You’re never going to believe me when I say this, but I swear it is true: There was a time that Tom Brady, Bill Belichick and the New England Patriots were America’s Team, true underdogs that everybody I knew was cheering for. Forgive us: We were young, and we did not know.

There were multiple reasons we were all rooting for the Patriots in the 2002 Super Bowl — a desire for an upset, the U2 halftime show, that we didn’t really know Brady or Belichick yet, just general immediate post-9/11 brain fog — but the primary one was that we thought they were taking down a dynasty. The Greatest Show on Turf St. Louis Rams had won the Super Bowl two years before and were heavily favored to do so again, looking for all the world like an unstoppable team that would win titles for years to come; they looked like the dynasty in waiting. And after a succession of the Steelers, 49ers, Cowboys, and Broncos, we were very sick of those. The Patriots felt like they were standing athwart history, like the little guys taking down the empire.

This is, of course, the opposite of what they were. That Super Bowl would end up being the first of six titles Brady and Belichick would win together with the Patriots, teaming up to become the most storied and hated franchise in NFL history. The duo would eventually break up — Brady to win one more title with the Buccaneers, Belichick to do whatever the heck he’s doing in Chapel Hill right now — but they remain as avatars of what sports fans claim to dislike more than anything else: a dynasty. Sports fans love the toppling of a dynasty, too, which is why their breakup was so satisfying: It brings them back to earth, reminds us that they are human, lets us pretend they are zhlubs like the rest of........

© Daily Intelligencer