...the NFL in particular -- so shamelessly pursue mediocrity and boast about it, celebrating "parity" as if it's the best thing that ever has happened.

A pack of average teams hovering around .500 until the regular-season finale, harboring realistic playoff hopes all the while, isn't a good thing. It's a sham at worst, the worst kind of false hope at best. Because many middling teams adopt foolish stances after their mediocre season is complete, and worse, use that misguided optimism to prey on gullible fans. The upshot is it simply enables the franchise to sell a bill of goods to folks who desperately want to believe an 8-8 team really is a Super Bowl contender.

Those packs of average teams love to preach that, but for a bad bounce here and a bad call there and one or two ill-timed penalties and injuries, they'd have been New England.

They say it over and over and over, even after the stretch loses elasticity, because the dynasty, New England, keeps winning over and over and over.

It'd be better for fans to use dynasties to unmask their hometown franchises, to weed out the excuses, to give them a target of what their franchise could and should look like for several years if it spends its time and money as wisely as do the Patriots.