Favorite questions: Super Bowl teams not without their issues

New England begins its quest for an unprecedented third straight Super Bowl victory and fourth in five years without the two coordinators who helped Bill Belichick win the first three titles.

And that quest also will take place without linebacker Tedy Bruschi, the heart of the defense, who is sitting out the season after suffering a mild stroke.

Philadelphia goes to camp with Terrell Owens, the catalyst in its run to the Super Bowl, threatening to hold out all summer just a year after arriving and signing a big contract. Owens said Friday he will report to camp even though he is hinting that he would agree to a trade because of a contract dispute.

As NFL camps open over the next few days, New England and Philadelphia start as favorites to meet again in the Super Bowl. But this is an era of uncertainty, and even two teams that have been the NFL's most consistent in the last four years have their problems.

"Each year is its own entity," says Belichick, who has put himself in a class with — dare we say it — Vince Lombardi with his success in New England the past four years.

"There are new people and there are changes every year. You have to build and rebuild your team. Every team in the league is going through the same thing. We are part of it. It's unique."

That's why 31 other teams are opening camp with hopes of succeeding the Patriots as champion.

Well, not quite 31 — not San Francisco, Cleveland or Miami, which are starting over. Not Tennessee, which purged a half-dozen veterans from a highly successful run from 1999-2004. And not a half-dozen or more teams that just don't have the players, including Washington, where Dan "The Fan" Snyder has made a mess of things since buying the team in 1999.

But others can think big, emboldened by the success of St. Louis, which went from 4-12 in 1998 to a title the next year, or Carolina, 1-15 in 2001, 7-9 the next year and NFC champion the next, losing the 2004 Super Bowl on (what else?) a last-second field goal by New England's Adam Vinatieri.

Even long-downtrodden Arizona, emboldened by some success in Dennis Green's first year as coach, has hopes of winning the very ordinary NFC West.

There are the usual big changes, including the trade of Randy Moss by Minnesota to Oakland after seven turbulent seasons with the Vikings where — like Owens in San Francisco and then Philadelphia — his play was outstanding, but he often was a locker room distraction.