The 15-3 New England Patriots or the 12-7 New York Giants?

Who to choose?

As New York Jets fans lick their wounds of an 8-8 season that ended in disaster, who will they be rooting for come Super Bowl Sunday?

The New England Patriots swept the Jets this season after head coach Rex Ryan was 2-2 over his first two seasons and 1-0 in postseason play.

In their Week 16 meeting with the Giants, the Jets were all but eliminated from playoff contention in that cross-town defeat.

Few Jet fans have the stomach to watch a New England squad that drew the 8-8 Denver Broncos in the divisional round. A dropped touchdown pass in the end zone and missed field goal by the Baltimore Ravens sent the Patriots to the Super Bowl for a seventh time and a fifth time under the Belichick/Brady partnership.

What both teams have in common are winning traditions.

The New York Giants are undefeated in NFC conference championship play with a record of 5-0 and three Super Bowl wins. The New England Patriots are 7-1 in AFC conference championship play with three Lombardi trophies.

For Tom Brady, winning is a state of mind.

No one wins like the Patriots.

The Patriots have gone 16-0, 11-5, 10-6, 14-2 and 13-3 over the last five seasons for a regular season record of 64-16. In same time span, the New York Giants went 10-6, 12-4, 8-8, 10-6 and 9-7 for a 49-31 regular season record with a 6-1 postseason record.

In the same time period, the New York Jets were 4-12, 9-7, 9-7, 11-5 and 8-8 for a regular season record of 41-39 and a postseason mark of 4-2 with two AFC conference championship defeats.

The difference between the Giants, Patriots and Jets is obvious.

When the Patriots and Giants play on the biggest of stages they prevail while the Jets are content with almost and "what if" scenarios.

Jets fans will see two great quarterbacks in a football rematch of the ages.

A Super Bowl win by Eli Manning and Tom Coughlin will punch their ticket to Canton, Ohio. A fourth ring for Bill Belichick and Brady means an elite status that places them in a league by themselves.

Descendants of the Bill Parcells coaching tree, Coughlin and Belichick have created the first true rivalry at a championship level like the Super Bowl.

While the Patriots have two huge tight ends in place of a legitimate running game, the Giants will provide two backs who can pound the football plus three speedsters in Hakeem Nicks, Mario Manningham and Victor Cruz who make that offense more diversified as well as dangerous anywhere on the field.

But at the end of the day, defense wins Super Bowls, and the Giants have a defense the Patriots lack.

In particular, the Giants have a unique ability to pressure and disrupt quarterbacks with five pass rushers in Chris Canty, Linval Joseph, Jason Pierre-Paul, Justin Tuck and Osi Umenyiora. Tom Brady has never faced a defensive line like the New York Giants in his entire career, and that is the difference in this rematch.

For when all is said and done, Tom Brady does not play well under pressure and getting sacked.

While that can be said of any quarterback, disrupting Brady's rhythm is the key to winning and beating the Patriots.

As Brady is now in the September of his career, the Patriots will need to keep the likes of Pierre-Paul, Tuck and Umenyiora in particular off the back of Tom Brady.

For all the preparation done for a game as big as this, one thing remains the same: To beat the New England Patriots is to beat Tom Brady.

Brady escaped defeat in the AFC Conference Championship against the Ravens due to a dropped football and missed field goal. Clearly the Ravens had them on the ropes and could not close.

The New York Giants know how to close.

As a Jet fan, my head as well as my heart tells me the New York Giants will defeat the New England Patriots come Super Bowl Sunday.

Am I happy about the participants?

Absolutely not.

As they say in Brooklyn, "It's wait til next year."