White takes flight
Little man stars on the big stage
HOUSTON — Sometimes, in the big moment, it’s the littlest guy who comes up large. That’s what often-forgotten James White did last night at NRG Stadium in the most remarkable Super Bowl ever played.
It was the Patriots’ tiny thirddown back, who so often seemed to play second fiddle to the more explosive Dion Lewis the past two years, who turned around what was a blowout in the making by blowing up in the face of the Atlanta Falcons defense — scoring 20 points in the final quarter and a half, including a rollicking, rocking power run over the right side of Atlanta’s defense for a 2-yard touchdown and the first overtime playoff win in Super Bowl history.
That run was as hard-fought as the game itself, White refusing to be stopped as three Falcons closed around him — clawing, pulling, tearing at him but never able to stop him as he tumbled down on the goal line for the win.
Tom Brady was handed the game’s MVP, and understandably so, but he should do with it what he did with that ball on the game’s final play. He should lateral it to White, who earned the trophy with his legs, his hands and his spirit.
After taking a beating for half the game, Brady drove his team back from the biggest deficit in Super Bowl history, trailing 28-3 with 8:31 left in the third quarter. He threw for 466 yards and two scores and was marvelous, but it was the little man who brought home the bacon.
Regardless of the situation or the score, if there is one thing Bill Belichick’s Patriots have stood for all these years, it is resilience. They may be beaten from time to time, but they do not quit.
That is a lesson they have taught many opponents over the past 17 years. It’s a lesson they’ve taught many young kids throughout New England, too — kids like my son Jack, who last night thought he was a 10-year-old bad omen halfway through the game and began to hide his head. He was instructed to hold his chin up, as the Patriots would fight to the end.
That’s what White and the Patriots did, not only winning a football game and that record fifth Super Bowl championship for Brady and Belichick, but reminding us all to never give up, regardless of what you are facing or how long the odds seem.
White was the epitome of that, scoring what many thought was a meaningless touchdown with 2:06 left in the third quarter. When Stephen Gostkowski missed the PAT, shoulders sagged from Maine to the Connecticut border. It was another sign that this just wasn’t their night, the score now 28-9 with just over 17 minutes to play.
Then they got a field goal, and then they scored a touchdown and White barreled in for the two-point conversion on a direct snap — and it was suddenly a one-score game, 28-20, with 5:56 to go.
Atlanta’s offense, which was marvelous most of the game under the direction of Matt Ryan, quickly moved the ball to the Patriots 22yard line. Even a field goal would have forced the Pats to score two touchdowns, but instead they reeled backwards on three straight plays. Soon it was fourth-and-33 and they had to give the ball back to Brady and White, who took it upfield again.
Others were involved as well because football is the ultimate team game, but no one came up bigger than White. He caught a dart from Brady for 13 yards, and then another for 7 more, leaving the ball at the 1-yard line with a minute to play.
The tiny little man became Little Big Man then, slamming over right guard for another touchdown, leaving them needing two points to force the first overtime in Super Bowl history. Brady made a quick throw to Danny Amendola and he was in, the game was tied and the Falcons were reeling.
When the Patriots won the coin flip, you all knew what was coming. So did the Falcons, probably. Their goose was cooked and so was their defense, which would end up being on the field for 93 plays to 46 for the Patriots defense.
Fittingly, it was White who started it off with a 6-yard reception. Then Brady lacerated Atlanta’s secondary until he had driven to the Atlanta 25, knowing if they could score a touchdown the long struggle was over.
It was then that Brady went back to White, tossing the ball to him as he streaked around the right end for a 10-yard rush, his chance for heroics now only three plays away.
Certainly the Patriots benefitted greatly by a pass interference call that put ball at the 2-yard line that seemed, to be frank, pretty ill-timed. At that point this was a struggle that should be decided solely by the players, but pass interference was called.
So now what? Tom Brady knew what. Or at least who.
“James is everything you want in a teammate,” the four-time Super Bowl MVP said. “Dependable. Consistent. Durable. The best attitude. We just kept going to him. I think that speaks for itself.”
It spoke for everyone but most of all for the little man himself, who two years ago was left inactive for Super Bowl XLIX but was anything but last night. Brady tossed the ball to White as he ran right and turned toward the goal line, blockers and tacklers massed in front of him. He was hit at the 2 but pushed forward, was hit again by two more defenders at the 1 but refused to go sideways or relent.
The Little Big Man had gained the final 2 yards of a game in which he caught 14 passes for 110 yards and carried six times for 29, and scoring his third and final touchdown of the night at 11:02 of overtime. The clock stopping for good as he fell over the goal line, a big hero despite his small stature.
“If it was up to me, James was the MVP,” fellow back LeGarrette Blount said. “He did everything we needed and wanted him to do and he came through. He had the biggest game of his career in the biggest game.”
Indeed so, lying under a half ton of Falcons on the goal line for a moment, clutching the football that had just won the Super Bowl. It was the way you dream it when you’re 10, driving for the winning score when no one else quite thinks it possible, tumbling into the end zone to win it all.
“I saw a crease,” White said. “You have to find a way to make a play for your team at that point in the game. You just have to find a way in. It’s an amazing feeling.”
That feeling came the hard way. The Little Big Man carrying the load this time, two years after he’d been in street clothes when his teammates beat Seattle, showed us all what winners are all about.