In the chaotic aftermath of New England’s 13-3 win over the Rams on Sunday, Tom Brady was clearly the center of attention. Even though he had definitely not played his best game, and even though his teammate Julian Edelman was voted MVP of the Super Bowl, it seemed like virtually everyone was striving to get to Brady in the middle of the field at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta once the game had ended. He was greeted with hugs and kisses by his teammates, by his opponents, by Coach Belichick and even by Patriots owner Bob Kraft. No quarterback had ever won a Super Bowl at age 41, and everyone understands that the clock is ticking on Tom Brady’s football career. This could be Brady’s last turn on the Super Bowl stage, and the gravity of the moment seemed to weigh very heavily on the Patriots and their fans throughout the game. If Brady lost, he would be remembered as a Hall of Fame quarterback that lost his final two Super Bowls, but if he won he would forever be remembered as the quarterback with six Super Bowl rings.
Overall, Tom Brady has reached the Super Bowl nine times as the quarterback of the Patriots. That is a number that no quarterback will ever equal.
And the NFL is set up in such a way that it is extremely difficult for one team to stay on top. Losing teams get higher picks in the college draft, and the salary cap ensures that all teams have roughly the same amount of money to spend on players.
In addition, winning teams always play more difficult schedules the next year, and so it is just very, very hard to maintain a high level of success for an extended period of time.
But the Patriots have found a way to do it for nearly two decades, and the two constants have been quarterback Tom Brady and coach Bill Belichick.
In reality, this Super Bowl belonged to Bill Belichick far more than it did to Tom Brady. During the regular season the Rams were one of the highest scoring offenses in the league, but on Sunday evening they did not score a single touchdown. The only other Super Bowl team not to score a touchdown was the 1971 Dolphins.
So the truth is that the defense was the major reason why New England won the game, but now Tom Brady has his sixth Super Bowl ring, and nobody will ever be able to take that away from him.
Yes, it was kind of a boring game, but in the end that won’t be what we remember.
What we will remember is that this was the final Super Bowl victory for the greatest quarterback of all time.
According to Elias Sports Bureau, here are some of the new records that were established on Sunday…
Most games, winning team – 6, Tom Brady
Oldest starting QB, winning team – 41, Tom Brady
Most games, winning team, head coach – 6, Bill Belichick
Oldest head coach, winning team – 66, Bill Belichick
Fewest points, game, winning team – 13, New England
Fewest touchdowns, game, both teams – 1, New England (1) vs. L.A.Rams (0)
Fewest PATs, game, both teams – 1, New England (1) vs. L.A.Rams (0)
Most consecutive drives ending with a punt, game, team – 8, L.A.Rams
The Rams played really poorly on offense on Sunday, and a big reason for that was the fact that New England had far more fans at the game than L.A. did.
During the game deciding drive in the fourth quarter, chants of “Brady, Brady, Brady” reverberated throughout Mercedes-Benz Stadium…
United chants of “Brady, Brady, Brady” showered the field from the majority of the 70,000 fans at Mercedes-Benz Stadium during the defining drive of Super Bowl LIII on Sunday in Atlanta.
And the future Hall of Famer came through once again, guiding the New England Patriots to a 13-3 win against the Los Angeles Rams and snatching his record sixth Vince Lombardi trophy.
Of course things were very different across the rest of the country. After such an extended period of success, the Patriots have a lot of NFL fans that hate them, and this was reflected in public opinion polls that were taken before the game…
A recent Scott Rasmussen poll found that 61 percent of Americans will be cheering on the Rams on Sunday. Of that number, 51 percent said they did not care about Los Angeles but were just keen to see the Patriots lose.
“In Boston, we win a lot,” Dave Maccarone, a Patriots fan who attends three or four games a season, told Reuters. “The typical New England fan is spoiled and it’s easy to hate a fan like that.”
But whether you love them or you hate them, hopefully you can respect what Tom Brady has been able to accomplish. Going to nine Super Bowls and winning six of them is an incredible achievement, and there will never be another quarterback like him.
I have to admit that I have always liked the Rams, and I was a big fan of the “Greatest Show Of Turf” team that Tom Brady beat to win his first Super Bowl. At the time, I thought that Brady and the Patriots were a fluke. But this time around I was rooting for the Patriots, and I was very pleased that they won.
However, during the aftermath of the game my wife asked me why I didn’t seem happy. After all, my team had just won the Super Bowl and Tom Brady had just secured his place in football history forever.
Was it just because the “Patriots era” is ending that I was feeling quite melancholy, or was it something deeper than that?
As I sit here, to me it feels like this is the beginning of the end for an entire era in American history. Just like we will never see another quarterback like Tom Brady, many believe that we will never see another era of peace, prosperity and partying like the one that we have all been enjoying.
And just like the Patriots, America feels like it is on top of the world right now, but our clock is ticking too.
About the author: Michael Snyder is a nationally-syndicated writer, media personality and political activist. He is the author of four books including Get Prepared Now, The Beginning Of The End and Living A Life That Really Matters. His articles are originally published on The Economic Collapse Blog, End Of The American Dream and The Most Important News. From there, his articles are republished on dozens of other prominent websites all over the nation. If you would like to republish his articles, please feel free to do so. The more people that see this information the better, and we need to wake more people up while there is still time.