Is the “Peyton Manning is the Greatest of All Time” debate finally over? Let’s hope so. It would be nice to turn on a radio or open a newspaper again without feeling nauseous. Never in the long, shameful history of over-indulgent and factually challenged pre-Super Bowl analysis has there been a more concerted and unfounded effort to jam a square peg of hype into the round hole of historical truth than the one we witnessed this year. The pigskin “pundits” tried to tell us that Manning was poised to become the Greatest of All Time heading into Super Bowl XLIV. The Cold, Hard Football Facts, of course, told us that Manning wasn’t even going to be the best quarterback on the field on Super Bowl Sunday, let alone the best ever. The Cold, Hard Football Facts, of course, were correct. The pigskin “pundits” were wrong. Did anybody who watched Super Bowl XLIV believe after the game that Manning was better than Drew Brees, let alone the best who

There are three things a team and its fans must do to ensure a successful Super Bowl Sunday: win the passing battle, win the turnover battle and, naturally, win the tailgate battle. It looks like one team is poised to do all three on Sunday. It starts, as every NFL game does, with the respective quarterbacks. Drew Brees vs. The Chosen One Over at Cold, Hard Football Facts, we dubbed Peyton Manning “The Chosen One” because of his unmatched pedigree. You know the family story. Don’t need to rehash it here. Three Legends of the South. First Family of Football, blah, blah blah. You also know that Peyton’s the most prolific of the bunch, a record-setting quarterback in both college and the NFL destined for the Pro Football Hall of Fame. He’s great. One of the best ever. We don’t doubt that. But with pedigree comes the benefit of the doubt. All else being equal, the pedigree tips the scales in the court of public opinion. Pedigree is why a

Is the Patriots dynasty over? That’s been one of the big questions around New England in the wake of another disappointing end to another disappointing season — a fifth straight year without a Super Bowl victory. I don’t know if it is. But even if the dynasty is over, it’s been one of the great rides in history of sports. In fact, football fans should celebrate the fact that they were alive to witness it. Here’s a look back at the top 10 signature moments in the New England dynasty. It’s actually an amazing collection of memories that few fans in few sports in few cities have had the pleasure to enjoy. There are countless moments that would make the cut in most towns, but not here: Adam Vinatieri’s game-winning field goal in the final seconds of Super Bowl XXXVIII; Rodney’s Harrison’s pick-six against the mighty 15-1 Steelers in the 2004 AFC title game; linebacker Mike Vrabel’s not one but two (2!) Super Bowl touchdown

A certain piece published in this space last week about New England’s need to toughen up and return to its old-school roots went over about as well as Martha Coakley’s Senate campaign. Local football fans, it seems, are rather attached to the entertaining, offensively prolific but very soft Patriots of recent vintage. It’s a very unusual turn of events: like the Bay State’s rebuke of its traditional leftist values on Tuesday, Patriots fans have cast aside the football values they once held near and dear. It was just a few years ago that New England football fans valued tough, hard-nosed football and mocked the soft, losing, late-season efforts of teams like the Colts. Patriots fans once valued gritty wins in January and mocked the Colts every time they collapsed in the winter. Patriots fans once enjoyed winning championships and mocked the Colts for failing to come through in the clutch. Heck, it was something of an annual tradition for Patriots fans to clog