They have the gaudy rings and the rest of the swag that comes with being a Super Bowl champion.
The prism of history, however, isn't so kind.
Some years, the team that rampaged through the fall doesn't celebrate on a confetti-strewn field in winter, Lombardi Trophy thrust aloft in giddy celebration. For every '85 Bears and '72 Dolphins, there's a group whose grasp on the national imagination faded not long after the MVP's parade at Disney World.
Sure, everybody loves an underdog, but underdogs aren't born, they're made. Somewhere along the way, they tripped up before capturing the elusive "it" that carried them through the final Sunday of a six-month slog from training camp to triumph, a team of the year if not for the ages.