Super Bowl: Wes Welker shouldn’t feel so bad about dropped pass

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Patriots receiver Wes Welker feels bad about his dropped pass toward the end of Super Bowl XLVI on Sunday night -- really, really bad.

“It comes to the biggest moment of my life and I don’t come up with it,’ a devastated Welker said after New England’s 21-17 loss to the New York Giants. ‘It hit me right in the hands. I mean, it’s a play I never drop, I always make. The most critical situation and I let the team down.”

There’s no doubt it would have made life easier for the Patriots if Welker had held on to the 24-yard pass from Tom Brady to the New York 20-yard line with about four minutes remaining in the game and the Patriots clinging to a 17-15 lead.

But it wasn’t a perfect pass from Brady -- catchable, yes, but not perfect.

And it’s not like Welker dropped a pass that would have made the difference in the final score ... like former Dallas receiver Jackie Smith, who had a sure touchdown pass bounce off his chest in the end zone during Super Bowl XIII. The Cowboys wound up losing that game to the Pittsburgh Steelers, 35-31.

Plus, the Patriots still had ample opportunity to win the game following Welker’s mistake ... unlike the Buffalo Bills, who lost to the Giants in Super Bowl XXV after kicker Scott Norwood missed a 47-yard field goal on the final play of the game.

And if none of that makes Welker feel any better, he can take comfort in the fact that he won’t even be remembered as the biggest goat in Boston sports history. That distinction still -- and probably always will -- belongs to Bill Buckner.

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-- Chuck Schilken