Why all the rage, Boston?

Let me just say this: It's a good thing I'm not one of those I-told-you-so kind of guys.

Because then I'd have to remind you that it is I who has remained steadfast in the belief that the Boston sports fandom (minus Celtic fans who are used to winning) acts like new money.

You know. No idea how to handle newfound success.

This comes, mostly, from a baseball team that won after an 0-for-86 drought and a football team whose former home stadium (Sullivan/Schaefer/Foxborough) had more names than the team had playoff wins. So we endured duckboats, geniuses and ketchup-stained socks.

And yet none of all the yahoos yahooing and goobers goobering was ever as bad as this, in the wake of Giants 21, Pats 17.

Among the seven stages of new money, sort of like the seven stages of grief, is to turn on your guys, sometimes quite venemously.

Did you know, for instance, that Bill Belichick is washed up and Tom Brady has lost his fastball?

This was all the rage Monday on Boston sports talk radio and, sadly, from the Lords Of The Laptop, who are supposed to know better. You kind of expect it from talk radio, where these people whose liquor cabinets are better stocked than their bookshelves prove the dangers of cheap vodka. But from the professionals?

Let's begin there.

This was from boston.com, the Web site of the Boston Globe. Someone named Eric Wilbur wrote this in a blog:

"The legend is dead, the prince has turned back into a frog, and...well, use whatever other cliché you want.

"A performance as bad as Tom Brady's in Super Bowl XLVI deserves a lead just as lame.

"Sorry, Tommy Boy, this one's on you. Your hideous performance led to the Giants' 21-17 Super Bowl title win. How embarrassing for your coach, your teammates, and your fans.

"But especially for you, boy wonder. … What happened to you? What an embarrassment for the Patriots organization and Bob Kraft. So now the Giants have taken Lombardi from you twice, and you haven't looked this bad in a playoff game since ... well, two weeks ago against the Ravens. Maybe that moment will actually hit you as you're whittling down water slides in South America looking like Prince Valiant this spring.

"The Patriots haven't won a title in seven years, but even worse, they're now turning into the Buffalo Bills, with the Giants being their Cowboy daddy. But, there you are, Tom. That's what you have become. Your legacy has been stamped, but you're turning your Joe Montana status into one of Jim Kelly."

OK. I think I've seen something dumber somewhere. Like maybe NASCAR. But the idea that Tom Brady, his three rings and status as a first ballot Hall of Famer has somehow morphed into Jim Kelly - or in this guy's view, not even Grace Kelly - is the height of new money/nouveau riche pouting that goes beyond the inexorable right to an opinion and right into Moronville.

I mean, really.

Think about this: Brady and Belichick came a few plays away from winning the Super Bowl with that team. THAT team. The one with 16 different defensive backs this season. The one, in this game, with a tight end on one leg. The Pats played with all the guts and toughness the 49ers did against the Giants a few weeks ago. I've never respected them more.

And to think I've railed against the whole Belichick "genius" thing. The guy really is. He almost won with THAT team.

Now he's an idiot.

And his quarterback "can't make big throws" anymore, doesn't have "that razor's edge" anymore. (All heard during the day Monday). You know what he doesn't have? Anything close to Nicks, Manningham or Cruz.

Maybe you can kill Belichick for his personnel moves. But what he did with that team this season is off the charts.

And memo to Giants fans: Pipe down. If Miles Austin makes a particular catch or any one of six fumbles in the past month falls into the wrong hands, we're guzzling Maalox today, not Dom P. Let's enjoy the greatest seven-week ride in the history of the franchise. But there's no killing the Patriots, who played big.

Besides, there's enough of that going around in their backyard.

It's what you expect from new money.

This is the opinion of Day sports columnist Mike DiMauro.