Friends, I only know this from reading a lot of Hemingway: hangovers can be quite debilitating.

With a hangover, you don’t see anything but fuzz. You’re unable to taste anything but more fuzz, unable to feel anything besides the throbbing in your head and unable to smell anything but the mysterious odors emanating from your mouth and/or clothing. There is no known cure, but everyone has their home remedies. The most commonly practiced is hitting the snooze a couple of times, eating a light breakfast, taking aspirin and a shower and pumping the ol’ fluids.

Again, not speaking from experience.

I don’t know anything about Super Bowl hangovers, either, such as the one that is supposedly afflicting the New England Patriots these days.

This is a common malady shared by the last several Super Bowl losers. Going back to the 2000 New York Giants, those who malfunctioned at the Super Bowl during this decade are 47-65 the following season.*

*Does not include Janet Jackson.

To me, a Super Bowl hangover sounds like the Curse of the Bambino – a crutch used by the sound-bite media that isn’t willing to take the time to thoroughly investigate and explain what really cut those teams down.

Two of the losers, Carolina and the Giants, were essentially one-year wonders, posting 7-9 records the season before and after their Super Bowl beatings. Chicago and Seattle were only slightly better than mediocre teams in the seasons surrounding their losses, and one could argue it was merely their turn to be the NFC’s sacrificial lamb. Two other teams, Oakland and St. Louis, were riding aging MVPs (Rich Gannon, Marshall Faulk) for one last rodeo. Philadelphia had an injured Donovan McNabb and a malcontent with the initials T.O. doing everything he could to sink the ship.

If the Patriots falter, the most popularly predicted causes for their demise thus far are the the secondary, the offensive line and Tom Brady’s health.

Brady isn’t on the injury report this week, for the first time in three years, in fact. Of course, this is Bill Belichick flipping off the NFL again. I’m conflicted about whether to take it as a good or bad sign. Don’t forget that Brady wasn’t listed on the Super Bowl injury report, either.

I guess that we can take it as a sign that if the offensive line can keep Brady upright this year, things will go a lot smoother. Last year at this time, that seemed like a sure thing. Eight months ago, it was pretty much assumed, and now it’s in doubt, mostly because of one bad game and some off-season injury and off-the-field issues. At least that’s what I keep telling myself.

The secondary, I just flat-out don’t feel good about, and most of the Patriot fans I know are in agreement. They’re having to fill a lot of holes with rookies and a Cincinnati Bengals cast-off. That lack of depth and experience gets exposed, especially if Mike Vrabel, Adalius Thomas and Richard Seymour aren’t pressuring quarterbacks.

Let’s face it, though. This team is still loaded. It still has the best coach, quarterback and receiver in the game, the deepest group of running backs it’s had in the Belichick era, and a defensive line that should be at it’s peak.

It also has a little unfinished business in front of it. The team slogan, if there actually is one, is “Finish.” That was the case last year, too. The Patriots reacted to not finishing then by getting Randy Moss, Wes Welker and Adalius Thomas. They reacted this year by trying to trying to get younger, especially on defense, through the draft again. You can make of that what you will, but after watching guys like Brady, Matt Light and Stephen Neal sit out all or most of the preseason, it’s clear Belichick knows that his team has played a lot of football this decade and has been showing signs of battle fatigue late in each of the last three seasons.

Upon further consideration, maybe I’ll buy a Super Bowl hangover in August. Or maybe it is just a signal that the priorities have shifted. Maybe a team that looked old, slow and/or disinterested to some was just keeping the big picture in mind. Maybe after a year of Spygate and Matt Walsh and perfect record pursuits, the Patriots are just trying to lie low for a while. They hit the snooze button a couple of times and are just getting out of bed

Last year from the time Spygate surfaced. It wore on them and us. The climb from zero to 80 is going to be a little more gradual this season.

Okay, let me sound like a Yankee fan for a minute. I really have difficulty believing that if this team is healthy, it’s just going to slog through this season. Yeah, they started out looking like breakfast with Amy Winehouse, but all Patriot fans care about is whether they’ll look like an evening with their quarterback’s girlfriend by the end.