Recap

"I expect a high-scoring game, and I expect Brady to Edelman to be the last and winning score of the game. New England will win its fifth title in the Brady/Belechick era by less than the final touchdown - less than seven points."

The good news for me as a prognosticator is that a Brady pass was the last and winning score of the game, New England did win its fifth title in the Brady/Belechick era by less than - well, less than seven, anyway - and it was a high scoring game (62 points beat the over/under line of 57, already one of the highest in history).

The bad news for me was that I didn't plan on them having to come back from 25 points behind in the third quarter to do it! Not exactly Balaam, am I? 

Pleasantly, it was much more a case of Patriot prowess than Falcon folding: as with all human activities, they made some physical errors, along with one or two mental ones, but nothing worse than their opponents did in the first half (the pick-six was a gift).As someone who was rooting for a good game, rather than a particular team, I found myself on the Atlanta side until that pick-six in the second quarter made it 21-3 Falcons. at which point I switched to hoping Brady and crew could make a game of it. When they did nothing with the opening possession of the second half, and then Atlanta went down and scored yet again to make it 28-3, I told my son we'd go shopping for his present for the next day's birthday party for his friend during the fourth quarter if it stayed like that. 

The comeback has been well-documented elsewhere, but I'll just say that we didn't go shopping until AFTER the overtime Patriot victory, as it became clear that the excitement was NOT in fact, over.

I wondered aloud if being a Falcons fan felt like being a Hillary supporter on Election Night. Sure of the victory, until...until... you're not anymore.

Lady Gaga was remarkable! The stage dive from the top of the stadium gets credit for guts alone, and it was executed well, as well. And to finish the show, one more dive OFF the stage at the end to bring the show fully around to the top - brilliant. As much as some feared a political statement in the performance, given her predilection for the Democratic candidate last November, I never saw one, although there were probably five different companies whose advertisements reminded us that we are better when we are a nation of immigrants, never specifically calling the POTUS out on the topic. Those I found appropriate. The only one that aimed directly at Mr. Trump, even HE probably found funny - a hair company predicted four years of bad hair ahead of us, so buy their product to prevent that. 

Speaking of adverts, my personal favorites (and you can easily find these on line if you spend fifteen seconds looking) included the ghost of Spuds McKensie going all "It's a Wonderful Life" on the poor schlub who doesn't go drinking beer with his buddies anymore; Honda's inspirational ad with the celebrities speaking from their high school yearbook photos; the Mercedes "Easy Rider" homage that ended with Peter Fonda himself in a Mercedes topless; poor John Malkovich trying to obtain the domain "johnmalkovich.com"; Melissa McCarthy as an environmental activist with a penchant for disaster, Tom Brady in 360 for Intel; and even the Geico spots with Terry Bradshaw and Jimmy Johnson before the start of the game itself. I'm also curious about The Cure For Wellness and the Scarlett Johannson vehicle Ghost In The Shell, even though I'm not a movie aficionado. 

But my favorite (and I'd never thought I'd say this) was the T-Mobile ad with Justin Bieber. I won't spoil it for you; it's a ton of fun, and good for him for letting his guard down some to make this spot.

How many were "ART", as we discussed before? Several. You decide which ones, friends.