Article: SUPER BOWL FAVORITES? WE MUST BE DREAMING FOR NEW ENGLAND, BEING ON TOP IS SURREAL

A funny thing happened on the way to this year's Super Bowl. Las Vegas installed the New England Patriots as betting favorites - at 9 to 4 odds - over the 11 other teams that qualified for the NFL playoffs.

That's right, all you closet Calvinists and hand-wringing Red Sox yahoos. Some New England entity other than a bowl of clam chowder or a Kennedy is actually favored to win something the rest of America cares about.

How in the name of Michael Dukakis did this happen? More important, can our delicate psyches handle it?

Vegas bookies are a notoriously unsentimental lot. They seldom set odds based on curses (take the Bambino's ghost and lay 12 to 7) or civic self-esteem (New York may be the ...

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