ESPN.com - Bill Cowher believes even if the Indianapolis Colts win the Super Bowl on Sunday, the New England Patriots should be considered the best team of the past decade and scoffed at the idea the Spygate scandal had any impact. The debate about the best team of the aughts includes three teams. Only the Patriots and Cowher’s former team, the Pittsburgh Steelers, won multiple championships. The Colts would win their second with a win over the New Orleans Saints. “I think the decade still has to go to New England,” Cowher said Tuesday at a CBS Sports news conference to preview the Super Bowl. “But the Pittsburgh Steelers went to a lot of championship games, won two Super Bowls. The Colts I’m not so sure within the last five years they haven’t been the most consistent football team. But you go back to the body of work and the consistency, and I think New England clearly is above everybody else. They never had that one down year. They’ve been on the brink from when they first won in 2001 until this past year they were in the playoffs. They’ve been the most consistent team.”… Cowher gushed about Patriots coach Bill Belichick, citing him as influential to philosophies Cowher applied to the Steelers… “The humility that they won with, that’s what set them apart,” Cowher said. “I learned a lot from their ability to respect an opponent every week, to not get caught up with it. I remember taking a lot from the way the New England Patriots handled success. To me, they epitomize that. How you handle success and not get caught up in it makes them role models.”

Well there you have it, if the coach of one of the most successful teams of the decade comes out and says that the Patriots are the best team of the last ten years then it must be true, right? Especially if said coaches team is part of the debate. Bill Cowher has always been someone I respect. He just seems like a no nonsense kind of guy that always has a plan and will execute regardless of the talent surrounding him. He was always a menace on the opposing side lines but seeing him in the studio you really get an understanding of how good he really was at his job. It’s not easy for a coach to cross over to the other side of the camera, but Cowher has done it fabulously.

Anyways, onto the Patriots. Is it really even an argument? In my opinion, the only thing that matters is championships. The Patriots have three, the Steelers have two, and at the most, the Colts have two. Three > two, therefore, the Patriots are the clear winners. The only thing that could happen to sway me from this argument is if during the seven years that the Patriots weren’t winning Super Bowls they sucked nuts. This was not the case as I’m sure you all know. They won the division seven times, made it to another Super Bowl in 2007, should have made it to one in 2006, and had also put up one of the best seasons in NFL history. Sure, the Colts may have a few more regular season wins and can make a strong argument for the quarter back of the decade, but team, I don’t think so.

- Chris