Tom Brady likely becomes a three-time Super Bowl loser
instead of Joe Montana 8.0.
Russell Wilson likely becomes the guy who beat Peyton
Manning and Brady in back-to-back Super Bowls instead of the guy who almost
did.
And America is not subjected to a lot of sanctimonious
jaw-flapping about answering their critics from the New England Patriots, a
shady lot who have fully earned the criticism.
Instead … well, instead, Pete Carroll made The Call.
And, no, not the slant down on the goal line with the clock
inside a minute, the ball inside the 2 and Marshawn Lynch waiting to take three
more cracks at the end zone.
That call cost the Seahawks the Super Bowl, and it was
inexplicable only outside the context of the Other Call. That would be the
gamble Carroll pulled off in the first half, with the Seahawks inside the 10
and six seconds left until Katy Perry and her dancing sharks.
Logic says you take the three points there and go to
halftime down 14-10. Instead, Carroll played to the inside straight, opting to
squeeze in one more shot at the end zone without time enough to kick the field
goal if it missed.
It didn’t.
Wilson found Chris Matthews for six, and the Seahawks went in tied
at 14-14 after being dominated for the entire half. And the table was set, not
to say the mindset, for what happened at the end.
You can’t definitively say pulling off the riverboat turn
once influenced Carroll to try it again with the game on his racquet. But it
for sure didn’t influence him not to
try it.
In retrospect, of course, it was the dumbest play call in
Super Bowl history, considering what was riding on it. When you have three
tries from the 2 with the guy who runs at the goal line better than anyone in
football, you run him at the goal line. Duh.
But, no. Wilson threw the slant, Malcolm Butler read it perfectly,
and a magnificent football game would forever be known for the magnificence of
Brady, who engineered two fourth-quarter drives that, as this is written,
already are being bronzed in Canton.
Down ten to the best defense in football, he took the
Patriots home not once but twice to deliver the Lombardi Trophy -- and, yes, it
really did remind you of how cold-blooded Montana was in the final drive
against the Bengals in his first Super Bowl. Now, like Montana, Brady belongs
to the ages, and to inarguable numbers.
Four Super Bowl
rings, same as Joe. Thirty-eight completions, a Super Bowl record. Twelve
career touchdown passes in a Super Bowl, another record. Greatest playoff
quarterback in NFL history, case closed.
In his fourth win, Brady went after the Seahawks a nick at
a time, throwing a lot and mostly underneath. The dink-and-dunk chewed up yards
and clock and prevented the Seahawks from getting to him even when they had a
clear shot. He got hit, but, in most cases, the ball was gone by the time he
did.
And then Pete Carroll handed him his legacy on a silver
platter, after Wilson led a valiant drive in the last two minutes that was
highlighted by yet another Roman Numeral Miracle – Jermaine Kearse catching a
bomb from Wilson while lying flat on his back.
It was David Tyree’s helmet catch all over again for the
Patriots, and then it was not. Brady had
his legacy, Bill Belichick tied Chuck Noll with four Super Bowl wins, and the
Patriots were almost certainly off the hook for Deflategate, because the NFL is
not going to do anything to mess with such historic business.
Expect Roger Goodell to eventually issue some fine
commissioner-speak about the Shield not finding anything “conclusive,” and
let’s move on, folks. Hey, how about that Tom Brady?
Well … yes.
How about him?
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