Phoenix ? “I said, ‘It’s just another game,’ but the truth is I never felt more pressure before a game than that one.”

– Don Shula on Super Bowl VII

“It’s just another big game.”

-Bill Belichick

The imperfect team stalks the perfect season today. Forgive the salute to the greatest opening line in sports writing, that of a New York Daily News account of Don Larsen’s effort in the 1956 World Series that began: The imperfect man pitched the perfect game.

But the body of perfect work is so small in sports it merits comparing. Think about it. You might see a perfect game in baseball or bowling. You might score a perfect 10 through gymnastics or figure skating. A boxer like Rocky Marciano could have a perfect record.

But outside the 17-0 Dolphins and a few college seasons, isn’t that it? Can’t everything else be improved?

The fastest man in the world can always run faster. The strongest man will be passed someday by another lifting a pound heavier. Michael Jordan, considered the best basketball player ever, missed 26 game-ending shots.

Consider Bob Beamon’s long-jump record. It is so mythical no one has come within sight of it over four decades. But it’s not perfect. Someone, someday, could jump a millimeter longer. Beamon could have done so himself.

“I didn’t hit the takeoff exactly perfect, to tell the truth” he once said.

That’s why what should play out tonight in the Super Bowl is something to hold up and walk around and appraise from all angles. Perfection has been realized in pro football only once and not for 35 years.

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“In our perfect season, I said perfection wasn’t attainable. I said to reach for excellence.”

– Former UCLA basketball coach John Wooden

“We’ve never played a perfect game.”

– Bill Belchick

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Here’s today’s question: In a world where we spend so much time getting by, making do, covering ourselves, counting our blessings, accepting our shortcomings and just doing our best, how often do we glimpse perfection?

Forget sports. Diamonds are measured by their imperfections. There was a movie called Perfect, with Jamie Lee Curtis as an aerobic instructor and John Travolta as a snooping journalist, that most definitely wasn’t.

We can talk about perfect strangers, perfect moments, perfect timing, a perfect souffle and The Perfect Storm, where three deadly storms met up in the Atlantic and swept a New England fishing boat away from view and onto the bestseller’s list.

The truth is we’re often not ready for the perfect moment. When Nadia Comaneci actually scored a “10” at the 1976 Olympics, the scoreboard first showed 9.99 before defaulting to 1.00. It had no option for “10.” That idea had never been attained.

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“The defining number of perfection is the zero. 17-0. 19-0. Can you have a better winning percentage than 100 percent?”

– Mercury Morris, 1972 Dolphins running back.

“I don’t know, wouldn’t 19-0 be better than 17-0?”

– Mike Vrabel, New England linebacker

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The fascination with the Patriots today is the chance to witness the final bricks of something perfect being laid. That’s even knowing, by any critical measure, the ingredients aren’t perfect.

Like Larsen, who battled some personal demons, New England has flaws. Its linebackers are old. Its offensive tackles are vulnerable. It also is a team still engaged in a Spygate furor over stealing opponents’ signals and where a defensive leader, Rodney Harrison, was suspended for performance-enhancing drugs this season.

But that’s a different conversation than the end product being perfect. Is New England guaranteed this game? Of course not. New York has enough talent at all the proper positions where, if the stars align in the proper way, they can win.

If Giants quarterback Eli Manning keeps his playoff form. If its pass rushers get to Patriots quarterback Tom Brady. If receiver Plaxico Buress is healthy. If the Giants’ questionable secondary contains Randy Moss.

“In sports, there are always variables like luck and a bouncing ball that makes it, well, sports,” Brady said. “We’ve had some along the way. I’m sure we’ll need some (in the Super Bowl).”

Perfectly lucky? Maybe so. But the key aspect here is the perfect aspect. It should come into focus for the first time in 35 years.