Patriots Did It for the Children

Take heart, Patriots fans, there's still someone out there who will wear your gear.

Of course, these little urchins don't know any better.

Tom Brady, here's your alternate universe.

The "championship" shirts and hats that the New England Patriots players were set to wear had they won the Super Bowl wound up yesterday on the backs of the poor children of Nicaragua.

In just minutes, one Pacific coast town was transformed into the last bastion of Pats pride south of Foxboro.

The Pats gear had been on the scene in Arizona on Super Bowl Sunday, ready to be donned by the New Englanders if they had a chance to enjoy a locker-room celebration of a 19-0 season.

But, thanks to quarterback Eli Manning and his New York Giants, the Patriot's undefeated season was not to be - and the boxes of championship shirts were never unpacked.

Instead, the T's - with "19-0" printed on them - were placed on pallets hours after the game and donated by the NFL to the World Vision charity. Yesterday, the group unloaded its first shipment.

It's a shame they won't get to read that fairytale book 19-0.

The gear is part of a sad, dreamed-up fantasyland that included the team trying to trademark the term "19-0," and "19-0: The Perfect Season" - three weeks before the Super Bowl was played.

Pats supporters tempted the jinx gods even further when staffers from the New York Times-owned Boston Globe authored a snoozer of a book, "19-0: The Historic Championship Season of New England's Unbeatable Patriots."

Meanwhile, father of the year Brady is idling away in Costa Rica while recovering from the beatdown administered by the Giants.