And 5 it is for Patriots
Last night, the New England Patriots didn’t just win the Super Bowl, they made history. They did it the hard way — that’s for sure — but they did it. After two years of bad headlines, a prolonged legal battle between Tom Brady and the league, Brady’s four-game suspension to start the season and a whole lot of hot air, well ... it was no longer about redemption.
It was an opportunity to rub the football world’s face in it.
Petty, sure. But the 2015 Deflategate “scandal” grew so far beyond any reasonable scope — the punishment so disproportionate to the barely-there offense — that Patriots fans, and the team itself, can be forgiven for reveling in this victory over the Atlanta Falcons perhaps more than they have any of the team’s four previous Super Bowl wins.
Two years ago we thought the Patriots’ victory in Super Bowl XLIX would put to rest any talk of a tarnished franchise. But we underestimated how much sports fans resent the “overdog” — and how far the league was willing to go to squeeze its highest profile player.
We’re no longer naive enough to think this victory will cement the team’s place in the football firmament, or change the opinion of Brady haters. (Seriously, have they seen him talk about his parents? How can they hate this guy?) Because everything is about politics these days the critics may just forget about football and focus on kvetching about the team’s links to President Trump.
There won’t be much opportunity to marvel at, say, the early-season contributions of Brady backup Jimmy Garoppolo, or third-string quarterback Jacoby Brissett, or how, exactly, they won it all without Rob Gronkowski.
Then again reveling in their own success is not how the Patriots play things anyway. If the league allowed it, coach Bill Belichick would probably have these guys back on the practice field today. Outdoors.
Sorry, America. After this win there will still be no living with Patriots fans.
The Patriots are on to 2017 — with another ring on their fingers and another Lombardi Trophy in the case.