Brady bunch
I have long had a aberrant dislike of Tom Brady, mostly resulting from my aversion of anything New England sports related. Yet when Brady chose Tampa as his and Giselle’s retirement home last summer I was intrigued to see if he was going to Florida to just collect one final big pay day ($50m) or was he really Michael Jordan with pads.
I am a Bears fan of course, but Brady’s new Tampa home is close to my other home in Sarasota, figuratively not geographically, and therefore I inherited the Buccaneers as my second team. Thus my hatred of Brady had somewhat diminished and I secretly was hoping he would do the improbable and win Superbowl 55 in Bucs own home stadium watched by a mixture of mask wearing fans and Covid-free cardboard cut-outs.
Well, last night Brady produced a near flawless display to win his 7th Super Bowl, one more than any team, and along with old muckers tight end Rob Gronkowski and wide receiver Antonio Brown dragged a middling team into become Superbowl champions.
I was torn because I love the way Patrick Mahomes and his Kansas City Chiefs plays the game, but just when you thought they’d pull themselves together and make their comeback on the game, it never came. They looked exhausted in another unprecedented sports season, and although Mahomes was making some crazy passes, mostly going backwards and heading to the ground, the Bucs defence were on a mission, no doubt driven by the storied Brady.
Mind you for a neutral it was probably the dullest one-sided Superbowl for an age, and my bed called before the end as I couldn’t quite face Brady’s beyond perfect teeth grinning as once again he lifted the Lombardi Trophy.
By that time the big moments of the adverts and half-time show had passed. Whilst the adverts were certainly toned down during this Pandemic, I quite enjoyed the half-time show although amonst my peer group it was roundly slated.
However I quite like The Weeknd and him arranging for Siouxsie and the Banshees to join him on the pitch was the highlight of the night!
Chicago Addick 
CA, the essence of this type of football is found along the line of scrimmage. If you control that, you win. Tampa Bay did so in both directions. Brady had all the time in the world to work his magic, while Mahomes immediately had guys in his face and was running for his life on virtually every snap of the ball, thus the plethora of desperate, unsuccessful passes. The kid is good, but not when he is not allowed to play his game. In addition, KC took far too many stupid penalties at critical points of the game.
So, if your line beats up on the opponent’s line in both directions and they in turn rack up unnecessary penalties, you are going to win the game. Brady was his normal, clinical, efficient self, but his big linemen truly won the game.
I’m understand “The Weeknd” is from Toronto. While I guess I’ve heard the name, I am not familiar with him or his “music” and was not impressed. I had a brief glance, but was actually loading the dishwasher, cleaning the kitchen and putting out the garbage at half time. 🙂
Meanwhile…………back at The Valley……………….
I’ve been a Buc’s fan since I took my son to the Raymond James stadium in 2010 when he was nine. I bought him all the gear so he was top to toe in red with the obligatory big sponge finger and when we sat down we were, of course, in the middle of the Pittsburg Steelers fans dressed in yellow & blue (all very friendly though!). The Buc’s capitulated thoroughly that day as they continued to do on a regular basis for the next decade, which made them the perfect NFL team for an Addick and which made Sunday night all the sweeter. The rebuild of the team in such a short time has been amazing and I thought their major success this season would just be reaching the playoffs, never dreaming they’d actually win. Maybe, just maybe, we’ll be looking at a similarly successful job done by LB at the end of the season and for Super Bowl read Play off final?