| Wow! Nothing, and I mean, nothing, beats a great
Super Bowl finish, especially when more than 75 percent of the populace is expecting a
super blowout. Personally, I enjoyed the game last night, and I would’ve enjoyed it
either way, whether the Rams or Patriots won, because of the closeness of the game. I
don’t mind when the team I’m rooting for loses the Super Bowl if the game is
close. If they lose in exciting fashion, well, at least it was exciting.
So, in the end, we all know what happened to make things exciting. The Patriots drove
into field-goal position with time ticking away and Adam Vinatieri knocked the game-winner
through from 48 yards out as time expired.
During the postgame ceremony, Fox’s Terry Bradshaw announced the game MVP award in
pathetic, commercialized fashion. QB Tom Brady was given the keys to a new Cadillac
piece-of-junk SUV (all SUVs are pieces of junk, in my opinion…not just Cadillacs).
Brady seemed stunned, asking if that really was his car. Meanwhile, I was stunned,
asking if what I had just heard really happened. Brady won the MVP? Really? What did I
miss?
For the second year in a row, the MVP voters (whoever they may be) picked the wrong
guy. Last year, in the biggest kiss-and-make-up move in history, Ravens MLB Ray Lewis was
awarded the game MVP honors, after a week of pregame media tormenting, despite a fairly
average performance in the game as well as excellent performances by the other two Lewises
on the team, Jamal and Jermaine.
This season, Brady gets the honors based on the fact that he was the quarterback who
led his team 53 yards in 1:21 to the game-winning field-goal attempt. It had to be based
solely on that fact, because, truth be told, Brady didn’t do that much to impress me
the entire game aside from keeping his composure.
Certainly, Brady played well — I can’t deny that fact. But was it an MVP
performance? No. Was he a key reason the Patriots stunned the world and outdueled the
Rams? Definitely not. Sure, Brady didn’t throw an interception the whole game and he
did have a spectacular TD pass to David Patten. But completing 16-of-27 passes for 145
yards is far from an MVP performance.
At worst, Vinatieri deserved it for kicking the game-winner. But, in my opinion,
Vinatieri shouldn’t get it either. It should have gone to CB Ty Law.
Look at what Law did in this game, besides the fact that he returned an easy pick for a
47-yard touchdown in the second quarter. Law led the team in total tackles with eight,
followed by S Lawyer Milloy, who had seven. Milloy, Law, CB Otis Smith and the rest of the
secondary roughed up the Rams’ receivers continuously and created all three takeaways
for the Patriots (two interceptions and a fumble on a hit by S Antwan Harris on Rams WR
Ricky Proehl).
If the league kept with the Patriots’ mantra of "team" heading into this
game, then maybe it would have given the Patriots’ secondary the game MVP honors. But
the league would not do that, and really, it shouldn’t. But it should follow its own
voting tradition in games where no one stands out.
In Super Bowl XXXV, when Ray Lewis was awarded the game MVP honors, many of those who
defended the choice said it was a symbolic award given to the leader of the Ravens’
defense, which dominated the game.
Law should be driving that SUV today, not Brady. |
