Tampa Bay added to its collection of professional sports championships in the past year with the NFL Buccaneers winning Super Bowl 55 on its own turf Sunday--the first team to do that. They join the NHL Lightning (who won the Stanley Cup) and Major League Baseball's Rays for winning the American League pennant, but lost the World Series to the Los Angeles Dodgers.
The National Football League made it through a coronavirus-plagued season without having to cancel a game, in a season no one thought should have happened. But they did end up rescheduling games during the week, which meant that for the first time ever, we had Tuesday Night and Wednesday Afternoon Football plus Monday double headers.
THE GAME
Quarterback Tom Brady passed for three touchdowns to lead the Bucs to a 31-9 win over the defending Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs at Raymond James Stadium. It wasn't really close. Patrick Mahomes, KC's wunderkind quarterback, failed to get his team in the end zone, thanks to the efforts of the Bucs' stifling defense and the Chiefs' tendency to draw flags at inopportune moments.
With this win, Brady now has won seven of the 10 Super Bowl games he's played in, mostly with the New England Patriots. At 43, and in his third decade in the NFL, Brady has said he'd like to keep playing until he's at least 45. He may be the greatest quarterback of this century, and of the Super Bowl era. But of all time? Considering the fact that the NFL has been in business for more than 100 years, the ghosts of Bart Starr, Johnny Unitas, Sid Luckman and others might have something to say about that.
The Bucs, an NFC Wild Card team, beat the Washington Football Team, New Orleans Saints and Green Bay Packers on the road to win the conference title.
The Chiefs only had to beat the Cleveland Browns and Buffalo Bills at home to defend their AFC championship.
EVERYTHING ELSE
- Raymond James Stadium sure looked full Sunday. A closer look reveals that of those 50,000 filled seats, 25,000 of those were live human beings (7,000 of those were "healthcare heroes" that got in free, as long as they were vaccinated), and 30,000 were cardboard cutouts for social distancing purposes. After the game, despite predictions from the likes of Dr. Anthony Fauci that this Super Bowl was going to be a Super Spreader event, not many folks were wearing masks, were they? Of course, this is Florida, a state not exactly known for its restraint.
- Instead of a Boomer favorite to play its halftime show, the NFL chose a current popular act named The Weeknd. The show wasn't great by any means, but it will boost The Weeknd's profile among those who had never heard him before (which is most of America) or are baffled as to how he spells his name.
- The commercials for the CBS telecast were more notable for who wasn't there than who was. Owing to the pandemic and the general tone of 2020, Budweiser decided to leave its Clydesdales at home this year. But fellow Anheuser-Busch brands such as Bud Light more than picked up the slack. The ads in general weren't great. They were mostly bland and tried to be funny. And all those ads for Paramount+, CBS' rebranded streaming service, was a Rocky Mountain Low.
- History was made when a female official refereed the Big Game. two female coaches were on the sidelines, and the poet who made a name for herself at President Biden's Inauguration contributed a piece on frontline workers. But the NFL's TV commercial promoting racial tolerance somehow neglected to mention Colin Kaepernick.
