Besides establishing Tom Brady as the greatest of all time and Lady Gaga as the best featured halftime performer since Prince, Super Bowl LI proved one other thing:
The random chance of a coin flip should not be the deciding factor in any game, let alone one for a championship.
While not perfect, college football’s way of handling overtime is way, way better than the NFL version. For all the drama of New England’s epic 25-point comeback, the game essentially ended when the Patriots correctly called “heads.” They took the ball, and an already gassed Atlanta defense had no answer for Brady en route to James White’s Lombardi-winning touchdown.
Matt Ryan and Co. never had a chance at a possession to even the score.
Under the NCAA overtime rules — yes, something the NCAA and high school federations gets right — each team is guaranteed a possession starting at the 25. Still tied? Repeat. In the third possessions, teams must go for a two-point conversion after a touchdown.
Despite criticism that it is a truncated version of real football that penalizes the defense, the overtime rule provides a sense of fairness and can lead to all sorts of drama. Arkansas has played seven overtimes — twice. And look no further than Texas high school football where Jacksonville outlasted Nacogdoches 84-81 in — count ‘em — 12 overtimes in 2010.
For all its air of superiority, the NFL remains stuck in 1958. Back then, the Baltimore Colts beat the New York Giants 23-17, christening sudden death overtime and ushering in the modern era of pro football, according to sports historians.
Outside of a few tweaks, like forcing a team to score a touchdown to win on its first overtime possession, the NFL has clung to tradition for too long.
Maybe the Patriots would have won anyway given the second-half change in momentum. At least Atlanta would have had a chance. Maybe Kyle Shanahan might have remembered to run the football.
Sure, the NFL could adjust the rules. Maybe have teams start possessions at the opponents’ 35 to account for the accuracy and leg strength of pro kickers. Because the NFL loves its TV windows, limit regular-season overtime to two or three possessions each.
It’s time for the sudden death tradition to die after Sunday night.
Super Bowl LI ratings
Super Bowl LI averaged 111.3 million viewers on Fox on Sunday night, a massive television audience by any standard but smaller than the previous three Super Bowls.
It averaged 45.3 percent of homes, also a number no other event on American television can approach but smaller than recent figures for the big game. The previous six Super Bowls surpassed 46.0 ratings.
The biggest average audience for a Super Bowl remains the 114.4 million that watched the Patriots beat the Seahawks two years ago.
Lady Gaga’s halftime show averaged 117.5 million viewers, the fourth year in a row and fifth time in six years that the halftime show outdrew the game itself.
Although this year’s game featured the first Super Bowl overtime, in which the Patriots completed a comeback from a 25-point deficit to win, 34-28, the audience likely was dampened by what appeared through 2 1/2 quarters to be a blowout.
Fox said an additional 1.72 million viewers watched the game via online streaming, and that 650,000 watched the Spanish-language telecast on Fox Deportes.
Brady gives teammate his MVP car
Tom Brady walked out of the news conference for Super Bowl LI Most Valuable Player on Monday morning with the silver football trophy tucked under his arm.
But the Patriots quarterback is not above sharing some of the other perks of the honor. Just as he did two years ago, Brady said he plans on handing over the keys to the new car that comes with being Super Bowl MVP to a young, heretofore unknown teammate who, were it not for Brady’s overwhelming performance, would likely have won the award himself.
“I think James White deserves it,” Brady said. “It’ll be nice for him.”
White, the third-year running back who was inactive as a healthy scratch the last time the Patriots played in a Super Bowl, caught a Super Bowl-record 14 passes for 110 yards, ran for 29 yards on six carries, and scored 20 of the Patriots’ 34 points on three touchdowns and a two-point conversion. One of his scores was the winning touchdown in overtime on a 2-yard run.
Two years ago, Brady gave the car to cornerback Malcolm Butler for his game-sealing interception on the goal line in the final minute against the Seahawks.
Like Butler, White was not a household name before his Super Bowl performance. In fact, he probably was most known for not playing particularly well in last year’s AFC title game loss to the Broncos that kept the Patriots out of Super Bowl 50. A second-year player then, he stepped into a larger role that season when Dion Lewis was injured.
“James White is like my oldest son,” Brady said. “He just does everything right and you can never get mad at him. If he doesn’t make the play, he feels worse about it than you do. He’s just the best teammate. He’s an incredible player and he’s been that way since he assumed that role when Dion got hurt last year.”
