These Are My JOTtings...

One More Lesson from the "Almost" Bowl

What is the lesson of the fable about "The Tortoise and the Hare"? The lesson is that one should always get across the finish line before "resting on one's laurels."

This year's Super Bowl is a prime example of the "dirty birds" playing the part of the rabbit, who got way out in front in the race toward the Lombardi Trophy, and who thought they were too far ahead to be caught.

Complacency is a terrible thing. This fan saw it, and Tom Brady saw it, too, I have no doubt. This wise quarterback for the other team played the same type of game I can hope I would have played were I in his position. One does not need to do anything fancy, when the opponent doesn't see you coming.

Tom Brady executed flawless short passes in the second half of the game and mixed in some well-timed running plays. The result was that the tortoise kept moving down the field. Their defense kept the sleeping hare comfortably "resting on its laurels."



This Robert Alford Pick-Six, an 82-yard inception return for a touchdown, is a good play, but it could have been better. To this fan's eyes the Atlanta Falcons were starting to show the stance of "resting on their laurels" with this play, which occurred with less than two and a half minutes left in the first half. If the viewer will notice Robert Alford slowed down his pace around the 20 yard line. This demonstrated that he didn't believe anyone could catch him. The fact that no one did catch him is beside the point. In my mind his apparent "celebration" before crossing the goal line amounted to taunting, and it demonstrated an apparent attitude on the bench that the New England Patriots couldn't catch them.

In other words the Atlanta Falcons appeared to believe that they "had the game in the bag" before they went to the locker room at half-time.

In retrospect Alford should have continued to run at full tilt until he crossed the goal line, showing proper respect for his opponent. In the same vein the Atlanta Falcons should have played four quarters of football to the best of their abilities.

The Atlanta Falcons and their fans felt like they were entitled to win the Super Bowl. It most definitely would have been nice to have the first Super Bowl win in 51 years of franchise history on Sunday night. However, the Atlanta Falcons did not deserve to win the Super Bowl. The Atlanta Falcons played hard to win for most of two quarters, but they appeared to let down their intensity in the last two quarters.

The New England Patriots, who were led by Tom Brady, played four quarters of football and deserved to win the game. The old adage goes something like this, "It's not how well you start. It's how well you finish."

The Atlanta Falcons deserved to get "taken to the wood shed." Let's hope and pray the next time Atlanta finds itself in that position, the team comes to play four quarters and aims at the 35 - 40 point range before starting to "take it easy."

At 62 points scored between these two teams in Super Bowl LI, they were just 27 one-hundredths away from the 90th percentile of all-time highest scoring games in the NFL. This means that Atlanta could have effectively sewn-up the game with one more crucial scoring play. Either a field-goal or a touchdown could have conceivably put the game out of reach. Why is that? The typical high-scoring game in the NFL puts mutual scoring in the 40 - 50 point range.

However, even that might not have been enough to stop the Tom Brady juggernaut. Take note of the January 3, 1993 play-off game between the Buffalo Bills and the then-Houston Oilers, who are now the Tennessee Titans.



Atlanta could still have staved off the come-back with one easy field goal in the last three minutes of play in my humble opinion because New England only scored 28 points within the 60 regulation minutes.


Tom Brady is worthy of our respect. Brady exploited a character-flaw. "Never count your chickens before their hatched." I told my friends, "I will rest when the clock reads zeros and we're ahead of Tom Brady at their helm." THAT...never happened.

Remember, a man doesn't need his opponents to love him. He only needs his opponents to respect him in order to gets things done. Yet in this game the Atlanta Falcons didn't respect Tom Brady throughout all four quarters. That cost them the win and the trophy.

I believe that if the Atlanta Falcons had respected Tom Brady as they should have, The Big Mo would have walked with them down to The Victor's Circle.

(To the reader with a big "WHY?" emblazoned across your forehead the answer is catharsis. Thank you for your patience. Thank you for reading.)

I'm a member of the Rising Stars Program for 2016-2017