Brady, Cheffers Lead Buccaneers to Super Bowl LV Victory
In The Simpsons episode The Boys of Bummer, Bart has a mental breakdown after makes an error that costs his baseball team the little league championship. In order to assuage his feelings, the town stages a replay of the game, allowing Bart to make the catch he missed and be the hero, something he eventually does after 78 tries.
That’s basically what watching the second quarter of this year’s Super Bowl between the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the Kansas City Chiefs felt like at times. After Tampa Bay took the lead in the first quarter, multiple potentially momentum-changing big plays by Kansas City were reversed based on ticky-tacky fouls that even the announcers and halftime show presenters mentioned.
I’m a Steelers fan and I agreed with Boomer Esiason, that’s how bad the situation was.
At the end of the day, Tampa Bay did play a better game than Kansas City, and they were unable to make a comeback in the second half when the refs called fewer questionable penalties. The Chiefs were just unable to get any rhythm going, with a number of spectacular passes by quarterback Eric Andre Patrick Mahomes were dropped by wide receivers who should have had them and Tampa’s running game was much more effective.
Still, we saw the NFL’s past and future on the field in the biggest game, and even though Brady was the victor, Patrick Mahomes is clearly the greatest quarterback the league has ever seen. Brady didn’t even make it to the end of his own career as the Greatest of All Time before someone better showed up.
Tonight’s Super Bowl was probably the worst game of Mahomes’ career so far, but he still looked better than any quarterback I’ve ever seen. Even with an injured foot, he was mobile, throwing on the run, throwing side-armed as he was being tackled; at one point he threw a pass while he was horizontal to the ground which should have been a completion. He didn’t win this Super Bowl, but he’s going to win a bunch more in the future.
Still, Tom Brady really turned Tampa Bay around and proved he could win a Super Bowl without any of the cheating the New England Patriots are known for. And he did it while being old enough to collect Social Security benefits, which is impressive.
