Emotions of This Game Make Everyone a Winner

On an untiring, unimaginable, appropriate evening, the Super Bowl champions weren’t a football team.

They were a flag.

A single mass of red, white and blue unfurling across the Superdome floor.

Flapping, clanking, rattling, twisting, then flapping again.

So much strength from a cloth so thin. So much surprise from an ideal so old.

Today it is not just the New England Patriots who fly, but so, too, the belief that sports is all about fabric.

High they wave, as high above the St. Louis Rams as Adam Vinatieri’s 48-yard field goal in the final seconds that gave the Patriots a 20-17 victory Sunday.

Afterward, hidden at midfield underneath a blanket of confetti, they danced like Buster Douglas once danced, whooped like Villanova once whooped, and it’s OK if you were howling with them.

This was not only the biggest upset in the 36 years of Super Bowl history, with the best finish in Super Bowl history, but all of it happened with the most timely backdrop.

From the pregame songs of John Phillip Sousa to the halftime unveiling of the names of those killed in the Sept. 11 tragedy, the theme of this game was the resilience of a unified America.

The Patriots became that theme.

Three colors. One cloth. This, from the time they took the field during the pregame introductions, all together, refusing to be introduced separately, another Super Bowl first.

The Rams danced to the field separately. The Patriots rolled out together. The game turned before the opening kickoff.

“I’m sure the TV networks didn’t like it, I’m sure the league is going to fine us, but I don’t care,” said cornerback Ty Law.

“We weren’t going to come hopping and shaking out there as individuals. We were going to show everyone we were in this together.”

Together, through a game-long series of hits that pounded the Rams into stripes, backed by a strategy that made Coach Mike Martz see stars.

Together, through a 14-point lead, then a 14-point blown lead, on toward what was certainly going to be the first overtime in Super Bowl history.

But together, finally, while holding the ball on their own 17-yard line with 1:21 remaining and no timeouts.

Drew Bledsoe, the Patriot quarterback who lost his job to young Tom Brady yet never complained, grabbed the kid as he was leaving the sidelines for the huddle.

“Drop back and sling it,” he told Brady.

“Go win the game.”

Few thought Brady, who had only 92 passing yards before than drive, would actually follow that advice. Most thought the Patriots would play it safe, avoid a turnover, and take their chances in overtime.

But then again, most thought the Patriots would lose by two touchdowns.

“Why not go for it?” asked Brady afterward.

“With that much time left, why not? You never know. And this is evidence.”

Evidence, indeed.

A nine-play drive that turned the 199th player selected in the 2000 draft into a Super Bowl MVP.

A drive that ended with the making of a New England hero who, right this minute, is bigger than Carlton Fisk.

So, Adam Vinatieri, were you praying?

“I’ve been praying all day,” he said with a grin.

As for Ram quarterback Kurt Warner, even in defeat, his biblical references remained consistent.

“It says in there, ‘When the winds and rain come,”’ he said, shaking his head. “There’s no if (. It’s a when .”

This latest storm will surely shake the NFL in the same manner as the Baltimore Ravens championship last season.

A team can win the battle of total net yards, 427-267, and lose the game?

A team can have 11 more first downs, hold the ball for seven more minutes, and lose the game?

If that team gets outhit, it can. If that team gets outschemed, it can.

The Patriots proved for a second consecutive season that the best team is not the most talented team, but the most together team.

Talk about your well-timed public-service announcements.

“I hated it this year when people called us a team of destiny, because that implied luck,” Vinatieri said. “But then you look at all that happened to our country, and all the patriotic stuff before today’s game, and you look at our name and our attitude ... and you say, maybe something up there is helping us out.”

Remember, this is the team that, in the second round of the playoffs, defeated the Oakland Raiders only because a replay official changed a Brady fumble call in the final moments.

This is the team that, in the AFC championship, defeated the Pittsburgh Steelers only after their quarterback, Kordell Stewart, threw two horrible passes on their two final drives.

This is a team that, even if the point spread wasn’t as great, began this game as bigger underdogs than the New York Jets in Super Bowl III.

The Jets were 18-point underdogs because, being from the renegade American Football League, few folks knew of their great talent.

The Patriots were 14-point underdogs because they simply weren’t as good as the Rams.

“If we’re playing next week, we’d probably be the underdogs,” Coach Bill Belichick said.

They took the field a couple of hours before the game, bumping heads and pounding pads, determined to get into the sort of hitting mood that would swing the odds.

Then the NFL shooed them off for a show that featured taped speeches from past presidents, the Boston Pops, and emotional renderings of America the Beautiful and the National Anthem.

It was arguably the most compelling pregame display in American sports history.

And it drove the Patriots bonkers.

“I hope you enjoyed it, because we hated it,” Brady said. “We were ready to play, but we had to go back and sit in our locker room for an hour.”

Yet it worked for everyone. When the game started, the Patriots were more restless than ever. And the 72,922 fans in the Superdome had decided upon their favorite team.

On the second play of the game, the Rams’ Torry Holt made an 18-yard catch, but the Patriots’ Tebucky Jones hit him so hard, one could probably hear it while retching on Bourbon Street. The crowd roared.

Moments later, Holt was bumped by Law on a long ball that he couldn’t catch. The crowd roared again.

“We heard all this talk about how they were track stars, but it’s hard to run an 100-yard dash with somebody standing in your way,” Law said. “We wanted to hit them, and keep hitting them.”

Law’s 47-yard interception return for a touchdown came after Mike Vrabel smacked Warner with a right jab.

The Patriots second touchdown came after Ricky Proehl fumbled when he was smacked in the chest by Antwan Harris.

The Patriots first field goal came after an interception caused when Holt was shoved away by Otis Smith.

“Yeah, they were tough,” Warner said. “Real tough.”

The Patriots preferred a different word.

“Patriots,” owner Bob Kraft said. “Today, we’re all Patriots.”

Aren’t we ever.

*

Bill Plaschke can be reached at bill.plaschke@latimes.com

*

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)

Super Finishes

Super Bowls that came down to the final seconds:

SUPER BOWL V, Baltimore 16, Dallas 13--Jim O’Brien kicks a 32-yard field goal with five seconds left.

SUPER BOWL XXIII, San Francisco 20, Cincinnati 16--Joe Montana connects with John Taylor on a 10-yard touchdown pass with 34 seconds to play.

SUPER BOWL XXV, New York Giants 20, Buffalo 19--Giants win when Scott Norwood’s 47-yard field goal attempt goes wide right with eight seconds to play.

SUPER BOWL XXXIV, St. Louis 23, Tennessee 16--Mike Jones tackles Titans’ Kevin Dyson at the Ram one-yard line as time expires.

SUPER BOWL XXXVI, New England 20, St. Louis 17--Adam Vinatieri kicks a 48-yard field goal as time expires.