What a game! ~ What a game! ~ What a game!
SABR friends and colleagues Bill Gilbert and Mark Wernick both were kind enough to e-mail some of their own brief observations last night and this morning about Super Bowl 51 at NRG Stadium in Houston. on Sunday, February 5, 2017.
Bill Gilbert
Rogers Hornsby Chapter
SABR
Pecan Park Eagle Contributor
(1) Bill Gilbert wrote Sunday Evening:
Bill –
I couldn’t agree more. It was the greatest comeback deficit rally in Super Bowl history – and also the first overtime game in any Super Bowl.
Houston did a great job, people had a great time, and even the weather cooperated. The city deserves all the praise it earned from this effort.
SB51 will also be remembered – in pain and sorrow – as the event that gave even more people the courage and right to claim that Tom Brady, indeed, is the greatest QB in NFL history. With this incredible game under his belt at age 39 – and as the new holder of the most SB wins for a QB at 5, who else really compares? Count me in among Brady’s believers.
Another thought that floated through my head after tonight. Wonder how many baseball/football fans will now begin to couple the Cubs’ 7-game World Series win and tonight’s New England win as the two greatest versions of each event in the eyes of some beholders. They certainly are for me. In fact, it’s impossible tonight for me to see how the next offerings of each could be more dramatically important than these two have been to each of their sports.
Here are some other observations that made me smile:
1) About 20 minutes prior to the game, one of the referees jogged all the way across the field to pat Tom Brady on the back.
3) At the trophy presentation, Pats Owner Robert Kraft, Coach Bill Belichick, and QB Tom Brady all gave the NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell the same blank stare as they accepted his handshakes of congratulations. Wonder if their hands felt as cold as their stares? Kraft even made a point of grabbing the mike to thank the fans, saying something like “as all of you know, we’ve been through a whole lot this past year. I don’t have to mention what it was, but it hasn’t been easy, but thanks to all of you, it’s been a whole easier.” Kraft knew that the NFL chief was standing behind him as he talked, of course.
Mark Wernick
Larry Dierker Chapter
SABR
Pecan Park Eagle Contributor
“The two most fearless people in the stadium tonight were Tom Brady and Lady Gaga.
Great observations, Mark!
1) Brady and Gaga the most fearless? Absolutely!
2) SB51 rejected as a Hollywood script? Absolutely 2!
3) Also, remember all those 1940s movie scripts where some bad guy weakens the lines of the beautiful trapeze artist before her act. I thought of that one when Lady Gaga made her descent into NRG. Glad there were no bad guys working NRG yesterday.
4) Edelman’s catch was another one for the ages by the little man with the tall talent for remarkable catches. The name is amusingly distracting to me. 85-years old and quite tiny herself, Miriam Edelman is a fifty year friend and still practicing therapist in Houston. I can neither shake nor try to release the imagery that – under that gear and helmet – that it is my friend Miriam making all those catches in the Edelman name. Guess I’d better call and congratulate her for the great grab of yesterday when I’m finished here.
5) Poor Mark Wahlberg, but let’s do cut him a break. Did any of us really see this coming? No way. I thought it was close to done late in the first half when Brady threw the pick-6 to make it Falcons, 21-0. I might have done the same thing you did last night, but my personal TV sits side-by-side with my computer and Internet service. Everything I do with written work or writing, I do from here, and I am also guilty of occasional multi-tasking of a report column and bill-paying at the same time. I think I hold a degree in OCD propensities. But, unless it bites me, I see no need to call animal control for assistance. 🙂
7) This game was great for Houston – and Houston deserves all the credit it is now receiving from visitors.
8) Because of the way this game played out so awesomely – many of us are now free to say without equivocation ~ Tom Brady has now proven that he is the greatest QB in NFL history. Ironically, Joe Montana earned his bones at the college level the same way on January 1, 1979. That was the frozen Cotton Bowl game in which Montana rallied ND from a 34-7 deficit with 7:30 to go to a 35-34 win over UH on the last play of the game. – Believe me, many of us Cougar football fans know exactly how the Atlanta owner, coaches, players, and fans feel today. Atlanta people will get over the “stunning” phase that they are in today, but they will never forget the loss or the remnant pain that rests with yesterday’s cave-in loss.
9) I thought the contiguous editions of the 2016 World Series and the 2017 Super Bowl were the best examples of each that I’ve ever seen.
10) Because of the pain that comes from each football game played, football cannot handle a best 4 of 7 World Series format – nor does a once-a-week potential 7-game series over 7 weeks sound exciting or practical. – So – football can make their annual Super Bowl the three hours plus sudden bang for all the marbles that it already is. Baseball, on the other hand, has to settle for two teams breaking even in six closely scheduled games to even experience a year in which a seventh game, winner-takes-all contest, is even possible.
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Publisher, Editor, Writer
The Pecan Park Eagle
Houston, Texas
Houston, Baseball, & Other Musings.
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