Why?
Why? Why? WHY!!!!
That’s the single word every professional football fan who doesn’t root for the New England Patriots — and even a few Pats backers will surely whisper — is sure to ask about the Seattle Seahawks’ unfathomable play call on the goal line near the close of Super Bowl XLIX Sunday evening.
The ball inside the Patriots’ 1-yard-line with less than a minute to go, a timeout in their hip pocket, the unstoppable Marshawn “Beast” Lynch having just eaten up more than four yards in a single carry, Seattle inexplicably chose to pass rather than run to overcome the Pats’ 28-24 lead.
And because they made that bizarre decision, New England undrafted rookie Malcolm Butler, a West Alabama defensive back a season ago, intercepted the ball.
And the Patriots won.
And NBC analyst Chris Collinsworth pretty much spoke for the entire Super Bowl television audience when he exclaimed, “If I lose a Super Bowl because Marshawn Lynch can’t get it in from the 1-yard-line, so be it but I will never get over throwing the ball in that situation.”
The bigger question may be when we’ll be able to get over Deflate-gate, now that the Patriots are again world champs, and this game was unquestionably won with correctly inflated footballs, since NFL officials guarded them the entire game.
“Our people didn’t touch the balls,” Robert Kraft. “I’m proud of our team.”
How proud any Patriots fan will be if the Ted Wells investigation into the balls they’re accused of illegally deflating prior to their AFC title game rout of the Indianapolis Colts remains to be seen. It may all turn out to be much ado about nothing. It may also serve to further taint a franchise already sullied by its Spygate incident of illegally filming the New York Jets several years ago.
But even if it ultimately mildly besmirches New England quarterback Tom Brady’s legacy, this season, especially this championship, places him in the conversation for the greatest NFL quarterback ever, given that this was his fourth Super Bowl ring in his sixth Super Bowl game.
Against roughly the same Seattle defense that devoured Peyton Manning a year ago, Brady single-handedly brought the Patriots back from a 10-point fourth quarter deficit (24-14) to victory. When it comes to Super Bowl quarterback brilliance, Joe Montana and Terry Bradshaw now have some pretty impressive company.
Of course, this whole game was full of wonderful story lines, beginning with former Kentucky wideout Chris Matthews, whose first catch of the season was in this Super Bowl. Working at a Foot Locker when Seattle called to ask for a workout, he almost blew it off because he didn’t get off work until 9 p.m. and he’d miss the flight.
But he changed his mind, became a special teams player, then became the most special performer on the Seahawks in the most special game of the year by catching two touchdowns.
Yet Super Bowls are never about the game only. Not with a 30-second commercial spot going for over $4 million and a 60-second ad going for $7 mil.
And if there wasn’t much fall-down-funny work from Madison Avenue this time around, there were several inspirational ones, beginning with two one-minute Microsoft spots focusing on “Estella’s Brilliant Bus,” which is a mobile learning center, and 6-year-old Braylon O’Neill, whose life has been made better by prosthetic legs.
Behind that in the warm and fuzzy department rode McDonald’s, which delivered winners with its spots promoting its upcoming campaign to comp meals for customers in exchange for such warm, fuzzy actions as calling your mother to “tell her you love her,” or “You paid with love, that’s all you need,” though that would be better if accompanied by the Beatles’ “All You Need is Love.” Or a group hug.
Then there was the wonderful Coca-Cola spot where someone spills a Coke onto a computer mainframe grid, which turns every negative thought on earth — especially cyber bullying — into an uplifting, positive message. As the commercial ends, the tag line is “The world is what you make it — Make It Happy!”
Lastly, Esurance delivered a couple of witty ads, the first showcasing the oft-troubled actress Lindsay Lohan as a “sort of” mom recklessly driving a minivan. The second showed actor Bryan Cranston reprising his brilliant “Breaking Bad” character Walter White, only this time as a neighborhood pharmacist.
Thankfully, Cranston wasn’t hawking something to treat toenail fungus, but there was a commercial for that product, which might be one of the least pleasant subjects in the history of the Super Bowl.
And all those moments were before halftime, when pop singer Katy Perry lit up the desert sky and our sports department’s Jim Tanner cracked wise concerning Perry’s stage props: “Did anyone check to make sure those beach balls were inflated to NFL specifications?”
Thanks to tighter NFL security, there was no doubt that the football Butler intercepted on the goal line was properly inflated. And the Patriots’ fourth Super Bowl title in 14 seasons — all with Brady at quarterback and Bill Beli-cheat, oops, Belichick as coach — Brady swiftly gave his rookie defensive back his due.
Said Brady: “For a rookie to make a play like that to win us the Super Bowl is incredible.”
Almost as incredible as the Seahawks choosing to throw instead of run their way to a Super Bowl repeat.
Contact Mark Wiedmer at mwiedmer@timesfreepress.com.