Patriots to get shot at history, revenge
Above all else, it will be a showdown with NFL commissioner Roger Goodell. Patriots-Falcons is going to be New England’s Super Bowl In Context, an opportunity to make Goodell swallow his shield and present Bob Kraft, Belichick, and Brady with their fifth Lombardi Trophy just a few months after Brady dropped his court appeals and served his heinous fourgame suspension.
“All of you in the stadium understand how big this win was,” Kraft said when it was over. “But we have to go to Houston and win one more.”
Brady added, “We’ll see if we can write the perfect ending in a couple of weeks.”
There’s nothing subtle about any of it. Goodell would not come to Foxborough after he dropped the Deflategate hammer on the Patriots. We have not seen him in two full years. But the commissioner won’t be able to avoid the fury of Kraft, Belichick, and Brady in Houston, where the Patriots are 3-point favorites to win their fifth Super Bowl of this century.
New England’s ticket to Houston was punched Sunday at Gillette when the Patriots (16-2) overwhelmed the estimable Steelers on a rainy, 40-degree night in front of 66,829 (1 million, according to the White House). Brady toyed with the Steelers’ defense, completing 32 of 42 passes for 384 yards (three touchdowns) and converting 11 of 17 third downs. The Patriots’ defense finally played an elite quarterback, and they smothered Ben Roethlisberger the same way they stuffed Brock Osweiler and Jared Goff.
We thought the Steelers would put up a fight. They did not. Here’s hoping the Steelers don’t blame it on dirty tricks. This was a simple beatdown.
It was New England’s record sixth consecutive appearance in the AFC Championship game, and the Patriots wheeled out all the big shots for the historic event. An hour before kickoff, a dapper Kraft prowled the sidelines and exchanged greetings and hugs with Jon Bon Jovi, Donnie Wahlberg, John Calipari, Steve Pagliuca, Tedy Bruschi, CBS boss Les Moonves, training guru Alex Guerrero, and anyone else with a remote connection to Patriot greatness, past or present.
The Steelers seemed perfectly spooked from the jump. They were coming off a raucous week in which star wideout Antonio Brown embarrassed his coach and franchise with a Facebook live video of coach Mike Tomlin calling the Patriots a pack of expletives.
That wasn’t all for the Steelers. On Friday, a Pittsburgh Post-Gazette sports columnist submitted that the Steelers might again be victims of “extra stuff” that goes on in New England. This was a clear reference to Spygate, Deflategate, Scott Zolak in Tomlin’s headset, and the proverbial warm drinks and trash cans that have been the bullet points of suspicions about Patriots dirty tricks though the years. This nonstop paranoia was emboldened in Steelerland Sunday morning when a 25-year-old guy from East Boston was arrested for pulling a fire alarm at the Steelers’ Logan Airport Hilton hotel headquarters at 3 a.m.
In the end, none of it mattered. The Patriots beat teams because they are more talented, smarter, and better coached. This game was no