Michael Ventre

Is it next season already? What happened to the draft? Mini-camp? Training camp? Preseason?

Are we as a society so obsessed with football that we’re already speculating on who will win Super Bowl XLI in Miami before the gunshots have officially ceased around Super Bowl XL in Detroit?

Of course. NFL people have no lives. In their world, there is no Middle East, no Academy Awards, no three branches of government, and especially no other sports. An NFL devotee spends the time between the conclusion of Sunday’s Steelers-Seahawks Super Bowl and the start of the 2006 season crossing off calendar days using the colors of his favorite team, or rearranging the Fatheads on his bedroom walls.

That, and dreaming of a Super Bowl celebration.

Well, the ones who are backing the New England Patriots have something to look forward to. The rest should resign themselves to at least one additional year of killing time in their cells.

The Patriots are just one of those franchises that manages to remain in the hunt for a Super Bowl championship year after year. They have an owner in Robert Kraft who is hands on enough to get whatever the club needs to win, but hands off enough to let his football people work their magic.

And Bill Belichick remains the best coach in the NFL, even though he wears sweats and mumbles. This season he may not have seemed like the genius he is considered to be, but that had more to do with injuries that created a lack of continuity and denied the Pats home-field advantage.

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Dwelling on why the Patriots didn’t make the Super Bowl this season is loser talk, because it’s nearly impossible to remain on top year after year. And it takes away from the accomplishments of teams that did better, including the Colts, Broncos and especially the Steelers.

The issue here is maintaining a level of excellence over a long period of time. Using that measuring stick, the Patriots currently have no equal.

Next year they will win the Super Bowl because they will be hungry and vengeful. They will want to atone for a bizarre season that included one of their top linebackers suffering a stroke and then returning to play, and their star quarterback playing the second half of the season with a hernia.

Quite frankly, much of the Patriots’ undoing this year had little to do with specific areas of weakness, like the surprise retirement of linebacker Ted Johnson right before the season, or the knee injury that caused Richard Seymour to miss four games, or the season-ending injuries to Rodney Harrison and Tyrone Poole, or the suddenly aged wheels of Corey Dillon.

Rather, it was about a collective mentality. The Patriots tried to will themselves to the title because they’re used to doing just that. This time they didn’t have enough will to go along with a shortage of healthy bodies.

Next year will be different. The Patriots will re-tool their roster and come back as strong as ever. Instead of starting off the season a mediocre 4-4, as they did in 2005, they will be stronger, more focused and more determined to post the best record in the AFC so they can entertain playoff opponents on the tundra that is their home field.