Monday, January 21, 2019

It's time to let someone else represent the AFC in the Super Bowl

As a rule, I will not watch New England Patriots games unless the Evil Empire is in the Super Bowl. That said, I didn't see a single second of Sunday's overtime win over Kansas City, earning the Pats their 3rd straight AFC title.

I'm sorry, but the only ones who aren't suffering from Patriot Fatigue are the team's devoted fans in and outside of New England.

Since the 2000 season, six teams have represented the AFC in the Super Bowl:

New England (This will be their 9th trip in the Tom Brady-Bill Belichick-Robert Kraft era; record is 5-3).
Baltimore (2-0).
Oakland.
Denver.
Indianapolis.
Pittsburgh.

Kansas City has not been to the big game in nearly 40 years. Not since Super Bowl IV. Sunday was the closest they've been in that span. However, the corporate mentality of the NFL and its advertising partners in New York seems to be that the Super Bowl is all about which NFC team can beat New England, never mind anyone else that represents the AFC.

For the Los Angeles Rams, this will be their first trip since returning to California. When the team was in St. Louis, they reached the big dance twice in three years, with Baltimore's first of two titles in between. For those keeping score, "The Greatest Show on Turf", led by Kurt Warner, won a thriller over Tennessee, then lost to New England two years later.

Thus, the Rams will again have revenge on their minds when they go to Atlanta on February 3. Los Angeles can consider themselves fortunate for the referees being stupid enough to ignore a helmet-to-helmet pass interference penalty that should've been called late in the 4th quarter on Sunday, enabling them to force their game at New Orleans into overtime, and then win it.

In the case of the Chiefs and their phenom QB, Patrick Mahomes, I am reminded of a promo a pre-Stone Cold Steve Austin cut when he was in ECW in 1995, explaining why WCW gave up on him so soon. Austin did a brilliant, spot-on mimic of Dusty Rhodes in insinuating that WCW higher-ups, Rhodes included, felt Austin wasn't ready to be a main event star. We all know the rest of that story, of course.

The implication I get from New England winning yet again is that the NFL's power brokers, despite the fact that they had a money game right in front of them in Chiefs-Rams II after the two teams did their impersonation of a Big 12 college game on Monday Night Football, felt they couldn't let both Mahomes and the Rams' Jared Goff play on their biggest stage together. No, they think there's more money and drama in the NFL's pre-eminent drama queen, Tom Brady, continuing to play like a man possessed, and with Patriot owner Robert Kraft sending over cases of macaroni & cheese and whatever else he can come up with to influence the power brokers to see things his way, this nonsense will continue.

Brady is never going to be thought of as the greatest of all time in my eyes, not when his entire run has been tainted by questionable officiating in his favor, starting with the "Tuck Game" vs. Oakland 17 years ago. He was never great shakes at Michigan, and, remember, he was a 6th round pick back in 2000. That chip on his shoulder ain't an Eveready battery, and he ain't Robert Conrad, circa the 70's. Brady & the Patriots have hogged the post-season in the AFC, by hook & by crook, for far too long.

Take the hint, Tom. You've peaked. It's over. Take your lumps like you should in Atlanta, and walk away.

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