DemocratandChronicle.com - Monday, February 4, 2002

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AFC East breaks winless streak

By Bob Matthews
Democrat and Chronicle

(Monday, February 4, 2002) -- New England's 20-17 victory in Super Bowl XXXVI ended the AFC East's Super Bowl futility streak.

The AFC East hadn't won an NFL championship game since the Miami Dolphins beat Minnesota in Super Bowl VIII. The division had been on the losing end of eight straight Super Bowls.

Here are the Super Bowl records by division since the 1970 NFL-AFL merger:

NFC WEST -- 6-3

NFC EAST -- 10-7.

AFC WEST -- 5-5.

AFC CENTRAL -- 5-4.

NFC CENTRAL -- 2-4.

AFC EAST -- 4-9 (eight-game losing streak ended Sunday).

The breakdown on Super Bowl MVPs after New England's quarterback Tom Brady was selected MVP Sunday: QB -- 19 times, RB -- 7, WR -- 3, LB -- 2, DB -- 2, DE -- 2, DT -- 1, kick returner -- 1.

Give the NFL credit for waiting until after the game to vote for MVP. The NHL All-Star Game ballots were collected too soon Saturday and the wrong player won (Eric Daze instead of shutout goalie Nikolai Khabibulin).

Super Bowl XXXVII will be in San Diego. Unless the Chargers are next season's version of this season's New England Patriots, the tradition should continue of no host team ever playing in a Super Bowl.

New England wound up with a profitable 13-5-1 record against the point spread this season. St. Louis was 10-8-1.

New England coach Bill Belichick ranked 21st in salary among the 31 NFL coaches and deserves a significant raise

Troubled Patriots receiver Terry Glenn will get a full postseason share because he was on the roster for more than half the season, but he'll probably regret for the rest of his life that he couldn't be on the field Sunday.

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