Casual Football fans think Super Bowl Sunday is the most exciting day of the NFL season. But real fans know that day is conference championship Sunday.
(“NFL’s Historic Conference Championship Sunday,” The iPINIONS Journal, January 22, 2007)
Sure enough, this conference championship Sunday lived up to the hype. In fact, it might suffice to know that it took overtime for both games to settle scores.
NFC
The Los Angeles Rams defeated the New Orleans Saints 26-23 to win the first of these championship games, continuing one of the most improbable turnarounds in sports history.
The Rams are going to the Super Bowl. This is the same outfit that finished 4-12 in 2016, Jeff Fisher’s last season with the team, and has gone 24-8 under Sean McVay. (If you haven’t heard, he’s 32 years old and already has a coaching tree that has his assistants landing head-coaching gigs.)
(CBS News, January 20, 2019)
In other words, they’re already comparing McVay to legendary coaches like Mike Holmgren, Bill Parcells, and Marty Schottenheimer. Which is every bit as presumptuous as comparing the influence Barack Obama is having on politics to the influence Ronald Reagan has had.
In any event, I was more interested in seeing the Saints lose than in seeing the Rams win. And it hardly mattered that the “worst missed call in NFL history” (pass interference against the Rams near the goal line) robbed the Saints of certain victory.
I just wanted the Rams to avenge the loss the Saints handed my team, the Philadelphia Eagles. They played on January 13 for a berth to this championship.
As it happens, this sophomoric resentment had everything to do with my disappointment over the outcome of the second championship game.
AFC
F*cking Tom Brady!
Anyone familiar with my NFL commentaries knows that I think the Patriots are cheaters who too often prosper. This explains the unbridled relish I displayed on the rare occasions when they got their comeuppance. For example, I refer you to “Giants Stomp Patriots to Win Super Bowl XLVI 21-17,” February 6, 2012, and “NFL Sacks Brady as Court Reinstates Deflategate Suspension,” April 27, 2017.
I hasten to note that I am not alone in my visceral disdain for Brady and the Patriots. Nothing demonstrates this quite like The New York Post greeting their win on Monday with a front page featuring a picture of a triumphant Brady facing this bold headline:
Public Enemy No. 1
Therefore, to say I wanted the Chiefs to win would be the understatement of the season. Unfortunately, those damned “Deflategate” cheaters prospered … again:
Tom Brady added another chapter to his Hall of Fame legacy Sunday night, leading the New England Patriots to a dramatic 37-31 overtime victory over the Kansas City Chiefs. …
The Patriots advanced to their ninth Super Bowl with Brady at quarterback and Bill Belichick as the coach and their 11th in franchise history, extending their NFL-record mark. Brady, 41, will also break his own record as the oldest quarterback to start a Super Bowl.
(FOX News, January 20, 2019)
Truth be told, just as I did last year, I couldn’t bear to watch the end of this game. I had no doubt about the outcome, especially after the Patriots won the overtime coin toss.
I switched to C-SPAN and watched Brian Lamb interview Patricia Miller about her book, Bringing Down the Colonel: A Sex Scandal of the Gilded Age, and the Powerless Woman Who Took On Washington. Much to my delight, watching Miller regale viewers with tales about 19th century sexual politics turned out to be almost as riveting as I imagine watching Brady thrill fans with that game-winning drive was.
It just so happened that I switched to Alpine Skiing to avoid watching the Patriots march to last year’s AFC championship and a berth to Super Bowl LII. Therefore, it is a noteworthy coincidence that, after watching Lamb and Miller, I watched Lindsey Vonn effectively cede her reign as Alpine queen to Mikaela Shiffrin, citing lingering injuries that make it too difficult to compete. But I digress …
Meanwhile, Brady’s reflexive celebrations were such that he missed the customary midfield handshake with the Chiefs’ quarterback, Patrick Mahomes. But it speaks volumes that he held off locker-room celebrations with his teammates to visit the Chiefs’ locker room. He wanted to make a point of shaking hands and sharing words of wisdom with the 23-year-old Mahomes.
In doing so, Brady showed the kind of sportsmanship I fear will retire (from all professional sports) when he finally does. But young athletes like Mahomes would do well to emulate him – not just on the field but off it too, in this and other ways (e.g., his monastic dedication to health and fitness).
Super Bowl LIII
Needless to say, I am rooting for the Rams to win. I am conflicted, however. Because, as a middle-aged man, I wouldn’t mind seeing the old Patriots (led by 41-year-old quarterback Tom Brady and 66-year-old coach Bill Belichick) humble the young Rams (led by 24-year-old quarterback Jared Goff and 32-year-old coach Sean McVay).
It’s an indication of my abiding hatred for the Patriots that I am still reveling in the defeat my Eagles handed them in last year’s Super Bowl. Therefore, it would be like icing on the cake if the Rams hand them their second-consecutive defeat in the most important game, on the biggest stage in sports.
Go Rams!
Related commentaries:
NFL conference championships ’18…
Deflategate…
Championship Sunday…
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