America’s largest unofficial national holiday took place yesterday. The New England Patriots faced off against the Seattle Seahawks in Super Bowl XLIX. I love the NFL so I was naturally excited for the game. I watched every minute of the game and couldn’t believe the finish. I know that most nerds don’t care about sports as much as I do. So, to help those of you who couldn’t care less about the Super Bowl but still want to participate in conversations about it, here is a breakdown of Super Bowl XLIX for nerds.
New England Patriots
The New England Patriots are the closet thing to a dynasty in the past 15 years. Dynasties have been fairly common in all of the major sports over the past decades. The Steelers were a football dynasty in the 70s, the Lakers and Celtics were basketball dynasties in the 80s and the Cowboys had a little dynasty of their own going through the 90s. In 2002 Tom Brady and the Patriots won their first Super Bowl. Now, 13 years later, they have won their fourth Super Bowl. That kind of excellence over an extended period of time makes them the closest thing to a dynasty we’ve seen in a while. At this point the Patriots are a lot like Marvel. Marvel keeps putting out great movie after great movie. Sure Marvel had some small missteps, so did the Patriots. But over all, the Patriots keep winning and could continue to do so for many more years.
Tom Brady
The biggest reason the Patriots could continue their winning ways is because of their quarterback: Tom Brady. Brady has now started in more Super Bowls than any other quarterback and has tied Joe Montana and Terry Bradshaw for the most Super Bowl wins by a quarterback. The conversation has already started about Brady’s place in the pantheon of great NFL quarterbacks. With his win yesterday, Brady has firmly implanted himself in the conversation as the greatest of all time. Joe Montana is the greatest quarterback I ever saw, but I can’t say that as confidently as I once did; Brady is that good. Think of the debate between Montana and Brady like the debate between Picard and Kirk. Both were tremendous captains and choosing one over the other is completely justifiable. However, if Brady wins another Super Bowl, it would be like Kirk protecting the Khitomer Conference and defeating the Borg.
The Ending
Most of your friends will probably be talking about the game’s ending. On the 1-yard line, down by four points, with less than a minute left, the Seahawks passed the ball. The pass was intercepted and the Seahawks lost the game. I am still completely baffled by this play. The Seahawks have one of the NFL’s best running backs, Marshawn Lynch, who probably could have scored the go-ahead touchdown. Instead, Lynch didn’t even touch the ball and the game ended on an amazing interception by Malcom Butler. The Seahawks choosing to throw the ball instead of running it would have been like Lando choosing a transport ship for his assault on the Death Star instead of the Millennium Falcon. The Falcon was the best shot for the Rebellion to defeat the Empire and Lynch running the ball was the best shot for the Seahawks to defeat the Patriots.
If I don’t have strong feelings toward either team in the Super Bowl I pretty much just want it to be a good game. Super Bowl XLIX definitely delivered an exciting game that literally came down to the final minute. Even if you only watched the Super Bowl to see the commercials for all the movies coming out this summer, hopefully this guide has given you enough to talk about around the water cooler.
What did you think of Super Bowl XLIX?
Leave a Comment