Move over Red Sox. The New York Football Giants are America’s sweethearts after upsetting the Evil Empire of Bill Belicheat’s New England Patriots.

And I couldn’t be happier.

Things weren’t looking good for the Patriots coming into the week. New England’s prima Donna quarterback had a bum leg. Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Ebel) wrote a letter to Commissioner Roger Goodell regarding his burning of the SpyGate tapes and the lax punishment he imposed on New England. Finally, the rumor mill became cluttered with talk of alleged evidence proving Belichick had spied on St. Louis’ practices before the Patriots’ first Super Bowl win.

After the dazzling comeback by Eli Manning, football fans are chastising New England for poor sportsmanship in the late stages of the game. With two seconds left in the game, Belichick and most of the Patriots team began exiting the field before Manning could make the game official. Referees had to hold play until the defense could find 11 men willing to come out on the field.

I understand that fielding a team and being present for the kneeling of the football is moot — its season was all but over — but mostly it’s a matter of respect. It’s part of athletics to acknowledge your opponent for playing a great game, let alone winning the N.F.L. championship. There’s nothing we hate more than a sore loser, which explains why the Patriots got Moss so easily since his value dropped after subpar seasons with Oakland and attitude problems that arose when he walked out of a Vikings game with two seconds left.

The other defense of Belichick I heard was that he didn’t want to deal with the crowds or the media. Oh, cry me a river! Maybe all that winning made him forget that the losing team doesn’t get to leave early.

How fitting it is for the Patriots to lose in the final minute of its “perfect season.” After spying on the lowly Jets, New England mercilessly ran the score up on pitiful defenses, as if to prove some sort of redundant point. Belichick again refused to acknowledge coaches after games. E.S.P.N. flooded its air-time with New England coverage to no one’s surprise. (After all, nearly 50 percent of its anchors are from New England.) The “Greatest Team Ever” and “19-0″ subtitles were first written after a Week 3 win over Buffalo. (As a sidenote, even if New England did go 19-0, it couldn’t light a torch for the ‘85 Bears or ‘89 49ers, the latter of which has better players at every position on the field other than o-line.) Along came the undeserving accolades, close wins over Baltimore and New York and an A.F.C. matchup against an injury-depleted San Diego team.

To top it all off, the Boston Globe began selling a paperback entitled 19-0: The Historic Championship Season of New England’s Unbeatable Team and the Boston Herald printed this conceited column:

Pats fans a cut above
Giants outclassed on the field and in the stands

New England Patriots [team stats] fans are smarter, classier and
healthier and own pricier homes than the riff-raff who root for the
New York Giants – and now we’ve got the research to back it up.

Some 62 percent of Pats fans living in the Boston area earned a
bachelor’s or postgraduate degree or have some higher-education
experience, compared to 59 percent of Giants fans, according to the
latest marketing data provided by the Nielsen Co., the TV ratings firm.

Likewise, 72 percent of Pats fans live in homes worth north of
$200,000, compared to 63 percent of Giants yahoos, the Nielsen data show.

That’s just for starters.

Pats fans consistently show better taste than their Gotham
counterparts, according to Nielsen.

We drink Amstel Light, not Bud Light. Giants fans slug back lots of
whiskey.

We are likely to read connoisseur magazines like Wine Spectator.
Gotham fans like to pig out on junk food like pretzels, chips and
nuts. They’re also less likely to favor organic food than other New Yorkers.

Giants tailgaters are conspicuous consumers who party off the backs of Land Rovers and showy BMW SUVs. Pats fans are more likely to tailgate off the back of an understated Lexus or a sturdy Volvo SUV.

When Pats revelers aren’t watching football, they’re hitting the slopes skiing or going for a sail. They’re also more likely to belong to country clubs.

When Giants fans aren’t booing Giants coach Tom Coughlin or punk quarterback Eli Manning in that New Jersey stadium they call home, they’re out practicing their tennis backhands in the backyard.

None of these marketing revelations came as a surprise to Mike Schuster, 45, who lives in the shadow of Gillette Stadium in Foxboro.

“Boston fans are much classier,” said Schuster, a real estate agent and software consultant who is heading out to Arizona for the Super Bowl. “Have you ever been to Yankee stadium? I mean, they boo their own players.”

“Bostonians, in general, are better educated,” Schuster added. “New Yorkers have to send their kids to Boston to educate them.”

It’s also worth noting that the Patriots are an equal opportunity
franchise, drawing more female fans than the competition. Nearly half of all Pats backers – about 43 percent – are women. In Giants country, just 31 percent of the fans are female.

Pats fans are also more Web savvy, some 63 percent have broadband Internet connection.

Of course, though we may hate to admit it, fans on both sides of the turf do have some similarities. The Nielsen data indicate that Pats and Giants fans are both likely to live in “affluent” suburbs or rural neighborhoods. They both buy “above average” amounts of beer, too, and they like to garden.

It responded the rest of America to say: Who reads wine magazines and why are they bragging about drinking Amstel Light? If anything, that’d be something I wouldn’t tell the world about.

I’m just glad I don’t have to give up professional football for a calendar year like I had said earlier in the season if the Patriots ran the tables.

If television has taught me anything, it’s that Karma is a bitch. Now, let’s hope that tomorrow, instead of a column, E.S.P.N. publishes a PDF of Bill Simmons’ letter of resignation.