South Florida Sun-Sentinel (Sunday)
America stuck in a grate divide
This Super Bowl guaranteed to make a lot of folks angrier
Let’s start with a disclaimer: I’m not angry. I’m one of the few, it seems, around the angriest Super Bowl of them all.
New Orleans is angry a pits-of-the-world officiating call kept them from being here. Kansas City is angry they didn’t get the ball in overtime in the AFC Championship game. St. Louis is angry its Rams are in Los Angeles in Atlanta in the Super Bowl.
Most everyone outside New England is angry the Patriots are back. That includes many Dolphins fans who not only have their next coach being held ransom until after this game, but thought they finished off the Patriots with the last-second, double-lateral “Miami Miracle” play.
The only lasting effect of that game became the Dolphins plummeting with the win from eight to 13th in the NFL draft. So they lost by winning. And here the Patriots are again. Life isn’t fair. More anger.
And, goofiest of all the annually goofy Super Bowl stories, quarterback Tom Brady is angry for people considering him old. Even if he is old. Especially if, at 41, he would become the oldest quarterback to win a Super Bowl since he did it at age 39.
After beating San Diego in the first round, Brady said with glaring self-pity, “Everybody thinks we suck.” While beating Kansas City to advance to the playoffs, receiver Julian Edelman mock-shouted at Brady, “You’re too old!”
And after beating Kansas City to advance to the Super Bowl, he chanted to the Boston crowd, “We’re still here!”
“A lot of people didn’t think we’d get here,’’ Brady said this week in Atlanta.
There’s a purpose here beyond the us-against-theworld mantra. Brady is somehow trying to leverage underdog mantle away from the Rams. Despite being favored by 2½ points and having won five Super Bowl titles.
“Usually, the favorite isn’t also the underdog,’’ Los Angeles Rams tackle Andrew Whitworth said.
Again: I’m not angry by the Patriots act. I admire what Brady and coach Bill Belichick have done. They’re the constant in the Patriots’ nine Super Bowl
appearances in 18 years.
Excellence is always interesting. And the Patriots remain excellent because they can bend however a game goes. High-tech? Retro-1970s?
“Bill’s shown you the spreadout schemes that they run with Tom Brady, but he also can take it back a few decades to groundand-pound because he coached that way, too,’’ former Patriots linebacker Tedy Bruschi said this week in Atlanta. “And he can almost re-define who you are as a team during the game depending on what’s needed.”
The Rams have more acrossthe-field talent than the Patriots, too. They have the NFL’s best defensive player in Aaron Donald, who outshines teammate and former Dolphins star Ndamukong Suh at defensive tackle. They have everyone’s top fantasy-draft pick in running back Todd Gurley, who wasn’t even needed in the NFC Championship Game thanks to their great offensive line.
The Rams have the hot, young coach in Sean McVay, who is half of Belichick’s 66 years. McVay, by the way, is the offensively inspired coach the Dolphins thought they got in Adam Gase. And McVay solved the Rams’ hot, young quarterback, Jared Goff, in the way Gase was supposed to Ryan Tannehill.
“We, not me,’’ McVay said this week in Atlanta. “We did it together.”
The Rams will have their chances, but you know how this ends. You’ve seen it for years in watching the Patriots. It ends with running back James White eluding the slower Rams linebackers on third down.
It ends with Belichick taking away the Patriots biggest threat in Gurley or Brandin Cooks. It ends with Patriots tight end Rob Gronkowski doing something Gronk-ian in what is expected to be his final game.
It ends with Brady being named the MVP.
It ends with Belichick in a forced smile.
It ends with Patriots defensive coach Brian Flores getting on a plane to South Florida and finally being announced as the next Dolphins coach.
And, yes, it ends Patriots 27, Rams 23.