As tempting as it might be, this is not the time to bring up the D-word.

Not now. Not yet. We may not bring it up at all.

The New England Patriots have one piece of unfinished business with the Philadelphia Eagles on Feb. 6 at Alltel Stadium in Jacksonville, Fla.

If the Patriots win Super Bowl XXXIX, maybe then we can start thinking about them as one of those vanishing commodities in the NFL — a dynasty.

Right now, they’re on the verge, with two Super Bowl titles in the past three years. That, in itself, is quite an accomplishment.

The Denver Broncos won back-to-back Super Bowls — XXXII and XXXIII — in the 1997 and 1998 seasons, and the Dallas Cowboys won three of four with their Emmitt Smith-Troy Aikman-Michael Irvin teams of the early 1990s. But it’s no easy task stringing together multiple Super Bowl titles in the age of free agency, where players often seem more attracted by big contracts than the possibility of keeping a team together for a niche in the record book.

The 1996 Green Bay Packers were a pretty good team, but they couldn’t do it. They made it to back-to-back Super Bowls, but didn’t win the second time.

The 1999 St. Louis Rams looked as if they had it figured out when Kurt Warner, Marshall Faulk and Isaac Bruce roared to victory in Super Bowl XXXIV, but they got knocked out in the first round of playoffs the next year and were beaten by — who else? — the Patriots, when they went back the following year.

In the years in between, the Baltimore Ravens and Tampa Bay Buccaneers have soared to the top, then vanished from the Super Bowl scene.

What the Patriots have done has been impressive — a 20-17 victory over St. Louis in Super Bowl XXXVI three years ago, a 32-29 victory over Carolina last year and an NFL-record 21-game winning streak along the way. But they have their work cut out for them when they get to Jacksonville.

The NFC didn’t get a lot of respect this year. By most accounts — and the interconference records — the AFC had the superior talent, teams and coaching.

Some in the business thought the Eagles would have been no better than the third- or fourth- best team in the AFC. None of the speculation matters now. The season has come down to a winner-take-all, one-game match. The Patriots. Or the Eagles.

One intercepted pass, one lost fumble, one blown tackle. All it takes in a game of this high intensity is one little mistake to start even the best of teams down the slippery slope to defeat.

One more victory and perhaps we can consider the D-word. Perhaps then we can start thinking about the Patriots with some of the other multiple winners in the 39 years of Super Bowl history.

The Green Bay Packers won three of the last five NFL championship games before the NFL and AFL merged and won the first two Super Bowls in the 1960s.

The Pittsburgh Steelers won four Super Bowls in six years in the 1970s.

The San Francisco 49ers won four Super Bowls in nine years during the 1980s, including back-to-back titles in the 1988-89 seasons.

The Cowboys won two in a row with their 1992 and ’93 teams, then came back to make it three of four with their 1995 team.

And if the Eagles win? We put the D-word back on the shelf until another worthy candidate comes along.