Patriots coach Bill Belichick looks on as time winds down in last season’s Super Bowl loss.

The Providence Journal/ / Bob Breidenbach

One of Bill Belichick’s best traits as a coach is his ability to keep his players focused on the here and now, the game ahead of them, and not the past.

Every bit of that ability will come in handy in the coming weeks as the New England Patriots begin training camp and then the 2008 season.

When last we saw the Patriots in shoulder pads, they were on the losing end of one of the biggest upsets in Super Bowl history, with the Giants’ Eli Manning and David Tyree pulling off a never-to-be-duplicated pass and reception and the New England offensive line inexplicably falling apart at exactly the wrong time.

What was supposed to be a coronation — with the Pats becoming the first team to go undefeated in the NFL’s 16-game-schedule era and win the championship, thus putting an exclamation point on a dynasty — became a big question mark.

As in, what happened?

In the nearly six months since, all of the members of the Patriots, from Belichick on down, who were involved in the game have said that “it’s in the past” when asked about Super Bowl XLII.

Technically, it is.

But some things aren’t easily forgotten. The Patriots did lose the Super Bowl. It lives on in highlights, NFL Network specials, on the Internet. They’ll be asked about it, many of the players may privately relive it, wondering had one play or another gone differently, whether that would have tipped the balance.

Which is where Belichick’s prowess comes in. His biggest job will be ensuring that there is no Super Bowl hangover.

He’s been in this predicament before, albeit on the other side. After shocking the St. Louis Rams in Super Bowl XXXVI for the franchise’s first title, Belichick saw his team get a bit too absorbed with its success the following season, and the Patriots missed the playoffs and the chance to defend their crown.

But he righted the ship in 2003, and knew the right buttons to push to get a Patriots repeat in 2004.

And he succeeded in insulating his team last year against the onslaught of discussion over the early-September Spygate issue as well as the continual questions (which began in Week 3, believe it or not) about whether the Pats could complete the league’s first 16-0 regular season.

Somehow, he got every man on board with the notion of answering or deflecting the questions and then forgetting about them and not letting the enormity of an unblemished season overshadow their constant goal of winning one game at a time for 16 weeks.

That will be necessary again, at least in the opening days of training camp. The specter of the Super Bowl will be as present as the late-July humidity, as questions are asked about the team’s ability to truly put the game behind it.

The players will give the right answers, answers Belichick likely provides for them, but the real work will be done in the hallways and classrooms of Gillette Stadium, where the coaching staff will cull lessons from Super Bowl XLII, teach them and then close the book on it once and for all.

Super Bowl XLII, like bad yearbook photos, can’t be done over.

But it has become a memory. And can be improved upon.

smanza@projo.com