure they were finally going to win.
But looking at what's being said and written about the Patriots, it's hard to recall anything comparable. The Patriots are going all the way. Ask anyone outside Indianapolis and San Diego. The Patriots have the best owner, the best coach, the best GM, and the clutch quarterback. They came within a minute of beating the Super Bowl champs in the AFC Championship game and have reloaded with Steinbrenner fury.
Picking the Patriots to go all the way is not a local phenomenon. The Patriots sit atop Pro Football Weekly's preseason power rankings, a 5-2 favorite to win the Super Bowl. According to last Sunday's New York Times training camp preview, "Even in an age of parity, anything less than a Super Bowl appearance would be a surprise." Even Tim Donaghy thinks the Patriots are a lock.
Bill Belichick won't embrace these lofty predictions. He knows it has to be done on the field, not in the newspaper or on the airwaves. And there's added pressure when everybody anoints you champ before the first whistle is blown. (Sour John McNamara actually once said, "Some people pick you to finish first just to see you get [expletive] fired.")
