After Tom Brady engineered both game-tying and game-winning drives in last week's AFC Championship game, it was inevitable that the quarterback and his team's greatness would once again be cheapened by the general public.
At age 41, Brady racked up 348 yards through the air, in sub-20 degree temperature en route to a road victory in one of the toughest places to play in all of sports, Arrowhead Stadium. It was perhaps his finest playoff performance and accomplishment in a non-Super Bowl. How could we miss this?
Wait. We did. Instead of admiring and attempting to make sense of the all-time great's newest wonder, the conversation dominating social media and talk radio revolved around the NFL's overtime rules.
Current rules allow for each team to get a touch of the ball in overtime IF the first team to start with the ball doesn't score a touchdown. It's a tremendous improvement from the previous rules that would allow the first team with possession to win on a long field goal. In those circumstances, a kick returner could break off a nice return, and all it might take for a win is a pair of first downs and a 50-yard kick.
No, with today's rules, if you lose the coin toss and have to start OT on defense, there's plenty of hope for you. All you need to do is keep your opponent from moving 75 yards down the field and into the end zone. Hold your opponent to a field goal, and you'll get the ball with a chance to win the game.
The Chiefs' defense was well aware of this, and the stakes were very clear: get a stop, and you're in the Super Bowl. They failed.
Had the roles been reversed in this case, do you actually think this would become a topic the media would have hotly debated all week? If the Chiefs started OT with the ball, and America's sweetheart Patrick Mahomes led his team down the field for the game-winning six, would we actually care that the Patriots didn't get a chance on offense?
I don't think we would.
Because of their dominance, America looks at the Patriots differently than it looks at every other team. For the last 19 years, football fans have attempted to diminish their success any way they can. Spygate. Deflategate. The tuck rule. "Cheatriots" has become a popular (and unclever) Twitter diss from the haters.
On their way to building one of the greatest empires in sports history, the Patriots have left a trail of broken hearts, crushing the hopes and dreams of fans of teams across the NFL landscape. Since the start of the new millennium, they've ended the seasons of 16 different NFL franchises. That's half of the league.
Chances are, if you're reading this, the Patriots are your own personal Regina George (they're life-ruiners - they ruin people's lives!), without the nastiness, and your team has been victimized by their reign at one point or another. My Steelers have lost three separate AFC Championships to New England (2001, 2004 and 2017), so I never thought I'd one day be writing an article telling football fans that the Patriots are not worth the hate, and that we should instead be grateful for what the Patriots have brought to football, yet here we are.
I'm not going to attempt to protect other teams and athletes from hate. The Yankees have more money than any other Major League team. NBA super-teams like the Warriors and formerly the Miami Heat, have been built upon two or three star players opting not to compete against each other, and instead to join up and bully everybody else. This has created a significant competitive imbalance in the NBA, one that may be hurting the league's viewership. Some teams that are hated play the game dirtily or kick their opponents when they're down. Not the Patriots.
Despite what you might think, the Patriots are one of the least dirty teams in the NFL. Year in and year out, they're consistently one of the least penalized teams. No, that isn't because they are 'helped by the refs'; they are one of the most disciplined teams that refuses to push the boundaries of play on the field. The Patriots don't dare the refs to blow the whistle as other teams might; teams that commit borderline defensive or offensive holding nearly every play, because in actuality, if a penalty is assessed on every play, the game would become unwatchable. The Patriots don't draft players that commit dumb, late or cheap penalties. The organization has never been linked to bounties. Their players rarely engage in smack talk; in fact, that is the opposite of the Belichick way.Belichick is despised by fans and media members alike because of his crusty, un-warm persona. In press conferences, he's not a zany character and he doesn't provide much information to the press. He's often compared to the the evil emperor Palpatine in Star Wars. But when Gregg Popovich does the same? He's treated as a media darling.
Unlike the NBA and MLB teams mentioned, the Patriots are on an equal playing field with their counterparts. The construction of the sport disallows a team to become dominant by virtue of three players. The NFL's hard cap puts every team on an equal playing field, and the NFL makes it even more difficult to sustain success because first place teams play first place schedules.
Let me be clear: I'm not asking you to root for the Patriots in the Super Bowl. You're probably tired of them. You want to see something new, and that's understandable. You want to see a new story and see other players get their first taste of a championship. I get that.
What I am asking of you is to not allow your distaste towards the Patriots taint the lens you see the game through with an unhealthy and irrational bias because so far. I'm asking you to be thankful for what the Patriots have brought to the sport, because whether you like it or not, the Patriots have been good for football.
Whether the Patriots win or lose, they generally deliver ratings and exciting games. Last week's AFC Championship scored 53.9 million viewers. There is a big difference between the Patriots' dominance and the Warriors' dominance. The NBA Finals has had the same two teams playing in them for the last four years. This would be acceptable if the games were compelling. For the most part however, the Warriors' owned the Cavaliers 15-7 through the four series combined. Even the highly touted 2016 series that the Cavs won in 7 only featured one game decided by single-digits. The Patriots on the other hand, have produced very tight games in all of their Super Bowl appearances.
Since the start of the 2000 NFL season, there have been 18 Super Bowls played. The Patriots have played in eight of those games, and all eight have been extremely close, one-score games. If you were to rank the ten best Super Bowl games from between 2000-now, you'd probably have all eight of those Pats games in the top 10. Here's what my top 10 would (roughly) look like:
1) Super Bowl 42- Giants 17, Patriots 14 (Tyree catch)
2) Super Bowl 51- Patriots 34, Falcons 28 (28-3 comeback)
3) Super Bowl 49- Patriots 28, Seahawks 24 (Butler pick)
4) Super Bowl 43- Steelers 27, Cardinals 23 (Santonio Holmes catch)
5) Super Bowl 46- Giants 21, Patriots 17 (Manningham catch)
6) Super Bowl 36- Patriots 20, Rams 17 (Brady's first Super Bowl-winning drive)
7) Super Bowl 52- Eagles 41, Patriots 33 (Nick Foles!)
8) Super Bowl 38- Patriots 32, Panthers 29
9) Super Bowl 39- Patriots 24, Eagles 21
10) Super Bowl 47- Ravens 34, 49ers 31
Outside of the top 10 that I've listed, there's only been one other one-score game (Super Bowl 45; Packers 31, Steelers 25) during this stretch, a game that is easily interchangeable with no. 10 on our list. Almost every Patriots Super Bowl has had a defining moment that will stick in our minds for the rest of time. The Tyree catch. The Butler pick. The Manningham catch. The 28-3 comeback/Edelman catch. The Vinatieri kick vs. the greatest show on turf.
I honestly had completely forgotten that the difference in the Ravens-9ers game was just a field goal. The defining moment in that game? The power outage. Even some of the close games we've had that haven't featured the Patriots haven't been very memorable.
Out of the ten Super Bowls this millennium that haven't featured the Patriots, only three have been one-score games. The others? Well, they haven't been particularly pretty. Here are a few samples:
Super Bowl 50- Broncos 24, Panthers 10
Super Bowl 48- Seahawks 43, Broncos 8
Super Bowl 41- Colts 29, Rex Grossman 17
Super Bowl 40- Steelers 21, Seahawks 10
Super Bowl 37 (Gruden Bowl)- Buccaneers 48, Raiders 21
Super Bowl 35- Ravens 34, Giants 7
As much as you may say that you hate watching the Patriots, would you honestly choose to watch a replay of one of these lopsided games over one of the Brady classics? You probably wouldn't. At least I hope you wouldn't.
We are watching one of sports' greatest movies before our eyes. Depending on how you see it, it may be a drama, it may be a comedy, it may be a thriller, or it may be a horror film – but do yourself a favor and don't leave the theater until the credits roll. Because once it's over, you likely won't see anything like it again.
I have no idea who is going to win Super Bowl 53, but I can almost certainly bank on one thing: the Patriots will once again deliver a classic.
Follow me on Twitter @TheJackVita.
(Image via Boston.com)
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