Vince Wilfork: 'To be a champ, you got to beat the champs'

The two teams advanced in vastly different manners Sunday, but in some ways, Patriots-Seahawks is the Super Bowl many people expected. Add Patriots defensive tackle Vince Wilfork to that list.

"I think you've got the best two teams playing in this game. I think from a staff standpoint, you can't ask for a better game than this," Wilfork said. He added, "To be a champ, you got to beat the champs."

The Seahawks are the first defending Super Bowl champion to get back to the Super Bowl since the Patriots themselves after the 2004 season. Of the previous nine winners (including that second '04 Patriots team), none had made it past the divisional round. The last Super Bowl winner to actually defeat the previous year's winner along the way to becoming the champs was the 2011 New York Giants, who defeated the Green Bay Packers in the divisional round a few weeks before upsetting the Patriots in the Super Bowl for the second time in four seasons.

Wilfork said the fact that the Patriots lost those two Super Bowls to the Giants won't be a factor in this game, at least for him.

"I won't think one time about being in the previous Super Bowls that I've been in. I've been in three and lost two and won one. It's different. Every season is different. Every team is different. My teammates are different. Coaches are different. Everything is different, so you really can't dwell over how many you won, how many you lost. It's all about now. To be a champ, you got to beat the champ, and that's our goal. That's the challenge for us, to be able to go in there and beat the champ, and I'm pretty sure their goal is to defend their Super Bowl. So it's going to be a good matchup."




(cbssports.com)