Before Sunday’s Super Bowl game, many thought that the New England Patriots would walk all over the Atlanta Falcons. The Patriots have, conventional wisdom said, a better defense. What’s more, they have Tom Brady and Bill Belichick, perhaps the best QB and coach, respectively, in football history.
Well, in the first three quarters of the game, that prediction seemed to be way off. Falcons quarterback Matt Ryan sliced through the Patriots’ defense like a hot knife through butter. Before the Patriots seemed to realize they were playing in the biggest football game of the year, they were way, way behind. Eventually the Falcons led 28 to 3. At that moment, the Washington Post tweeted that the Falcons had a 91 percent chance of winning the game.
There was one thing wrong with those statistics: they didn’t take Brady’s superhuman qualities into account. In the fourth quarter, he stepped up his game. The Patriots came to within 28-20. Then came the final drive of the Patriots in regulation time. And a fantastic drive it was, resulting in a touchdown and a two-point conversion.
The Falcons knew at that moment that they were in trouble. For the first time ever, the Super Bowl had to be decided in overtime.
Of course, that’s when Brady is at his best. He led his team to a stunning touchdown, thereby winning the game. Never in history had any QB accomplished such a feat, but Brady did it brilliantly and calmly. Where normal human beings perform less well under pressure, that’s when Brady is at his best. And so he won his fifth Super Bowl ring, more than any quarterback in the history of the game.
It was a stunning victory. Fans had never seen anything like it before. Yes, the Falcons choked, but the real story of Super Bowl LI was Brady’s amazing performance when everybody thought he was out for the count. No football fan had ever seen such an amazing victory. It would’ve been epic if this was just a playoff game, but what makes Brady’s performance even more epic is that he did it on the biggest possible stage.
By doing so, Brady became the best quarterback to ever play the game. He is the game. And the best news? From the looks of it, he still has quite a few years more in him!
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