DAN SHAUGHNESSY

Ultimate goal in sight as Patriots take field

2/3/2002

EW ORLEANS - They never expected to be here, but now the New England Patriots - led by wonderboy quarterback Tom Brady - will play in Super Bowl XXXVI with a chance to bring Greater Boston its first professional sports championship in 16 long years.

Under the Superdome roof, inside the most secured venue in the history of sports, the Patriots and heavily-favored (14 points) St. Louis Rams tee it up at 6:28 p.m., while 71,000 stand and cheer and 84 million watch on television.

Already established as an unofficial American holiday, Super Sunday in 2002 will be wrapped in red, white, and blue, pushing themes of hope, heroes, and homeland. The event is so oversized they've got a Beatle serving as an unpaid warmup act.

Paul McCartney will sing ''Freedom'' before Mariah Carey delivers the national anthem. And the Boston Pops will perform in midafternoon to get the crowd ready for Paul.

The Pops figured to be Boston's only representatives playing in New Orleans, but that was before the Sons of Bill Belichick ran the table, winning six straight to end their regular season. Playoffs followed and the Patriots closed out Foxboro Stadium with a snow-globe, overtime victory over Oakland, then shocked the city of Pittsburgh and most of the football universe, whipping the favored Steelers with relative ease (24-17) at Heinz Field last Sunday.

But the Super Bowl is different. It is where dreams are often shattered in the stark light of reality.

With his injured left ankle in a brace, Brady, the 24-year-old phenom, will carry the hopes of New England onto the floor of the dome. A sixth-round draft pick who played only a few minutes in his rookie season, Brady in 2001-02 emerged as a Pro Bowl quarterback. He got his chance when Drew Bledsoe, the cornerstone of the Bob Kraft Patriots, was injured in the second game of the season. The Patriots are 13-3 when Brady starts, but the perfect plot thickened in Pittsburgh when Brady left the AFC title game with an ankle sprain. Bledsoe, a nine-year veteran, stepped into the breach, and drove the Patriots to victory.

Bledsoe's performance, coupled with Brady's injury, produced the only controversy of Super Bowl week. Bledsoe was New England's quarterback the last time the Patriots made it to this game, and hoped to avenge that 1997 loss to the Packers. Both quarterbacks spent three days talking about starting and it wasn't until Wednesday night that Belichick named Brady the starter.

''I'm going to be extremely excited before the game,'' admitted Brady. ''But after that first play, everything settles down. You can't go out there and waste your energy in warmups. You have to hold back and adapt during the game. Drew told me one of the most miserable things of his career was losing the Super Bowl. It's not enough to just get here.''

Brady will be the third-youngest quarterback to start a Super Bowl, and would be the youngest to win one. Dan Marino and Kurt Warner are the only other quarterbacks to start a Super Bowl in their second NFL season.

Warner and running back Marshall Faulk lead the high-flying Rams. Two years ago, Warner was MVP of the Super Bowl when he passed for 414 yards in St. Louis's dramatic victory over Tennessee. He directed the Rams to a 24-17 victory over the Patriots in Foxborough Nov. 18. The Patriots have not lost since.

This is New England's third trip to the Super Bowl, all in New Orleans. The Big Easy has been hard on the Patriots. The Chicago Bears routed Raymond Berry's men, 46-10, in 1986. The Bill Parcells Patriots were beaten by the Packers, 35-21, five years ago.

A feud between Parcells and Kraft polluted the 1997 Super Bowl week for many Patriots and their fans. Linebacker Tedy Bruschi, one of nine Patriots who were here last time, remembered, ''Last time there was a big deal with their difficulties. Now that I look back, it sort of disappoints me the way it happened. Maybe it was a little selfish on their part to let that overtake the theme of us getting to a certain point. It should have been about the game and not about the squabble.''

This time it's all about the game and the Patriots have been using their underdog status as motivation. In 35 previous Super Bowls, only two teams have been larger 'dogs: The 1969 New York Jets were picked to lose by 18 and 1995 San Diego Chargers by 19. The Chargers lost to San Francisco by 23. The Joe Namath Jets beat the Baltimore Colts, 16-7, in what still ranks as the biggest upset in pro football history.

Born as part of the upstart American Football League in 1960, the Patriots have never won a championship. A win tonight would be the New England region's first pro sports crown since the Celtics in 1986.

The region's only championship drought equal to the one the Patriots can snap tonight was the dark period between 1941 (Bruins) and 1957 (Celtics).

Back in the day, the Red Sox were the ones who upheld Boston's honor. The Sox won five of the first 15 World Series, last winning in 1918. Eleven years later, the Bruins won their first Stanley Cup in 1929. The Bruins won it again in '39 and '41, but things were dry until Bill Russell and Co. won their first NBA title in '57. Winning 15 more times over the next three decades, the Celtics made Boston a city of champions.

Not now. And few experts think the drought is going to end tonight. Of 34 national sportswriters polled by USA Today, only three picked the Patriots and one was from Boston.

Kraft, certain to be wearing one of those lucky blue shirts with the white collars, acknowledges the Rams have the speed, but thinks the larger forces are working for the Patriots in this winter of national alarm and anxiety.

''It's a good year for everyone to be a fan of the Patriots,'' said the owner. ''Patriots is a good team in 2002 for everyone to support.''

Certainly no other franchise can claim it wore red (1986), white (1997), and blue (tonight) in its three Super Bowl appearances.

Dan Shaughnessy is a Globe columnist. His e-mail address is dshaughnessy@globe.com.