By Sean Deane ‘21
Broken records, fans streaking, and a list of firsts for the NFL. February 7, 2021, will go down in history as one of the most unique and historic Super Bowls of all time.
Tom Brady now holds the record as the only person with seven Super Bowl victories. He has more Super Bowl wins than any team, has earned a trip to the Super Bowl in more than half of his uninjured seasons, and has played in 18% of all Super Bowls to date.
Senior Adam Homel said that he is surprised year after year by Brady’s ability to continue winning despite his age and the shift to a more fast paced playstyle in the NFL. He thinks that based on the way Brady looked in the Super Bowl, he might just win another ring.
Each one of Tom Brady’s accomplishments is more impressive than the last, but they are far from the most jaw dropping aspects of Super Bowl LV.
Towards the end of the fourth quarter, when just about everyone had turned their attention away from the game, a man wearing a modified woman’s swimsuit jumped from the stands onto the field and ran to the end zone, breaking tackles by numerous security guards.
The man came out two days later and claimed that he had bet $5,000 that there would be a streaker at the Super Bowl and won $374,000. A clip of his mad dash being commentated on by announcer Kevin Harlan has since become the most played clip from this year’s game.
This Super Bowl will also be remembered as the first time that a team has played in a Super Bowl at their own stadium. The Buccaneers also became the only team to win the game on their own turf.
The brutal 31-9 loss that Patrick Mahomes suffered in order for Tampa to earn that title was his first defeat by more than 10 points in his NFL career. The last time Patrick suffered such a defeat was at Texas A&M when he lost to Iowa State in 2016.
Senior Eddie Burke was surprised by Mahomes’ first double digit loss. He said that he thought the poor performances put on by the Chiefs’ receivers combined with the outstanding defense by the Buccaneers created a perfect storm for the young quarterback. He added that playing against Tom Brady did not help, either.
The pandemic made this Super Bowl the first to feature cardboard cutouts of fans. The 30,000 cardboard fans outnumbered the 25,000 people who were allowed to attend the event. Hopefully this is the only Super Bowl that will need to feature cardboard fans.
Senior Kyle Gallagher said that the cardboard cutouts seemed out of place in the stands, especially since they were mixed in with actual fans. He said he would prefer that the NFL did not fill the empty seats because they have nothing to be ashamed of since everyone knew that they couldn’t have a full stadium.
Overall, the pandemic Super Bowl is not one that anyone is soon to forget. The craziness surrounding this year’s game is very fitting for the times that we are currently going through. Hopefully next year’s game will be crazy enough to feature the Bears.
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