Patriots’ Fauria Is Ready for His Close-Up

Christian Fauria isn’t used to being the center of attention, not this late in the season, at least. So while speaking to reporters Sunday at the first Super Bowl news conference, the New England tight end turned the tables on them.

He lifted his digital camera to his face and took a shot of the dozen or so TV cameras focused on him.

“It’s here, it’s something I’ve been waiting for a long time, and I’m ready to make the best of it,” said Fauria, the former Encino Crespi High football and basketball standout who signed with the Patriots last season after seven Super Bowl-free seasons with Seattle.

Like his Patriot teammates, though, he’s trying to maintain some semblance of his game-week routine.

“I don’t want to say everyone’s gone gaga goo-goo over the event,” he said. “If you put too much emphasis on, ‘Oh my gosh, I’m at the Super Bowl!’ you’re going to lose what’s really important, which is we’re on a business trip. Although this is almost a circus-like atmosphere, minus the bears and the juggling clowns.”

Several hundred fans showed up at Logan Airport in Boston, braving the cold to give their team a proper send-off.

The Patriots are doing their best to keep their cool, do things by their clock. That was obvious when they showed up 1 1/2 hours late for their first meet-the-media session, which featured Coach Bill Belichick and six players. They flew in from Boston on Sunday afternoon.

“I understand you’ve been waiting awhile,” Belichick said to reporters. “How late are we, a minute, five minutes?”

It’s hard to knock the Patriots’ timing this season. After stumbling out the gates with a 31-0 loss at Buffalo, they have won 16 of 17 games, and 14 in a row. Only the 1972 Miami Dolphins, who finished 17-0, had a longer winning streak heading into the Super Bowl.

“Winning 14 in a row is awesome,” quarterback Tom Brady said. “But if you don’t win that 15th, it’s going to make for a lousy year. This next one coming up is the most important. It’s really going to measure what this team’s all about and what we’ve accomplished. Nobody remembers the runner-up, and everybody remembers the champ. So we’ve got to win that 15th.”

The Patriots are favored to beat Carolina, which puts them in the precarious position of such teams as Green Bay and St. Louis, which were favored in recent Super Bowls and lost to Denver and New England, respectively.

“We don’t get caught up in underdogs, we don’t get caught up in favorites, who’s supposed to win or any stuff like that,” Brady said. “We go out there and prepare for each game like we’re capable of. And that’s suited us well.”

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After four seasons, Brady has finally learned to tune out the background noise that comes with being an NFL star.

“One thing I’ve done a better job of the last couple of years is not really listening to what a lot of people think,” he said. “That got me all riled up. I used to be swearing in my car on the way home listening to the radio, couldn’t believe a guy wrote a bad thing about me. I think you put a lot of pride in doing the right thing. You put a lot of pride in your preparation.

“Ultimately, the wins and losses, you’re going to win a lot games and lose games. Hopefully, you’ll win a lot more than you lose. But if you always judge yourself based on that, you’d be so up and down.”

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Carolina running back Stephen Davis, who had ankle and hamstring problems the latter part of the season, didn’t practice last week. He is, however, expected to practice this week.

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They’d Rather Have the Ring

In the history of the Super Bowl, 30 of the 37 winners have featured the game’s top rusher. The seven games where the leading rusher was on the losing side:

*--* Bowl Result Rusher Yds XXXIV St. Louis 23, Tennessee 16 E. George 95 XXX Dallas 27, Pittsburgh 17 B. Morris 73 XXV N.Y. Giants 20, Buffalo 19 T. Thomas 135 XXIII San Francisco 20, Cincinnati 16 I. Woods 79 XIV Pittsburgh 31, L.A. Rams 19 W. Tyler 60 XIII Pittsburgh 35, Dallas 31 T. Dorsett 96 V Baltimore 16, Dallas 13 W. Garrison 65

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