As I sat in the room watching the end of Super Bowl 51 between the New England Patriots and the Atlanta Falcons. I grinned a little bit. Everyone in the room with me was stunned at the outcome except me, because I knew the Patriots. I wasn’t cheering for them either, they didn’t need another Lombardi trophy to add to their collection, but even when they were down 28-3 with 17 minutes left I knew they had a small, but reasonable chance to come back. If any team in the history of the NFL could come back down 25 in the Super Bowl with 17 minutes left.
It wasn’t the second half comeback that was shocking; it was the first half of the game where the Atlanta Falcons were dominating New England while the Pats made a slew of mistakes that should have costed them the game.
The Patriots should have had the edge in that first half because their experience in the big game compared to Atlanta was enormous. Instead, it was New England who looked nervous and shaky in the intense Super Bowl atmosphere. League MVP Matt Ryan and the red-hot Falcon offense continued their streak of dominance jumping out to a 28-3 lead. Matt Ryan threw the ball with accuracy, Devonte Freeman was eating up yards running the ball, and Julio Jones did Julio Jones things with incredible catches. The Falcon defense were also creating sack turnovers including a devastating pick-six, the first pick-sick Tom Brady has thrown in seven Super Bowl starts.
So even though Tom Brady and the Patriots are the most resilient team in football and began coming back in the fourth quarter, the Atlanta Falcons still should have won this game. A missed extra point by the Patriots and failed onside kick attempt made New England’s chances worse and on their next drive, mistakes forced them to settle for a field goal.
With 28-12 4th quarter lead, the Falcons had a 98.7% chance of winning according to NumberFire, until the worse-case-scenario began when the Patriots forced a Matt Ryan fumble and recovered the ball, lowering it to a 94.6%. Out of all the teams in sports, the Patriots are the worst team to make a mistake like that against them because when they smell blood, they attack. New England would score a touchdown and get a two-point conversion on their signature trick play to James White.
So with the score now 28-20 Atlanta, the Falcons still had a chance to put the game away. That seemed to be the case when Julio Jones made an all-time Super Bowl catch which should been remembered in Super Bowl lore. Instead it became similar to Jermaine Kearse’s catch in the Super Bowl two years ago that was forgotten by Malcom Butler’s goal-line interception. With that catch, the Falcons were in Matt Bryant field-goal range and should have ran the ball on the next plays. First they ran the ball which drained the clock, but then another worst-case-scenario occurred when Matt Ryan took sack that became a 12 yard loss. And then they tried another passing play on 3rd-and-long which led to a holding penalty which led to them throwing an incomplete pass.
All of the sudden, Atlanta went from being in field goal range to seal the game to being forced to punt and giving Tom Brady a chance to tie the game with under four minutes to go, which is the NFL equivalent of giving Michael Jordan the ball down by two with a minute left in the NBA finals. If there was a sign that says the Patriots were going to win it would be the logic defying catch made by Julian Edelman, a circus catch which echoed the several famous Super Bowl catches that were against New England. Methodically, the Pats drove down the field to score another James White touchdown and pulled off yet another two-point conversion.
With that sequence of events, the New England Patriots made the biggest comeback in Super Bowl history and forced the first ever Super Bowl overtime. And when they won the coin-toss in overtime it was inevitable that they were going to score. Boom boom pow. Pitch to James White (who could’ve won co-MVP honors with Brady after scoring 3 touchdowns and a Super Bowl record 14 catches) who reached pass the goal-line, and the Patriots are Super Bowl champions…again.
For a year where sports heartbreak and collapse has become common, the Atlanta Falcons topped that by making a few crucial mental errors which costed them their first Super Bowl championship in franchise history. Sports history says that teams who suffer devastating losses like the Falcons takes years to recover from, so the team might as well begin the rebuilding process because it’s almost certain they won’t make it back to the Super Bowl next year.
So the constant sports debates of the past few years are all-but-complete:
Tom Brady? Greatest Quarterback ever? Greatest Player ever?
Bill Belichick? Greatest head coach in NFL history? Sports history?
The 21st Century Patriots? Greatest dynasty in NFL history? Sports history?
Maybe, likely, but it’s up to you quite frankly.
Of course there are a lot of critics who still dismiss them today. That’s because it’s easy to heavily dislike the New England Patriots because there is a 65% chance they took away your team’s chance to win a Super Bowl this century. Fans of any team in the AFC, especially in the AFC East division, have a reason to loathe the Patriots because it has been almost the same result every year. In fact the only AFC teams to win the Super Bowl since 2001 have been the Steelers, Colts, Ravens, and Broncos. And then there are the five NFC teams they beat to win in each of their five Super Bowls who have a gripe against them, including this writer. Those are 21 of the 31 teams who have a reason to hate New England. And they’ve been involved in a lot of controversial stories about accusations of “cheating”, some might be valid, others weren’t. Were they legitimate conspiracy theories or are they just bitter franchises trying to get back at them? Nevertheless those disputes should fade away in the future and simply be footnotes to their “greatness.”
There is however one undisputed fact: Love or hate them, envious or admire them, you have to admit that the New England Patriots organization from top-to-bottom is the best sports franchise we young adults have seen in our lifetimes. The NFL is not designed for great teams to last because of free-agency, the best college prospects going to the worst teams by record, and teams having superb preparation in playing against all teams. And the Patriots are still in Super Bowl contention nearly every year since 2001. The AFC representative in the Super Bowl over the last sixteen years has been either Brady or a few of his peers. The NFC meanwhile has had 13 different quarterbacks as their representative in the last sixteen Super Bowls because that conference is full of parity, and that includes current and future Hall-of-Famers Kurt Warner, Aaron Rodgers and Drew Brees.
Another thing they should be remembered is how this all began: Extreme Luck.
Head coach Bill Belichick was hired by owner Robert Kraft in 2000 after resigning from being the New York Jets head coach for one day. This was five years after being fired as head coach of the Cleveland Browns who made the move to Baltimore in 1995. Had Cleveland never moved or had he accepted the Jets job, Belichick probably would’ve never coached New England.
Legendary quarterback Tom Brady wasn’t supposed to become a hall-of-fame player in New England, let alone the starting quarterback. He was the 199th overall pick coming out of Michigan in the 2000 NFL draft and the sixth quarterback selected. For a quarterback drafted that low they would likely spend their entire career as a back-up while getting a few starts if they’re lucky. Tom Brady got his chance to be a starting quarterback for the Patriots in 2001 when established starter Drew Bledsoe was injured. To this day, outside of injuries and that one suspension, he has not relinquished it. Not only did Brady thrive in 2001, but the rest of the team did in making a run all the way to the Super Bowl. He also got some help in his first career playoff game with “The Tuck Rule”, a controversial call that has since been removed from the NFL rulebook but helped the Patriots get to the Super Bowl. And in that first Super Bowl where they were 14 point underdogs against the St. Louis Rams, he led a game winning drive that ended with an Adam Vinatieri field goal. Had not all of those things happen in that fateful year, and Brady might not be standing on that pedestal with his five rings and “GOAT” internet memes.
So while you may abhor the Patriots everlasting dynasty, remember that one day Tom Brady and Bill Belichick will be retired from football and the Patriots will be just another NFL team again. And that will be when we realize how truly special their success was. And as someone who’s a fan of a team that hasn’t won a championship in over half a century, I would gladly make a Fasutian deal with the devil for my team to get half of what New England has had. Not to mention that the Patriots have a good chance at winning it all...again.
