Top Ten Cloves: Good Things About Losing The Super Bowl and Ending Up 18-1

News Item: 'Free fallin' out into nothing'

10. Telling people who know nothing about football, or the NFL, that you went 18-1 will impress them

9. You can go golfing, rather than wasting your time taking part of the downtown parade that was being planned

8. You get to beat up on the media, saying how, just like in the primaries, they all got it wrong

7. You give your fans a real good reason to, now, extremely dislike both Manning brothers

6. Don't have to worry about if the bigger, winning pay check will alter your tax status

5. Better chance of getting sympathy hugs from Tom Brady's supermodel girlfriends' supermodel friends

4. Don't have to spend your off-season, bogged down, sorting through endorsement offers

3. Well, losing the Super Bowl rules out, pretty much, that Bill Belichick spied on the Giants

2. The value of the ticket stubs of your family members attending the game will fetch huge dollars now, on eBay

1. It's football, so you're post-game explanation of the collapse doesn't have to deal with questions of why Bill Buckner was in the game in the 10th inning, instead of being replaced for defensive purposes














Bonus 18-1 Riffs

Boston Globe: Complete Patriots, Super Bowl XLII coverage

Jackie MacMullan: In the end, it was all for naught

Mike Reiss: The pressure no doubt got to them

Christopher L. Gasper: 18 and done - Patriots' bid for perfect season has one fatal flaw as Giants pull upset