Ah, the Big Game, which some watch for the game itself and others watch for the famous commercials, is upon us once again. This year, the two teams vying for the Lombardi Trophy have a bit of controversy surrounding them.
Representing the National Football Conference are the Los Angeles Rams, a team many fans don’t believe should be playing for a championship in Atlanta, due to a relatively obvious missed pass interference call late in the NFC Championship Game against the New Orleans Saints. Whether the missed call truly affected the outcome of the game will never be known, but that hasn’t stopped some Saints fans from suing the NFL for “loss of enjoyment of life.”
Representing the American Football Conference are the New England Patriots, who defeated the Kansas City Chiefs in overtime at Kansas City in the AFC Championship. I’m not sure if people hate the Patriots that much, or they just want to see different overtime rules implemented by the league. In any case, the Pats walked off with the win in the first possession of overtime (due to winning the coin flip and electing to be on offense first.) This, obviously, did not allow the Chiefs’ offense to take the field in overtime. If the rules were different and the Chiefs had scored in a second overtime possession, it’s entirely possible that they, instead of New England, might’ve been preparing for this weekend’s contest in Atlanta.
Whether you like it or not, these are the two teams in the Super Bowl. The newcomers, the Rams, with head coach Sean McVay and quarterback Jared Goff, going to battle against the Patriots, a team with two all-time legends in head coach Bill Belichick and quarterback Tom Brady. This will be a fantastic game, and I believe, like both conference championship games, it will come down to the wire.
New England is favored by only -2.5 on the spread. This alone depicts how close the game is projected to be. If I were a betting man (which I am not), my money would be on the tried and true Patriots. However, if there is any team in the league capable of stifling the Pats on both sides of the ball, it’s the Rams. I expect Super Bowl LIII to be an instant classic.