Wednesday marked the 25th anniversary of the infamous snow plow game between the Dolphins and Patriots at Schaefer Stadium. On Dec. 12, 1982, convicted felon Mark Henderson, on work release from the state prison just up the road in Walpole, used a snow plow to clear a path for Patriots kicker John Smith, who kicked the game-winning field goal in a 3-0 New England victory. Despite the protests of an irate Don Shula, Miami’s head coach, America just laughed the illegal tactic off, mostly because the Patriots were loveable losers back then.

With weather forecasters calling for a Nor’easter to sweep into New England on Sunday during the Jets-Patriots “Spygate Bowl”, we are more likely to see a sequel to that 3-0 standoff than the 63-0 drubbing that many football forecasters are predicting. Whether the Pats win by three or 63, America will take great offense, because they are no longer the loveable losers.

Should it really matter to the Patriots how much they win by on Sunday? Would humiliating the Jets by nine touchdowns at home going to prove anything more than beating a truly competitive football team such as Dallas or Indianapolis on the road did?

For the Patriots now, it’s all about posterity. It’s about their place in NFL history. They have proven their point that they didn’t need video cameras to win. Yes, holdouts remain. Some will just never accept the legitimacy of the records they are setting or about to set. Smiting the Jets won’t convince anyone else.

Did anyone else notice that it only took about three hours after the Patriots disposed of the Pittsburgh Steelers like yesterday’s trash-talkers for the haters to hitch their wagon to the Colts in the AFC Championship? Doesn’t matter that that game might not even happen. The rest of America has finally resigned itself to the Patriots going 16-0 and can only hope and pray that the sainted Tony Dungy swoops in saves them from their worst nightmare – having to acknowledge that the Bill Belichick-led New England Patriots may be the best team of all time.

Even those people realize that Spygate has been played out. They understand that Eric Mangini opened a Pandora’s Box when he ratted on the Patriots’ sideline camera crew in the season-opener. They’ve discovered that the Patriots laying waste to the rest of the NFL is too high a price to pay for them to be able to chant “Cheater, cheater,” make asterisk jokes or spew their bile against Belichick on some blog.

That’s why they moved on to the Patriots other crimes against humanity, like running up the score, weeks ago. This past Sunday, New England’s sin was taking those black “21” stickers, the ones all NFL teams wore the week prior to honor the memory of the late Sean Taylor, off of its helmets. People flooded Profootballtalk.com with e-mails complaining that the Patriots were arrogant and disrespecting Taylor’s memory. Funny, the web site wasn’t deluged with complaints about the Jets, Chargers and Lions doing the same thing.

Not surprisingly, revelations this week that the Jets may have pulled the same videotaping shenanigans in Foxborough last year have hit on deaf ears with much of the media because this morality play has already been scripted. Belichick is the evil genius. Mangini is the over-eager, somewhat weasely protégé who revealed his mentor’s evil ways. If Dungy or Wade Phillips or Dick Cheney ultimately beats the Patriots, they will be the headset-wearing savior.

America has already decided it hates the New England Patriots. It’s dead set on expressing that hatred at every opportunity, even if it has to manufacture reasons why. Beating the Jets to a pulp isn’t going to change that. Neither is bringing back Mark Henderson for one more sweep.