Welcome to the IMAGO totally obligatory “Hot Take” on Sunday’s big game - Super Bowl LV.
What are we looking out for and what storylines might be appealing to our friends in Europe?
IMAGO goes to Tampa – Lets Super Bowl!
Super Bowl LV! GOAT and GOATS?
The debate around who is the greatest QB of all time crystalized around Tom Brady right around the time of that comeback (or holacious, historical choke job) Atlanta game.
Sometimes we live in the time of legendary, unparalleled, never to be repeated performance & get a little blase. Think the Big Three in Tennis, Leo & Ronaldo in football. This stuff just won’t happen again in this or any other lifetime. Just take a look at Brady’s stats:
- 6 superbowl victories in 20 seasons of playing (the first in the season of 9/11)
- SIXTEEN division titles and TEN Conference championship victories. Brady has won AS MANY conference championships in his one year in Tampa as two of his fellow Top 10 QBs of All Time – Aaron Rodgers & Drew Brees in their entire Hall of Fame careers. To think some people still think Rodgers is the better player. In an era of unbelievable QB stats, Tom Brady Won & Won.
The debate is really now about all-time sport GOAT. Are our American friends ready to dethrone Jordan in the year of the Last Dance love-fest?
But Wait….
Patrick Mahomes.
A golden era of NFL QB’s is groaning to a halt (poor Drew Brees looking lost & broken, Phil Rivers retiring, Ben Rothlesberger looking like a Hog on stilts and awful all year)
Unlike in Tennis or football there is a universally anointed next in line in Mahomes. To Be The King You Have To Beat The King. How good is he? This guy can accumulate twenty points faster than you can say seven layer dip & he can change a game with one throw, or cannon. If one man could come close to Brady’s 6 it’s him.
Nobody Knows ANYTHING.
The next time somebody writes you off or pretends that humans can be reduced to combine drills & analytics, just remember: TOM BRADY WAS SELECTED 199TH OVERALL IN THE 2000 DRAFT!!. Six QB’s were drafted before TOM bleeping BRADY.
Patrick Mahomes went TENTH. Chicago traded real pics to move up & get Mitch Trubisky at 2. Mitch Trubisky is very bad at playing football.
Be Careful With Your Narratives.
Andy Reid for years was thought as the nearly man who would self-destruct at the sight of victory. He’s now rightly recognized as one of the greatest coaches in history. Bruce Arians was written off and retired. Second Acts for QB’s past their best never, ever work (Joe Montana, Brett Favre) Guessing that’s what Bill Belicheck thought. Go tell Tom Brady that on Sunday before the game.
What did Jordan do in Washington? Just asking.
Who says the best owners win?
The Kansas of today is pretty much a model Franchise family built on inherited wealth. The Hunt’s had a firm hand in the creation of both the NFL AND the MSL.
The Glazer’s of Tampa perhaps not so much. Their first postseason in an age & no win since John “Chucky from Child’s Play” Gruden brought it home in 2003. Oh, & Manchester United. No ownership group has lost as much advantage or head start in sporting history as this one. But boy have they made money. What a deal to make.
Super Bowl Traditions are lame. There, we said it.
Maybe it’s our age but the Superbowl HalfTime show is increasingly the sign of the times (Prince pun reinforcing intentional) – It’s like looking at the Headline acts of a music festival in the 2000’s – Just sad.
J-Lo & Shakira, Maroon5, Timberlake, Mars, Perry, Coldplay – need we go on. To get to Beyonce you need to go all the way back to 2013. Just like All Star Games & the MTV Movie Awards, why? The WEEKND has reportedly spent $7M of his own money on Sunday. Why?
OH & the Ads.
This year we predict that just like last year (& the year before that & the year before that) they will be universally lame.
Expect a generic car brand to generically tell us to “come together” as a nation. Expect a consumer pharma brand to laud our essential workers & try to make us cry. Will Ferrell will do something that isn’t funny. Probably.
In all seriousness – How will Madison Avenue reflect the year we have just gone through & the politics we have just witnessed.
What is interesting this year are the new brands fronting up their $5M to be a part of this (Klarna, Logitech, Fiverr)
Plus the old guard that made a point of sitting it out (Coca Cola, Budweiser)
To The Predictions!!!!
In no particular order. Our thoughts.
- Tom Brady is the greatest living American MALE sportsman. He is also 43 years old & not a particularly good quarterback. Get it?
- Andy Reid is a better coach than Bruce Arians.
- Tampa CAN apply pressure on Mahomes. Kansas City can’t apply pressure on Brady.
- Kansas has more future Hall of Famers on this roster than Tampa does. Tyrann Matthieu is an unbelievable football player. As is Travis Kelce.
- Mahomes is injured and he was clearly heavily concussed less than 2 weeks ago.
- Is Kansas really a good football team? So many games this year against mediocre opposition were so close.
- Tampa is not a good football team. They are WORLD CLASS at making big plays.
The Chiefs play in bursts and always start slow. They also are too comfortable making huge comebacks (see last year)
Tampa is sloppy. They rely on big plays way too much.
We predict that Tampa gets out early and holds on to their lead by picking up just enough points through big plays in the second half. Brady is Brady. He only loses to mediocre QB’s in the Super Bowl, not great ones. Brady has to play better in the 2nd half than last week.
Tampa 33, KC, 24.
(Of course what will happen is Mahomes drops 20 plus in the first quarter and the game is over by Half Time)
All depends on your view on Greatness.
Check out IMAGO archives and collections for Super Bowl photography from throughout the years.