Routs to the Big Game
FALCONS, PATRIOTS CRUISE INTO SUPER BOWL
FOXBOROUGH – Tom Brady’s Deflategate revenge tour and Roger Goodell’s travel itinerary will finally wind up in the same place: Super Bowl LI in Houston. Brady now has a dream opportunity to make Goodell squirm, even if he insists that’s not part of his agenda. I asked Brady at his locker after the Patriots breezed to a 36-17 victory over the Steelers in the AFC Championship Game about getting the ultimate in-your-face – that’s the nice way of putting it — by making Goodell hand him the Super Bowl MVP Trophy in two weeks. “I have no animosity towards anybody. I’m a very loving person,” Brady told the Daily News. “I want to win for my family and I want to win for my teammates and my coaches and our fans.” Brady is a sincere person, but if he doesn’t want to say that he has a vendetta against Goodell, then his passion this season has made it clear that he has extra motivation. Goodell forced him to miss the first four games of the season, but now Brady will be playing in the last game of the year.
Unless Matt Ryan – who played at nearby Chestnut Hill for Boston College – and the Falcons put up a good fight, there could be more drama on the podium right after the game and at the Super Bowl MVP news conference the morning after the game than there is on the field. If the Patriots win, then Goodell will be handing the Lombardi Trophy to Patriots owner Robert Kraft with Brady and Bill Belichick by his side. Kraft’s friendship with Goodell was terminated when Brady was suspended. Goodell has no use for Belichick after he didn’t follow through on a promise to apologize for Spygate the morning after the penalties were handed out. Instead, Belichick repeatedly said, “We’re on to San Diego,” when he was asked. Belichick most likely has never invited Goodell to a barbecue at his vacation home in Nantucket.
The soap opera won’t be complete unless Brady wins the MVP award and Goodell has to hand over the trophy and pose for pictures.
Back in the day, Pete Rozelle dreaded the three times he had to turn over the Lombardi Trophy to his nemesis, Al Davis. This will be worse for Goodell. He completely alienated the fan base of his league’s most successful team. He based his suspension on the $5 million connect-the-dots investigation by Ted Wells that the league later admitted
in court provided no concrete evidence that Brady had anything to do with footballs being deflated in the 2014 AFC title game victory against the Colts.
The entire ordeal put a dent in Brady’s integrity and reputation and caused a lot of resentment towards Goodell among Brady’s family.
Goodell skipped the AFC title game Sunday to be in Atlanta for the NFC game. When Patriots radio analyst Scott Zolak held a “Where’s Roger?” sign out of his broadcast booth, it was shown on the video boards behind each of the end zones. The fans immediately picked up on it.
“Where is Roger? Where is Roger?” they chanted late in the third quarter after Brady had turned the game into a blowout.
If the NFC title game was in Atlanta or Anchorage or Australia, Goodell would have been there before he would have come to Foxborough. You can’t blame him. Why would he subject himself to such ridicule and hostility? He hasn’t been to a game at Gillette Stadium the last two years.
What did Brady think about the chant? “I didn’t hear it,” he said. “I didn’t hear anything. They were chanting all game.”
Of course he heard it. Brady will be playing in his seventh Super Bowl, extending his record for quarterbacks. John Elway played in five. He is 4-2, with his four victories coming by just 13 points and his two losses to the Giants coming by a total of seven points. He has a chance to get his fifth victory, which would jump him ahead of Terry Bradshaw and Joe Montana for the most Super Bowl wins. Belichick can also move one ahead of Chuck Noll for the most by a coach.
“It hasn’t sunk in yet,” Brady said. “It’s unbelievable. It’s pretty cool, pretty amazing.”
It was not much of a game Sunday. It has not been much of a playoff season so far, with only the Green Bay-Dallas game in the divisional round providing any real suspense.
Chris Hogan, who played football at Monmouth College after starting his college career playing lacrosse at Penn State, caught nine passes against the Steelers for a team playoff record 180 yards and two TDs. It was the typical Patriot Way: Brady makes a hero of a different teammate each week.
“It’s been a long journey, but I’ve worked really hard to get to this point and I just couldn’t be happier that I get to be a part of this team, this whole thing,” Hogan said.
As the fans chanted, “Brady, Brady, Brady,” throughout the game, he sliced up the Steelers defense. He had open receivers all over the field. He hit Hogan for a 16-yard score to give the Patriots an early 10-0 lead, then sent Dion Lewis into the line, took a pitch back from Lewis, and found Hogan in stride for a 34-yard TD and a 17-6 lead.
LeGarrette Blount made it 27-9 with a 1-yard run with 2:44 left in the third quarter and then Brady made it 33-9 just 1:09 later with a 10-yard TD pass to Julian Edelman.
Pittsburgh received an unwanted early wakeup call when the fire alarm went off at their hotel at 3:40 a.m. No, it was not Belichick – a 25-year-old man from East Boston was arrested. But then the Steelers played like they were asleep. Running back Le’Veon Bell injured his groin on the second play of the game, tried to continue playing, but felt he had no AT NRG STADIUM, HOUSTON SUNDAY, FEB. 5, 6:30 P.M. PATRIOTS BY 3; 58 burst. He had only six carries, none in the second half. y the middle of the fourth quarter, the “Where is Roger?” chant was all the Patriots fans had left to keep themselves entertained.
That chant is no longer necessary. Goodell will be in Houston. So will Brady. Now it’s up to Brady to make him hand over the trophies.
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