In victory, team leaves craziness to the fans

They don't have the long, carefree hair. They don't yell and scream or call themselves the idiots. And, even yesterday, at a joyous celebration to mark their amazing Super Bowl run, the New England Patriots maintained their Boy Scout behavior.

There were no crazy signs or bizarre dances. When a fan hurled a football to Tom Brady, he reluctantly tossed it back. The Patriots don't seem to care that the world considers them a little boring.

As crazed fans sprayed champagne from fourth-floor balconies, dumped confetti from roofs, and screamed almost to the point of tears, Brady bobbed his head a little to Bruce Springsteen's ''Glory Days." He proffered a shy smile and a polite wave, something in between a member of the royal family and Dwight D. Eisenhower.

As the parade proceeded along Tremont Street, the crowds thickened to a crush, and spectators hung out of windows and wildly gestured from rooftops. So Brady stepped it up a notch. His wave turned into a pumping three-finger salute.

Deion Branch, who was named MVP of Super Bowl XXXIX, wielded a hand-held video camera for most of the 90-minute route through downtown Boston, occasionally raising his hand in a victory salute.

''It makes no sense getting all juiced up," said Corey Dillon, who has shed his bad-boy reputation in his first year with New England.

The Patriots' 11 p.m. curfew during Super Bowl week and players' propensity to hole up in their hotel rooms, reviewing game footage or studying their playbooks while the Philadelphia Eagles were out nightclubbing, earned them a comparison to a mechanized, humorless New England version of the Yankees. The New York Times compared them to a corporate flag football team.

''That calmness is beneficial to our ballclub," explained Dillon, who ran for 1,635 yards this past season.

Yesterday morning, as the team pulled into the Prudential Center in buses with tinted windows, some players said that despite the public's goody-goody perception of them, they've been celebrating almost since the Super Bowl win Sunday, with little sleep.

Branch suggested that the reason for yesterday's reserve was not a dedication to football professionalism, but pure exhaustion.

Asked if teammates would let loose at the parade, Branch responded: ''The ones who are not tired, I guess."

If the players did little to break down their reserved, Puritan-like reputation, the fans more than made up for it. They tossed hats and jerseys at the players and waved all manner of handmade signs, including one inviting a certain quarterback for a roll in the hay. With painted faces and plastic horns, they jumped up and down, waving and yelling.

And then there were the Patriots cheerleaders, shaking their silver pompoms a bit awkwardly out the windows of a Duck Boat. At least it appeared to be them -- all that could be seen through the confetti were glittery tufts.

At the end of the parade, Brady offered brief remarks to reporters: ''You never get sick of the winning," he said. ''You never get sick of the fans."

And then he was gone.

Up and down the parade route, some spectators said the players' buttoned-down reputation was undeserved. The Patriots' demeanor reflects profound confidence, fans said, not aloofness.

''The other teams aren't used to winning the Super Bowl," said Stoughton resident Horace Cole, grasping a ''Patriots Rule" sign in front of the Hynes Convention Center.

Walpole resident Renea DeRocco wondered if players were being sensitive to their quarterback, whose grandmother died last week.

''They could have chilled in respect for Brady," said DeRocco, sporting a Troy Brown jersey and an eyebrow stud.

Others made no bones about their favorite team's subdued approach, calling it typical New England.

''That's the way we are," Lowell resident Dave Jones said. ''We get things done. Everybody has a job and they get it done."

Donovan Slack can be reached at dslack@globe.com.