Ranting

            The Super Bowl is over. The commercials are over. Katy Perry and Missy Elliot (and Lenny Kravitz) are done singing. All that was great. Tom Brady is still the greatest living American and his New England Patriots got their fourth Lombardi Trophy. Brady got his third MVP. I think it’s safe to say that his legacy is pretty safe; he’s one of the best. Ever. Bill Belichick got his fourth ring, tying him with Steelers legendary coach Chuck Knoll. I think it’s also safe to say that Rob Gronkowski is still drinking somewhere. Such a bro.  

As for the Seahawks, it was another great year, a second Super Bowl in a row, coming up a 1-yard Marshawn Lynch touchdown run short of back-to-back titles. All in all the game was one for the ages. Here’s where my problem is though, and I’ll admit I do this like everyone else. As a sports community and with the way social media society is, we like to diminish things that shouldn’t be diminished. For example, the Seahawks made it to back-to-back Super Bowls. That’s not easy to do in today’s professional sports world. We aren’t talking about the Steelers of the 70’s or the 49ers of the 80’s who would run through the NFL on their way to four championships each in their respective decades. That makes what the Patriots have done since winning their first of the four with Tom Brady and Bill Belichick all the more impressive. Shout out to them. 

With 26 seconds left in Super Bowl 49 and the ball on the 1-yard line, one timeout left and down 4, Seahawks head coach Pete Carroll had a decision to make, give the ball to Marshawn Lynch or fake it to Lynch and have quarterback Russell Wilson run it in. Neither one of those things happened. Instead, Wilson dropped back and tried to hit receiver Ricardo Lockette on a quick slant in the end-zone. Patriots corner Malcolm Butler made a great play on the ball and jumped underneath Lockette and made the interception. What we should do is acknowledge the fact that Butler, an undrafted rookie from West Alabama, made a GREAT defensive play. He saw what was coming and made the play of the game. It’s a shame that we are so quick to criticize something like how the Seahawks didn't give the ball to Marshawn Lynch and we spend the entire day after talking about that, then we say, “but let’s not forget to give credit to Butler for making a great play.” That should be the first thing we do. Should Seattle have given the ball to Beast Mode? Yes, but let that be the second thing we talk about on that.

Malcolm Butler's interception gave the Patriots their 4th Lombardi
Trophy since 2000. 

Another example are the Miami Heat. The Heat made it to four straight NBA Finals from 2010-2014. They went 2-2, winning their two titles back-to-back. That’s pretty impressive but yet we diminish the fact that they made it to four straight NBA Finals because they did not go 4-0. When the Patriots lost two of their Super Bowls, both to the Giants, everyone criticized Tom Brady and said he couldn’t win the big one again. Well, it turns out he can and he did and now his legacy is defined as maybe the best ever.

We need to sit back and enjoy what teams like the Patriots have done and what the Seahawks might be on the verge of doing. It’s not every day you see a dynasty in the making.