A few last thoughts on a SUPER championship game last Sunday..

...before we move on to the Australian Footy season and the off-season, 12-month-per-year business that IS the NFL in the 21st century:

It really was a fantastic game. There were rarely moments when you weren't wondering, what's going to happen next? A defensive struggle in the beginning, but one that New England's "winning", belying the idea that Seattle's defense would shut them down...then a Patriot lead, then a great fifty second drive by Russell Wilson ending with a pass to the end zone with two seconds to go in the half (foreshadowing the end of the game?). Throughout that half, the tension and the skill levels demonstrated, PLUS the storylines that developed (especially the depletion of Seattle's already hurting secondary) that we knew would play important factors in the second half (of a tie game!), made for an incredibly entertaining (and fast!) first half.

Katy Perry (and unnecessary friends) was a win - tight show, hit the high points, spectacular effects, added some fuel to her PR war with Taylor Swift, and made #leftshark a trending thing. The giant lion/tiger/Japanese puppetry thing she rode in on was super cool.

The second half was even better than the first - the back and forth feel, the Seahawks taking the ten point lead, but not in a way that made you think the Patriots were done. And then - touchdown, stop, touchdown, all amazing drives, and all forgotten now because of the last Seattle attempt to score...

Read Bill Simmons' retro-diary in Grantland for the best recounting of that entire sequence, although you have to remember he's a tremendous Patriot homer. But a few things stand out to me, even now - the time out situation, on both sides but especially Seattle's; the second try at the turnaround pass at the goal line by Brady; the timing of the 2-minute warning; the 31-yd out pass to Lynch on a linebacker to start a drive; and of course, the miraculous off-the-thigh catch by Kearse that (had they lost) Belechick would have been seeing in his nightmares (my favorite line of the press conferences: when some reporter asked coach Bill if he'd ever seen a catch like that before, he deadpanned: "Yes. Twice." - referring to the two Giants miracle catches that beat his teams the prior two Super Bowls.)

And yes, I'm still completely convinced that the play call of a slant pass at the goal line was a GOOD call; Malcolm Butler simply made a GREAT play based on GREAT film study and coaching. By the way, Simmons makes a good case, following this article from the Washington Post's Adam Kilgore, that Belechick's LACK of timeout there before that play was smart, too. I'm not as convinced of this one, but I'm willing to give him the benefit of the doubt.

In the end, here's one of my major takeaways from a close Super Bowl like that: if one or two plays go differently, legacies are changed. If Seattle scores that TD, Brady and Belechick still haven't won since 2004, and they're merely a good champion whose time passed....Seattle is a two-time champion who beat Manning and Brady back to back, and becomes a legendary defense....and neither of those things had anything to do with the people on the field at the pivotal play of the game! Regardless of the outcome, these were (and are) two incredible teams, and deserve that kind of recognition. Play the game again this week, maybe  Seattle wins, maybe New England blows them out - but it's not important. Praise and treasure them for what they are!