In what was clearly a case of the opening act somehow following the marquee performer, I chatted over on Extra Points at 4 p.m., relieving ace Chris Gasper, who started the festivities at 3 p.m. Click the replay button below to relive the pregame fun.

By Chad Finn, Globe Staff

INDIANAPOLIS -- I arrived in this unlikely host city skeptical of two things regarding Super Bowl XLVI: Indy's chances of rising to the occasion, and the Patriots' chances of departing with a fourth Lombardi Trophy.

Today marks my eighth day here, and I assure you there isn't a hint of Stockholm Syndrome in play when I tell you that Indianapolis has been such an outstanding site that another Super Bowl here would draw a consensus of applause from the media and fans who have checked in to this hospitable, easily navigated, sneaky-fun city this week.

Oh, and also, that other opinion has changed.

I believe -- I'm convinced -- the Patriots are going to win Super Bowl XLVI.

Tom Brady will match Joe Montana in jewelry and legacy. Bill Belichick will be regarded, even among his detractors, as a coaching equal to the man for whom the championship trophy is named. Kevin Faulk will ride a duckboat into retirement.

The Patriots, in the delirious aftermath, will admit that hell, yeah, revenge was a motive. They will damn well will be aware of this.

It will feel so familiar that you'll forget it's been seven years since the Patriots were last champions. You'll buy the t-shirt the next day, and a couple for the kids, too.

It will not be easy; it will be intense, the most difficult challenge they have faced all season. The Giants have been a force in the second half of the season. They beat the Patriots in Foxborough, without Hakeem Nicks and Ahmad Bradshaw. They beat arguably the best offense (Green Bay) and the best defense (San Francisco) on the road to get here.

The Giants are brash, physical, and formidable, and their strengths match up with the Patriots' perceived weaknesses, or at least their vulnerabilities. Seeing Ty Law and Mike Haynes roaming around the media festivities this week made a Patriots fan wish the current team had someone, anyone, near their equivalent. Maybe Raymond Clayborn is available?

But its sometimes been lost in the perpetual hype this week that the Giants have flaws, too. Real ones. While Bradshaw is a threat, the Giants struggle to run the ball because the offensive line is somewhere between patchwork and porous. Vince Wilfork could punish them the way he did the Ravens during his tour de force in the AFC Championship game.

When it's on, their pass rush masks mediocre linebackers and defensive backs. But if the rush is stagnated or delayed by a Patriots offensive line that has been waiting four years for redemption, or should Bill O'Brien use the screen game to use the Giants' aggressiveness against them, the Patriots are guaranteed to keep the scoreboard operators busy. The Giants were 25th in the league in points allowed (25) and 29th in passing yardage (255.1). As well as it has performed recently, this is not Lawrence Taylor's Oldsmobile.

Still, the Patriots cannot afford, against this justifiably confident opponent, to play an incomplete game. If BenJarvus Green-Ellis can't channel Corey Dillon '04, Antowain Smith '01, '03 will do just fine.

Patrick Chung and the group of fledgling defensive backs must unfailingly execute the game plan structured to contain Nicks, Victor Cruz, and Mario Manningham.

Rob Gronkowski must be more than a decoy, and yesterday's pool report that his limp was absent is beyond encouraging.

Stephen Gostkowski must make the right turn should he find himself at the fork in the road that leads in one direction to Norwood, and the other to Vinatieri.

And an improbable hero might be required. It will not be Chad Ochocinco, whom Brady hasn't trusted to be in the right place at the right time all season; why would he have that faith now? My hunch: Deion Branch. He's seized the Super Bowl stage before. The Giants may overlook him, but Brady never will.

Tom Brady cannot flinch at the sight of Jason Pierre-Paul bearing down and leave points on the field. And he won't. He is as insanely competitive as anyone I've seen since Michael Jordan, and I'd bet you he'd knock a season off his career for one victory today. It would only be appropriate for Brady to collect his fourth ring with a transcendent performance.

Seeing this team for the past eight days, I've come to truly believe in them. Their coach certainly does, and of course that's a fine indicator. But there's a ... a calm about this team, a quiet confidence, that is palpable when you talk to the Matt Lights and Jerod Mayos. It never wavered all week here in Indianapolis, and it's enough to make a skeptic start wondering what weaknesses they've detected in their opponent that they know they can expose. They know something.

A victory in Super Bowl XLVI will require discipline, talent, ferocity, and poise. A little luck wouldn't hurt, either. They are due some against this opponent, after all.

A lot must go right to beat the dangerous but flawed Giants today.

It will.

They've won their first three Lombardi Trophies by three. They'll win their fourth by four.

Patriots 28, Giants 24. We'll remember this edition of the Patriots, and the city in which the fourth championship was secured, with enduring fondness.

Originally wrote this in 2001, just as the Patriots were emerging but old friend Curtis Martin was habitually haunting them with those smooth cutback moves. Seems appropriate to repost today given all that's happening this weekend. Congrats, No. 28. It's all worked out beautifully for the Patriots, of course, but they never should have let you get away.

* * *

He is the Ghost of Patriots Past, a twice-a-season apparition. He is a reminder of those hopeful, happy days of the mid-'90s, when Drew Bledsoe was the Golden Boy QB, Terry Glenn suffered injuries instead of faked them, and visions of Super Bowl victories danced in our heads.

He's the one that got away from the Pats - and he's been getting away ever since.

Hello again, Curtis Martin. Back to haunt us once more, we presume?

Today, the New England Patriots, 6-5 and breathing again, take on the first-place, 7-3 New York Jets in what's shaping up to be a season-defining showdown. It's certain to be another compelling chapter in this rich, raucous rivalry.

And so, for the eighth time since Bill Parcells lured the beloved Pro Bowl running back away with a six-year, $36 million contract in February of '98, the Pats will have to confront Martin, their friend-turned-foe.

It's never easy. It's almost four full seasons later, and only now are the Pats recovering from Martin's devastating Foxboro farewell. It's not an exaggeration to say that this single transaction - by far Parcells's most productive trip to the grocery store - impacted the balance of power in the AFC East for a half-decade.

How has Martin tortured us? Let us count the ways.

First, the stat sheet: Martin has run for 100-plus yards in five of the seven games against New England. He has scored a touchdown in four of the seven. Considering that four of the teams' last five meetings have been decided by seven points or less, you could safely say he has been the difference. Naturally, Martin scored the lone touchdown in the Jets' 10-3 victory in Week 2 this season.

Then, the standings: In Martin's three years in New England, the Pats regularly beat up the Jets at recess and took their lunch money, winning five of six. Since he left, they are 1-6. In other words, the team that has Martin in its backfield is 11-2 in this suddenly lopsided rivalry.

All these numbers paint a pretty convincing case for his value. Yet Pats fans know Martin's worth can't be judged solely by columns of digits on a scoreboard page. There's no category for all that he means to a football team.

Martin is equal parts style and substance, a shifty, instinctive runner whose grace belies uncommon determination and grit. He is the rarest breed: a superstar whose humility and class appeal to Average Joe football fan.

Martin's name is in lights. It should be stitched across the breast of his shirt. It's no wonder you still see the occasional well-worn, red, white and blue "Martin 28" jersey in the Foxboro stands.

How it frustrates us that he's no longer wearing the jersey himself. He is missed, still.

I'll spare you the painful rehash of his utterly unnecessary departure. Just allow me to note that if Pats owner Bob Kraft hadn't insinuated Martin would have a short shelf-life, if Kraft hadn't spent much of the '97 season gloating about what cheap labor Martin was, if Kraft hadn't paid turnstiles Todd Rucci and Max Lane a combined $22 million before offering a single peso to Martin, if Kraft had remembered Parcells often called Martin one of his three favorite players he'd ever coached, well, then maybe the Pats wouldn't have had to spend three high draft picks in failed attempts to replace him.

Yeah, I'll spare you the painful rehash. Just let me note that Kraft bungled the situation with such complete and total incompetence, you have to believe Dan Duquette was giving him management tips.

Martin should have been a Patriot for life, which is why it's hard to fathom that he now has more service time as a Jet. This is Martin's seventh NFL season, his fourth in New York. He ran for 3,799 yards for the Pats; he's run for 4,938 for the Jets.

There's no use denying it: When his portrait hangs in the halls of Canton, the dominant colors will be green and white.

Martin's contributions considered, it's hardly a news flash that the green-and-white has dominated the rivalry. But perhaps, starting today, these new and improved Pats will show their true colors, and the balance of power will shift again.

For the first time since Martin left, there is a feeling of genuine hope in Foxboro, a sense that happy days are indeed here again. Maybe it's because of the exciting emergence of the new Golden Boy QB, Tom Brady, or perhaps it's because Antowain Smith has reminded us of the benefits of a powerful running game.

Probably, though, it's because Coach/No-Nonsense Head Honcho Bill Belichick has molded the team in his image. The Pats are tough and disciplined and they take no crap, and if you are skeptical, just watch Bryan Cox running around out there on a broken leg today, then try telling me these are still Pete Carroll's Patsies.

This, Pats fans, is a team you can root for. You even might say it's a team Martin would enjoy playing for.

By 4 p.m. this afternoon, we should have a pretty clear idea if we'll be rooting for them later into the winter than we had imagined. The Pats win today, and we can start wondering if doomed old Foxboro Stadium might get a stay of execution for at least one more game.

Before we dare speak of the playoffs, though, the Pats must do their part. They must exorcise those green-and-white demons. They must tackle a galloping ghost.

To beat the Jets, they must stop Curtis Martin.

And prove that four seasons after he moved on, they finally have, too.

By Chad Finn, Globe Staff

INDIANAPOLIS -- A couple of links to my stuff in the paper the the past few days that didn't get posted here. And, some wisdom from Cris Collinsworth, whose '81 Sports Illustrated cover is presented without comment.

* Some thoughts from Rodney Harrison -- who will be ubiquitous on Sunday's broadcast -- on why revenge will be a motive against the Giants.

I didn't use it in the column, but Collinsworth, who played in two Super Bowls with the Bengals (and lost both to the Niners) agreed with Harrison that revenge is a strong motivator.

"I can relate to that a little bit,'' Collinsworth said. "There were only four or five of us who were still around and I think that's fairly true of the Patriots, that there's probably 10 or 11 of them who played in Super Bowl 42. It's a new team. But for those guys, they'll never forget. Some of the guys who played in the '81 Super Bowl played really well in the '88 Super Bowl, and you could tell that there was a maturity level to it.

"I also think players who have been in Super Bowls, who have played in Super Bowls, have a distinct advantage. The first Super Bowl you play in, you're in the Super Bowl, and you're looking around and checking out the movie stars. I can still remember Diana Ross, who sang the National Anthem, walking in front of me, about this close, and we were like, 'Aw, maaaan.' I still joke with the 49ers guys that if she'd walked in front of your sideline, we'd have been up 20-0 at halftime. She completely destroyed us."

Collinsworth said the disappointment of losing a Super Bowl never truly fades.

"It was a great experience and I wouldn't trade it for anything, but the pain of losing two is almost twice as much. I'll tell you a story. I once asked Joe Gibbs, 'You won three and you lost one, how much time do you spend thinking about the one that you lost?' And he said, 'All I think about.' You expect to win, you expect that to happen. And when you lose, it's like someone takes a cup of cold water and dumps it over your head. Only, you never warm back up. I'm 53 years old, and I still think about it every day. Every day.''

* Many readers have asked as the season has progressed where Greg Dickerson been on the Celtics telecasts. As he discusses with great candor here, he was diagnosed with epilepsy after suffering a major seizure two days before Christmas and a lesser one two weeks ago before a game. He's back on the Celtics' sideline this week and plans to handle his usual workload the rest of the season.

* Finally, my column from Thursday's paper on Radio Row. Shaughnessy noted this today, but it was beyond bizarre to watch Tim Tebow and Joe Montana get out of the elevator at the same time yesterday, with one getting swarmed and the other nearly getting trampled. Good thing for Montana he's still fairly elusive at 55.

During our always super Friday chat, we discussed Gronk's chances of effectiveness Sunday, the Patriots' air of quiet confidence this week, and the usual media matters. (A Red Sox question or two also slipped past the filter.) Check in below to relive the fun.