Fair Play

The NFL playoffs begin this weekend, and, within four weeks, a new champion will raise the Lombardi Trophy amid a blizzard of confetti.

Take it from the Patriots, Rams, Ravens, Broncos, Cowboys and Redskins: Uneasy lies the crown.

Of the last 11 Super Bowl winners, only Green Bay and San Francisco made the playoffs this season. For the fourth consecutive season, a new team will win it all.

“I wish somebody had told me about that before I came here,” joked tight end Christian Fauria, who signed with New England last spring only to narrowly miss the playoffs. “That was an important statistic I didn’t know about.”

For the sixth season in a row, at least five new clubs have made the playoffs. This season’s newcomers are Atlanta, Cleveland, Indianapolis, Tennessee and the New York Giants.

“Everybody’s got a chance,” Giant General Manager Ernie Accorsi said. “This is the way it’s going to be from now on. Fight for your life every year. Hope you keep your playmakers together.”

With two weeks remaining in the regular season, 21 teams were in the running for playoff spots, one fewer than the league record. The AFC had yet to award a postseason berth, and 14 of 16 teams were eligible.

The situation was almost as murky last weekend, when three overtime games heightened the intrigue.

“Teams thought they’d clinched the division at 4 o’clock, only to find out at 7 o’clock they weren’t even in the playoffs,” NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue said. “That kind of uncertainty makes for a great season, and people love it.”

Free agency, the salary cap and an ever-deepening talent pool have turned this league into a paradise of parity.

Paradise, that is, unless you’re a team such as the Patriots, who pulled off an amazing comeback to beat Miami in overtime last week

Or how about Atlanta? The Falcons lost their finale at Cleveland when the Browns mounted a dramatic goal-line stand ... yet Michael Vick & Co. were saved by the ineptitude of New Orleans -- one of the league’s best teams midway through the season -- which was unable to beat Carolina to earn a spot in the postseason.

And don’t forget the Browns. Eleven of their 16 games were decided in overtime or the final minute of regulation, and they are the league’s only team who can blame helmets for two losses.

The Browns lost their opener to Kansas City when Cleveland linebacker Dwayne Rudd, celebrating what he thought was a victory, almost finished the game with a sack and tossed his helmet in jubilation as time expired. He was penalized, and, because the game can’t end on a defensive penalty, the Chiefs were given an extra play. Kansas City won with a field goal.

Then, against Pittsburgh on Sept. 29, Cleveland kicker Phil Dawson attempted a 45-yard field goal in overtime. The ball glanced off the helmet of a Steeler lineman, yet still made it to the goal posts, where it bounced off the crossbar -- no good. The Steelers wound up winning.

But Cleveland fans can put the helmet hullabaloo to rest now that the Browns are in the playoffs for the first time since the franchise was reborn in 1999. A reporter from the Akron (Ohio) Beacon Journal asked Brown President Carmen Policy to explain the psychology of the team.

“That’s like saying, ‘Doctor, you’ve been dealing with the patient now for 16 games and what’s your diagnosis?’ ” Policy said. “The psychiatrist looks you directly in the eye and says, ‘Well it’s a little bit of neuroses. Schizophrenia enters the picture every now and then. There’s not that much of a psychotic reaction except for on limited, limited occasions. Then the impulsive-obsessive combination does cause euphoria and depression. Sometimes in the same week. By and large, I would say the patient is not exactly normal, but with additional therapy they should be cured.’ ”

That the New York Jets won the AFC East after starting the season 1-4 was shocking. But equally jaw-dropping is the fact Miami has been eliminated, despite six Pro Bowl starters, the league’s leading rusher in Ricky Williams, and defensive player-of-the-year candidate Jason Taylor.

“We’re upset,” Williams said after Sunday’s 27-24 loss at New England. “We had this game won and we let it slip away. Championships are rare. Home-field advantage in the playoffs is rare. This was our time to kind of take it by the reins. We let it slip away.”