Don Larsen. The 1972 Miami Dolphins. Nadia Comaneci.

The Mount Rushmore of sports perfection.

And for the past couple of weeks, Boston has been busily erecting the scaffolding, preparing to add the New England Patriots to this monument of historic sports achievement.

For after all the scandals and all the controversies, the 18-0 Patriots took the lead in the 4th quarter of the Super Bowl, only 2 minutes and 42 seconds away from attaining what no one believed possible in this era of salary caps and parity.

The perfect season.

And not just any perfect season. 19-0. Two more wins than the noisy Miami Dolphins of 1972. Four more wins than the forgotten Cleveland Browns of 1948.

This was a team with the best offense in NFL history. The best season a quarterback has ever had. They beat seven different playoff teams nine times. And with a fourth quarter drive for the ages, the Patriots appeared to have overcome a lackluster Super Bowl performance and a fearsome Giants rush.

But there was only one little problem. Over two minutes remained on the clock and Peyton Manning’s little brother was looking to make them pay.

And pay they did.

Yet even as the seconds slowly and agonizingly ticked away while Eli orchestrated the game-winning drive, the Patriots had their opportunities. A fourth-and-one. A dropped interception. A third-and-eleven with 45 seconds left and no timeouts remaining for the Giants.

But at the end of the day, the Patriots really shouldn’t blame their loss on any one single play. To suggest as Rodney Harrison did that Eli’s miraculous escape from a sack that would have made Archie Manning and Fran Tarkenton proud or the circus catch by David Tyree who momentarily embodied Lester Hayes and Lynn Swann were flukes misses the point.

No, the Patriots need take a hard look at themselves. While they said all the right things after the game, they said all the wrong things before and even during the game.

The Patriots organization brazenly applied for a trademark on the phrases ‘19-0′ and ‘19-0 The Perfect Season’ three days before they played the San Diego Chargers in the AFC championship game. On the Saturday before the Super Bowl, Patriots owner Robert Kraft jokingly told CBS announcer Jim Nantz, “We promised FOX we’d keep it close for a half.” And Patriots players, according to Amani Toomer, were inviting Giants players to their post-game parties during the game.

If there is one thing that athletes, always a superstitious lot, should have learned by now, never tempt the football gods.

And one also wonders if the Patriots, in their quest to annihilate the league, tired themselves out during the season. Certainly through the first 10 games of the season, the 2007 New England Patriots were the greatest team I’d ever seen. But in their myopic crusade to prove themselves the greatest team ever, to undermine any questions about Spygate, I wonder if the Patriots signed their own death warrant and simply ran out of steam.

Anyone who watched the Super Bowl could tell you that this was not the same team that crushed the Buffalo Bills 56-10 on the road in week 11.

So instead of building monuments to their perfection, instead of showing up the league when they are caught cheating, instead of inviting opposing teams to their coronation during the game, perhaps the Patriots should have done what won them three world championships in the past six years.

Shut up and win the game.