Jermaine Kearse bobbled the ball and kicked it inadvertently before corralling and cradling it, as if he were securing his own child. He lay on his back for a moment, beheld by a nation divided.
The circus catch by the Seahawks' wide receiver, a lifeline at the 11th hour, set his team up deep in Patriots' territory. The Seahawks needed to gain five yards to take the lead late in Super Bowl XLIX.
Patriots fans everywhere were stupefied by Kearse’s miraculous catch, which evoked nightmares of Super Bowls past: physics-defying catches by David Tyree and Mario Manningham cost the Patriots titles in February of 2008 and 2012, respectively. Kearse seemed on the verge of joining Manningham and Tyree in that rarefied club, of dashing the hopes of Patriots fans for a third consecutive Super Bowl.
Luckily, for the Patriots, the third time was not the charm.
The Seahawks ran the ball to the one-yard line on first down before electing to throw on second down, a curious decision given the reliability of their juggernaut of a tailback, Marshawn Lynch. Legendary running back Emmitt Smith called it the worst play call in the history of football.
Needless to say, it didn't pay off.
Seahawks coach Pete Carroll’s decision looks even worse in retrospect, as Patriots rookie cornerback Malcolm Butler picked off Russell Wilson and iced the game.
The victory marks the fourth Super Bowl title for quarterback Tom Brady and head coach Bill Belichick, their first since 2005. The victory puts Brady in a group with Terry Bradshaw and Joe Montana as the only quarterbacks to win the big game four times and Belichick in the company of legendary Steelers head coach Chuck Noll, both of whom have now won four championships as head coaches.
Despite their decade-and-a-half long dynastic dominance of the NFL, highlighted by three previous rings, this game was immensely important to the legacies of Brady and Belichick.
For Patriots fans, this win was the anointing of the best quarterback-coach pair of all time. It was far from guaranteed, however, despite their litany of prior successes, because the team was in the midst of a decade-long title drought and had dropped two Super Bowls since their last championship. Losing this game would have meant falling to .500 in title games, solidifying a decade of impotence at the pinnacle of football.
Instead, the dynamic duo improved their record to 4-2. Brady is the first quarterback to win Super Bowls 13 years apart. The only holdover from that Super Bowl XXXIX-winning team, he is also the first quarterback to win titles with completely different rosters.
Brady had a performance that won’t soon be forgotten, and one that earned him MVP honors. He threw the ball a whopping 50 times and had a Super Bowl-record 37 completions for 328 yards. His two interceptions weren’t pretty, but they were offset by four touchdowns, which accounted for all of the Patriots’ points. And as he has done time and time again, Brady came through in the clutch.
The Patriots trailed 24-14 entering the fourth quarter. Brady led two touchdown scoring drives against the top-ranked Seattle defense to give the Patriots a 28-24 edge with 2:02 remaining. Thanks to Butler, it was a lead that they would not relinquish.
The game will likely be remembered for Carroll’s ill-fated decision and Wilson’s interception, and perhaps for Butler's late-game heroics, but Brady’s game-winning drives were equally, if not more, impactful. He was a perfect 8-8 on the final drive of his season, a fitting addition to the innumerable list of clutch performances he has amassed over the course of his storied career.
The Patriots quarterback padded his already-historic resume on Sunday night. In doing so, he became the first quarterback in history to throw 50 postseason touchdown passes, and he surpassed 49ers quarterback Joe Montana for most Super Bowl touchdowns. Brady and Belichick have the most postseason victories of all time at quarterback and coach, respectively. The sundry and collective legacies of this team, its coach and its players -- not just of Brady and Belichick -- will be scrutinized and argued over in the months and years to come.
It’s difficult to name unequivocally the best quarterback of all time, but Brady has certainly staked his claim to that title. Regardless of allegiances and other biases, no conversation of great quarterbacks can take place without mention of No. 12 for the Patriots. And as much as the rest of football fandom might try, it is hard to argue against what the Patriots have accomplished organizationally.
Brady and Belichick got their fourth ring. The silence of their detractors is deafening. After 10 years marred by the agony of defeat, the Patriots capped this one off with a celebration.
On to the parade.
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