Another Superb Owl Post

As you undoubtedly already know by now, the New England Patriots just won another Super Bowl, their sixth.  They've been in the last three Super Bowls and won two of those.  Although many across the nation don't like them, the Patriots are statistically the best football team ever, at least in terms of winning, and isn't that what matters in sport? 

Also, as you've probably noticed, it was about the boringest Super Bowl ever.  It was certainly the lowest scoring Super Bowl (16 total points in the game) and there were long stretches where it seemed like absolutely nothing was going on.  And the commercials bent over backwards to avoid any controversy and don't even get us started about the Halftime Show (shhh, the Music Desk will hear us).

The real Super Bowl, the test of New England's guts and mettle, was the AFC Championship Game against Kansas City. That was an exciting game, with several do-or-die Fourth Quarter drives, frequent lead changes, and thrilling plays.  That was a game against a quality opponent and a quality quarterback.  That was the game where the Patriots proved they were a champion-caliber team and the actual Super Bowl was just sort of a coronation featuring a game with a modicum of challenge against the hapless NFC team unlucky enough to draw the assignment by outlasting all the other NFC teams (and some very fortuitous refereeing, as New Orleans fans would like to point out).  

The Red Sox often face the same dilemma.  The road to the AL Championship usually goes through the Bronx, either in the Division or the ALCS itself, and after beating the Yankees, everything else seems sort of anticlimactic.  We beat the Yankees, and then having to face another, sometimes two more, opponents seems less like a greater challenge than a chore necessary to wear the World Series crown that we already earned by downing New York.  

Ironically, it's often teams from the City of Angels, the Dodgers or the Rams, that provide the final chump fodder for our New England teams.

The Rams seemed especially ill-suited to challenge New England. From an inexperienced quarterback just two years past his rookie season, to a clueless young head coach totally outmaneuvered by New England's wily Bill Belichick, to their curious decision not to use their star running back, former Georgia Bulldog Todd Gurley, the Rams never stood a chance.  Saints fans would say the Rams didn't even deserve to be there, and LA proved New Orleans correct on the field yesterday.

The Red Sox and the Patriots won their national championships.  Are the Bruins and the Celtics next?