TN. HIGH SCHOOL SENIORS FINISH CAREERS W/O A LOSS: Sure, ESPN has gone all ga-ga over the Patriots’ “Pursuit of Perfection”. But Tom Brady & crew still have a ways to go if they want to reach Maryville’s status of superiority:

The KNOXVILLE NEWS-SENTINEL has the story of Marvyille High School in Tennessee, who’s seniors just finished their four-year football careers without a single loss.The Rebels had clinched their 4th-straight Class 4A state title on Saturday with a 28-13 win over Maplewood. In each of their championship seasons, Maryville had raced through their schedules undefeated, compiling a 60-0 record in the past four years.

Some of the Rebel players still have trouble believing it. Maryville QB Brent Burnette trailed off as he spoke, “Sixty in a row is unreal. To never lose a high school football game….“But some of them know full well the fantastic feat they accomplished. WR/DB Stephen Shiver won’t soon forget: “You know it’ll keep hitting me later in life when I’m 30 or 40 and I pull out those four rings and they all say 15-0 on them.”

We wonder if the Maryville boys would harbor any ill will toward any other school trying to equal their amazing accomplishments, a la Mercury Morris.

WRITER ARGUES SHULA’S OWN TEAM DESERVES ASTERISK: Don Shula shouldn’t be tossing out talk of asterisks when his own 1972 team could have one:

Jim Litke of the ASSOCIATED PRESS argues that the former Miami Dolphins coach should speak for himself when it comes to criticizing New England’s possible perfect run.Before bumming it on South Beach, Shula was in charge of the Baltimore Colts. After the 1969 season, then-Dolphins owner Joe Robbie talked with Shula and convinced the coach to head to Miami.

However, the NFL didn’t like the discussion, and charged the Dolphins with tampering & gave their first-round draft pick to the Colts. Three seasons later, Shula had his Super Bowl ring & undefeated season.

As for critics calling out the Pats for running up the score, Litke points out that one of Miami’s wins during their perfect drive was a 52-0 thrashing of New England.Litke believes that if the Patriots’ “Spygate” scandal deserves a little star mark on a 19-0 record, then Shula’s move south should result in “17-0*”.

But it’s hard to see Litke’s assessment as more than just homerism for the Boston boys, after reading his thoughts on a Pats penalty last week.

During the 2nd quarter of the Indy-NE game, Pats tackle Matt Light leg-swiped Colts defender Dwight Freeney, resulting in a personal foul call.Litke proudly wrote, “It was one of those win-at-all-cost maneuvers that few people would have admired more than Belichick and Light’s teammates would have admired.”

We’re pretty sure Belichick & teammates wouldn’t admire getting pushed back 15 yards because of a dumb penalty.

SHULA: PATS’ PERFECT RECORD SHOULD HAVE AN ASTERISK Rather than scare out anything interestingly current, Gary Myers of the NEW YORK DAILY NEWS rouses the NFL’s most famous assisted-livers, the 1972 Dolphins, for a throwaway column featuring an embarrassingly embittered Don Shula.

Shula tells Myers that because of the Patriots’ illegal video activity record by the NFL earlier this season, if New England goes undefeated there should be an asterisk affixed to the mark.

The Steakhouse: “I guess you got the same thing as putting an asterisk by Barry Bonds’ home run record. I guess it will be noted that the Patriots were fined and a No.1 draft choice was taken away during that year of accomplishment.”

If the Patriots’ offense was so serious, serious enough to note it in the final NFL record book, then why wasn’t Bill Belichick suspended for one single second of NFL play?And unlike the Bonds’ affair, which still has more legs to it than Beyonce, the league has since closed the book on the investigation of the Patriots *nefarious* activities.

KANSAS HIGH SCHOOL TEAM SCORES 72 FIRST QTR POINTS: The ASSOCIATED PRESS reports that “the football team at Smith Center High School in Smith Center, Kansas, scored 72 points in the first quarter of a game last night which it won 86-0.”

The AP cites a SALINA (KS) JOURNAL report that said Smith Center forced six turnovers in the first quarter against Plainville as it recorded what is thought to be a record for points in a quarter by a high school team.MAX PREPS also notes that Smith Center has outscored its opponents 640-0 so far this season. And here’s some video of the squad.

The WICHITA EAGLE had a preview of the Smith Center-Plainville game yesterday, which was the first round of the Kansas high school playoffs. A quote from the Plainville coach before the game: “It would help our season if we could just score on them. We’re sitting at 5-4 and they might beat us by 70 points. But if we can score, it’s going to make our kids feel good about themselves.“They might score 70 points? Oops.