Well, well, what do we have here? The New England Patriots are 3-1 favorites on the Super Bowl XLIII futures market, just weeks after losing Super Bowl XLII to the New York Giants.

So the Pats are carrying heavy Super Bowl chalk for the second year in a row. The Giants proved what a lousy investment it can be to bet on the favorite; as brilliantly as New England played for most of the 2007 campaign, it’s a difficult journey to the championship, and the Pats had their share of “luck” to go 18-0.

However, let’s credit the NFL betting public (which is getting better informed all the time – then again, so are the sharps) for not putting too much weight in how the Patriots happened to finish the season 18-1. New England could just as easily have lost to the Giants in Week 17 and beaten them in New Orleans. But whither free agent Randy Moss in 2008?