What is with the logic-defying stranglehold that the AFC has held over the NFC for the past decade and a half. Not since the early stages of the first Clinton Administration has the NFC been able to claim statistical superiority. You are, Bill Parcells is so fond of saying, what you are. And by any sane yardstick (that is, all games after the exhibition season and before the Pro Bowl), the AFC has been better than the NFC.

It basically has put the wood to the NFC in both regular-season interconference games and the Super Bowl. Most wars are shorter than the AFCs period of dominance. By the time the tide turns, the Hundred Years War may wind up being shorter.ESPN, SI.com, John Clayton , every pro football gas-bag in the country has speculated about why. Better quarterbacks, smarter coaches, better-looking cheerleaders, better spy cameras . . . its all spec. TV gabber Cris Collinsworth says that it all has to do with the New England Patriots. Teams in the AFC know that the Patriots are the team they must catch up with, says Collinsworth. In the NFC, which team is the standard? Arizona ?Collinsworth may in the right church but the wrong pew when anyalyzing the AFCs dominance. The numbers, anyway, say that the Patriots are responsible for a huge chunk of the NFCs bed-wetting. Over the past six seasons New England has bended, folded and mutilated its NFC opponents. Even in the fall and early winter of 2008-09, when Tom Brady was spending Sunday afternoons getting fed grapes by Gisele Bundchen, the Pats still won three of four against NFC teams. Everyone always gives you the old cycle theory, said former New England linebacker Mike Vrabel, But 10 or 11 seasons . . . thats one long cycle.

So what gives here? NFC teams get the same number of draft choices, the same amount of TV money and can spend the same on salaries as AFC teams can. Yet year after year, they come up short. Is it the quarterbacks? Even die-hard Bears fans will have to admit that Peyton Manning and Philip Rivers are better than Jay Cutler. The QBs are so good in the AFC that Brady didnt even make it to the Pro Bowl in 2006.Is it the coaches? Bill Belichick against Wade Philips. Who would you back with your last $20 bill? Is it the overall talent? LaDainian Tomlinson, Ben Roethlisberger, Ray Lewis . . . who in the NFC matches up? Probably all of the above, and other factors not even mentioned.

As we look ahead to the 2009 season, NFC backers are faced with some sobering numbers: Three times in the last 14 seasons the conferences have finished at .500. Every other season, the AFC has had the edge. The AFC is so dominant that months before opending day Vegas oddsmakers give the NFC 7 points on any Super Bowl matchup that might develop. And as they say in the sports books on the Strip, never bet on a streak to end.