One of the Patriots was asked in the post-Super Bowl confetti cloud if they thought this might be Brady's favorite Super Bowl win (subtext: Deflategate). I wish I could remember who said it because it was a great line. Paraphrasing: "I think Brady thinks of his Super Bowls like his children. He loves them all."
That hasn't stopped the pigskin pundits and bobbleheads from ranking the five Super Bowl wins for the B&B Patriots. So, yeah, I guess I'm going to go there, too.
Let's take a trip down memory lane in chronological order…
Super Bowl 36
For years I had maintained that the best Star Wars movie was the first, "Episode IV: A New Hope." My logic was pretty simple. Without it, none of the other Star Wars movies exist. It's the ur Star Wars. In that same vein, I've held up 36 as the best Patriots Super Bowl. Maybe Belichick and Brady go on to win 38, 39, 49 and 51. Or maybe Belichick loses his job when the Patriots go 9-7-0 the following year.
And yes, you do love all your children but this was your first born after all.
It's easy to forget in the fog of time just how amazing this game was. The Patriots were 14-point underdogs to The Greatest Show on Turf. It came down to the last second and had a legitimate chance to be that first OT game in Super Bowl history. It gave us that first incredible moment in the Tom Brady GOAT narrative. The game-winning drive that wasn't supposed to happen. John Madden is in the booth telling Pat Summerall and the world that Brady should take a knee, run out the clock and take their chances in overtime. Instead, Brady does Brady - only we didn't know what that was at the time. Pocket presence, decision making, pinpoint accuracy. Win.
Adam Vinatieri's first championship-winning kick. Not that it ever got old.
And that Patriots defense with Richard Seymour, Mike Vrabel, Willie McGinest, Tedy Bruschi and Ty Law that would go on to become the foundation of the nascent New England dynasty. They played the top scoring offense in the NFL, dominated them physically and held them to just 17 points. They also put points on the scoreboard with Law's pick-6. Bill Belichick would never be Little Bill again. Instead, the gridiron cognoscenti would begin to note that Bill Parcells never won a Super Bowl without Bill Belichick by his side.
For Patriots fans, this was a transformative moment. Our team was no longer lovable losers at best, the laughingstock of the league at worst. Our team was the champions of the NFL. We shouldn't forget the context, either. Every moment of normalcy, every moment that celebrated the cultural zeitgeist of American culture that followed the tragedy of 9/11 came with a greater appreciation for all of those truths that we held to be self-evident, chief among them, the pursuit of happiness.
The U2 half-time performance and the names of the fallen.
We are all Patriots.
A new hope.
Super Bowl 38
A sneaky good Super Bowl; a defensive struggle that somehow wound up in a 32-29 final score.
The John Fox-led Panthers probably don't get enough respect as they were essentially one-hit wonders. Still, they gave the Patriots everything they could handle in yet another (almost) last second Adam Vinatieri game-winner.
Following their 9-7-0 Super Bowl 36 hangover season, 38 served to legitimize the Patriots of Belichick and Brady and brought the first whispers of "dynasty."
It's also one of those games that seems to work against the Patriots whenever there are discussions comparing the great franchises of different eras. The Carolina Panthers were just 11-5-0 in the regular season and had to win three playoff games (including a double-OT win over the No Longer Greatest Show on Turf) to reach the Super Bowl. Jake Delhomme had apparently signed a deal with the Devil that expired immediately after the final gun of Super Bowl 38. John Kasay's kickoff out of bounds after the Panthers tied the game gifted the Patriots with all the field position they needed to set up Vinatieri's game-winner. Another 3-point win. Seriously, is this what dynasties do?
This game is probably as famous for Janet Jackson's tit as it is for the plays made on the field.
Super Bowl 39
If you think the Falcons choked in SB51, let's use the Eagles literally gagging in SB39 for perspective. Philadelphia ran the slowest two-minute drill in NFL history in part because they had to wait for QB Donovan McNabb to finish dry heaving in the huddle between plays.
In retrospect, this Super Bowl win seems a workmanlike foregone conclusion despite the 24-21 final score. New England was coming off back to back 14-2-0 seasons that included a 21-game winning streak. They had throttled their alleged rivals the Colts and then beaten the 15-1-0 Steelers - the team that ended the winning streak - in Pittsburgh in convincing fashion on their way to the championship game. In effect, they had already beaten the second and third best teams in the NFL on their way to the Super Bowl. The Pats scuffled early on but ultimately got the job done.
If SB38 legitimized the Patriots, 39 certified New England as a dynasty.
Super Bowl 49
Back to Star Wars. A funny thing happened to my foursquare defense of Episode IV recently. First, there was "The Force Awakens" and I thought, well, that was pretty good. Definitely second best (still stubbornly hanging onto my now institutionalized opinion). A part of me knew Force was better but I had a sentimental attachment with IV and I wasn't yet prepared to let go. And then, "Rogue One." But I'm getting ahead of myself.
With SB49 you have to start with context. Deflategate was just two weeks old but the vilification of Brady and the Patriots was at a fever pitch. It wasn't just on the sports page, it was on the front page. It was on the 6:00pm network news. The misinformation on ball pressure - 11 of 12 footballs at -2.0 PSI - had local and national media asking everyone to feel their balls; can you tell the difference? Brady flat out accused of being a cheater. The Mona Lisa Vito press conference. Robert Kraft throwing down the gauntlet he would later, bitterly have to retrieve. A few pigskin pundits and bobbleheads suggested the Patriots should have to forfeit their spot in the Super Bowl to the benefit of their accusers, the Indianapolis Colts, who had been beaten 45-17 in the AFC Championship Game.
Meanwhile, the Seattle Seahawks of Pete Carroll, Russell Wilson and the Legion of Boom were the new darlings of the NFL. They were coming off a dominating win over Peyton Manning and the Broncos in Super Bowl 48. The Seahawks could be the first team to win back to back Super Bowls since the New England Patriots.
For a while it certainly looked like the Seahawks were on their way to establishing themselves as the team of the decade. They got to the 4th quarter with a 10-point lead. I don't know what the win probability for the Seahawks was at that point but I'm guessing it was in the low 90s.
Tom Brady then authored what we thought at the time was the greatest 4th quarter in Super Bowl history; two touchdown drives against the best defense (maybe one of the all-time great defenses) in the NFL, giving the Patriots a 28-24 lead.
And then Patriots fans glimpsed the nightmare of SB42 again as Jerome Kearse came up with a batted, juggled improbable catch that gave the Fox broadcast crew the opportunity to show the David Tyree "helmet catch" I'm sure they'd had cued up since the opening kickoff. Madness. Dont'a Hightower made a game-saving tackle to stop Marshawn Lynch but it seemed just a temporary reprieve. Why isn't Belichick calling a timeout? Russell Wilson is dropping back to pass - a quick slant - and Malcolm Butler intercepts the pass! The endgame for SB49 was just ridiculous and I mean that in the urban dictionary sense of the word.
Better than SB36? I found myself wavering. SB49 is probably one of the five best Super Bowls of all time. Would I put SB36 on that Top 5 list, too. Yes, of course I would. I'm a Patriots fan. Why are you even asking that question? In SB36, the Pats were the plucky underdog; as a fan, I was just happy to be there. After the Snow Bowl (aka The Tuck Rule Game) I was playing with house money. By SB49 the Patriots were villains, hated, reviled as cheaters; recidivist line steppers with Spygate and Deflategate on their rap sheet, not to forget the warm gatorade served up to visiting teams when they come to Foxborough. Redemption? Vindication?
For Pats fans, SB49 proved that Tom Brady wasn't a cheater, but it didn't put an end to Deflategate.
Super Bowl 51
Given the durability of the Spygate narrative, I think we're fooling ourselves in Patriots Nation if we think SB51 put an end to Deflategate. Not only will trolls continue to use it to throw shade at the Patriots, it will always be a subplot for the game itself and I don't think I'm going out on a limb here when I say this is a game that will be remembered for a very long time. The much anticipated awkward handshake between Roger Goodell and Brady was definitely worth the wait. I thought for a moment Goodell might go down to one knee and cry "Uncle!" to escape Brady's vise-like grip. Robert Kraft's "sweetest thing" comments after accepting the Lombardi Trophy was the very definition of a dish served cold.
As if Deflategate weren't enough of a back story, there was the revelation that Brady's mother was ill; she was and had been battling cancer for the previous 18 months. How many times over the years have we heard Tom Brady talk about his mom and dad? His family? His children are the constant stars of his social media posts. Suddenly that "What was your question?" moment after the AFC Championship when Brady turned to the camera to give a shout out the people closest to him had an added poignancy.
Everything that was important to Brady, everything that makes him who he is - his family and football - was on the line in Super Bowl 51.
Somehow, carrying that weight, trailing 28-3 with half the 3rd quarter gone, Brady stood tall. He would not be denied. It was 28-9 but there would be no surrender. That greatest 4th quarter ever from Super Bowl 49? Yeah, that would become the second best 4th quarter in Super Bowl history by the time Brady was done. He would complete 21 of 27 for 246 yards, leading the Patriots to a field goal, two TDs and those two critical 2-point conversions in the new greatest 4th quarter in Super Bowl history. 19 points to tie the game and send it to overtime.
When New England won the toss to start overtime, everyone on the planet knew it was over. Aliens hiding behind the Moon knew it. Four years from now, when the television broadcast from Super Bowl 51 reaches Alpha Centauri, the Alpha Centaurians will know it was over.
Five rings and four MVPs for Brady, five Super Bowl wins for Belichick as a head coach, a mind-boggling list of records set or tied including Brady's epic 43 of 62 for 466 passing yards. The first Super Bowl to go to overtime. The biggest comeback in Super Bowl history.
Back to Star Wars one last time: I now feel that "Rogue One" is the greatest Star Wars movie. There, I said it. Perhaps it helps that it's set before "A New Hope." (Let's call it Star Wars 3.5.) It's not just a great Star Wars movie; it's a great movie. It's heroic and tragic and elegiac. It has terrific action sequences and effects and yet it's very much a movie about the human element; what we value, what we care enough about to fight for, what we will do for the people we love.
Super Bowl 51 is the "Rogue One" of Super Bowls. It isn't just a great Patriots Super Bowl; it's a great Super Bowl. More than just a football game, Super Bowl 51 was about the people who play the game. They are sons and brothers and fathers. They play the game for each other and for their families. Some of them are cancer survivors and some of them have loved ones battling cancer. Throw in all the records, the Deflategate subtext, Brady ending the GOAT debate, the 25-point comeback and the first Super Bowl to go to overtime and it simply has to be the greatest Patriots Super Bowl and maybe, more probably than not, the greatest Super Bowl game ever.
So here's my list…
#1 - Super Bowl 51 - Greatest Super Bowl of All Time (so far).
#2 - Super Bowl 36 - The Legend of Tom Brady is Born.
#3 - Super Bowl 49 - The Butler Did It (sorry, couldn't help myself).
#4 - Super Bowl 38 - Two Out of Three Ain't Bad (yes, that's a Meat Loaf reference).
#5 - Super Bowl 39 - Three Out of Four Is Better.
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