FRISCO, Texas -- It happens every year with teams that make the Super Bowl, as if the winners in the AFC and NFC have dialed up some new-fangled copyright to success.
You can imagine one of those late-night infomercial dudes screaming through the television, "Just copy what those teams did and you too will end up in a Super Bowl."
Except it's not that easy. This will be the eighth trip to the Super Bowl for Tom Brady, Bill Belichick and the New England Patriots. They do seem to have the copyright to success, so why haven't teams just copied what the Patriots do?