Newspaper edition had Patriots losing
BOSTON (AP) — It wasn’t exactly “Dewey Defeats Truman,” but some Florida readers of The Boston Globe learned a different Super Bowl outcome than most on Monday morning.
Early editions of New England’s largest newspaper ran a front page suggesting the Patriots lost to the Atlanta Falcons on Sunday night, with a headline that read “A Bitter End” over a large image of star quarterback Tom Brady falling to his knees. The Falcons had a comfortable lead going into halftime, but the Patriots mounted a furious rally and won 34-28 in overtime for the franchise’s fifth championship.
It’s not clear how many readers received the incorrect front page. Globe officials didn’t respond to requests for comment Monday.
Boston-area editions ran the headline “A Win For The Ages” and showed a triumphant Brady holding up the championship trophy as confetti fell.
“When my husband saw that headline he absolutely bounced off the wall,” Mary Tivnan said of the front page they received in North Fort Myers, Fla.
The Brewster, Mass., couple, like many New Englanders, spend their winters in warmer climates. Tivnan said her husband, Frank Tivnan — a former Boston Herald political reporter and spokesman for the late Boston Mayor Kevin White — went out Monday afternoon to scrounge up more copies of the Globe, for posterity.
Globe subscriber M. Charles Bakst, a Rhode Islander also spending time in Fort Myers, Fla,, said he sympathized with the deadline pressures that likely caused the news outlet to fumble such a critical story for its readers.
Deadlines, especially on sports stories late at night, sometimes force journalists to write about outcomes and lay out pages before games are final. That lets news outlets publish quickly when games end.