At the start of the season, NFL Network called on a few members of the New England media, looking for them to opine on “America’s Team.” It was a topic for the network’s show Who Is?, which tries to determine who or what is No. 1 in a variety of football-related topics.

This episode would debate which team is America’s team — the Dallas Cowboys, the self-anointed national squad; the New Orleans Saints, whose fan base swelled in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina; the Green Bay Packers, who are owned by their followers; or the New England Patriots, winners of three championships since 2001.

Just days before the taping was to occur, however, the Patriots were accused of cheating — or, as it has become known, “Spygate.”

The camera crew was called off. A potential America’s Team quickly became America’s Most Vilified.

In the weeks since, members of the Patriots, from the front office to the coaching staff to the players, have been galvanized by the charge that their three Super Bowl titles have a black mark (Wade Phillips may claim he doesn’t use that term, but we will), and their resolve to win is stronger than ever.

The team’s fans, while at times wondering why Bill Belichick was so blatant with his video misdeeds, have supported the coach and the organization even more feverishly, traveling with the team to road games in what seems like record numbers.

That leaves only outsiders. Initially, nearly every media member, from former players to columnists to bloggers, jumped at the chance to attack Belichick and the Patriots; the coach was tagged “Belicheat.”

Just as quickly as the questions came — How far back did the cheating go? Did New England steal signals in its Super Bowl games against St. Louis, Carolina or Philadelphia? — more thinly-veiled accusations were made: Jacksonville’s Jack Del Rio saying his club had mysterious radio communication issues in a playoff game against the Pats, Pittsburgh receiver Hines Ward claimed New England had the Steelers’ signals in the 2001 AFC title game, Colts head coach Tony Dungy said it was a “sad day in the NFL” when commissioner Roger Goodell’s sanctions were handed down.

There were some defenders: impeccably coiffed former coach Jimmy Johnson said he was taught to tape signals early in his career and even copped to having low-level coaching assistants take playbooks out of trash cans; Bengals’ receiver Chad Johnson implied that the Pats win because of their team and coaching, not a video camera.

Yet whose voices were seemingly drowned out by the crowd, those who wanted nothing more than to see Belichick — the monotone, rarely smiling taskmaster that never gives the media what they want — and his club disparaged, their efforts branded with a dreaded asterisk.

But a funny thing has happened in the nearly two months since that has thwarted the best efforts of those who clamored for New England’s demise: the Patriots are winning.

They are winning by consistently outlandish margins, and winning so convincingly that a mere six weeks into this NFL season, the calls for Belichick’s head have largely been replaced by debates over whether New England can go 19-0.

After the Pats went into Dallas last week and dismantled the previously undefeated Cowboys, the most talented team the NFC has to offer, NBC analyst Chris Collinsworth said, “To be perfectly honest, I think this is the best team I’ve ever seen.”

They’re not media darlings, mind you. Belichick still insists with eye-rolling regularity that his team has a lot of warts to zap, and his players diligently do the same, lauding their opponents week after week, even the 0-6 Miami Dolphins. (Lest we forget — and if you have, Belichick will be happy to remind you — Miami smacked the Pats, 21-0, last year in Florida.)

Those kind of sound bites don’t make for must-see TV.

The quality of play New England has produced thus far does, however.

The Pats-Cowboys game, more the Drubbing in Dallas than the Duel in Dallas it had been hyped as, was a ratings bonanza, the most-watched regular-season football game in over 20 years.

Those numbers will probably rise two weeks hence, when New England and Indianapolis face off in a rematch of January’s AFC Championship game. They may never be America’s Team — this is a country that adores underdogs, after all — and the stain of the video-taping scandal will never fade completely, but with each passing win, the Patriots seem to become a little bit less of an enemy. And a little bit more of the team everyone wants to watch.

smanza@projo.com