Wai Sallas recaps Super Bowl XLIX, highlighting the incredible personal story lines of the game’s unlikely heroes.
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New England Patriots’ Starting Center, Bryan Stork crouches down as the fervor of the moment reaches an all too familiar buzz. Stork was 14 year old the last time New England and Tom Brady hoisted a Vince Lombardi Trophy. Yet here he is, with his hands on the PSI regulated Super Bowl football, attempting to hand the ball to Canton.
Patriots Quarterback Tom Brady gets low behind Stork, their first season playing as battery mates with the ball inches in front of the one-yard-line. He stands with half his body in the end zone, while his head barely peeks over the back of Stork. Brady is 20-seconds away from cementing his legacy as the best quarterback the NFL has ever seen.
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Five years earlier, Patriots rookie cornerback Malcolm Butler was taking orders at Popeye’s. He was out of school and out of football. He took summer classes at Alcorn State University and worked his way from college dropout to a Gulf Coast Conference stalwart at University of West Alabama.
He entered Patriots training camp as a 24-year-old undrafted free agent. The long odds of making the NFL a mere blip in his already underdog story.
“You just can’t blow opportunities like this,” Butler told Mark Daniels of the Providence Journal back in August. “You’ve just got to take advantage of the great things when they come. It’s been a long road to get here. Some ups, some downs, but I never gave up. I kept pushing and kept believing. I always believed that I could play in this league. It’s just confidence, faith and hard work.”
Butler would make the team and now stood in the end zone. The Patriots were clinging to a four-point lead with less than a minute remaining. All signs looked to Seattle punching it in from the one-yard line.
Butler saw something different.
The rookie cornerback had never intercepted a pass in his NFL career. As Russell Wilson stepped up to the line, Butler recognized the formation and knew what was coming. In an instant, he jumped the passing route to make the game’s biggest play. Now, with 20 seconds remaining, he could not stop the tears from rolling down his cheeks.
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A year ago, Seattle Seahawks Wide Receiver Chris Matthews wasn’t wearing NFL licensed apparel. He was selling it. His career all but over before it began, his phone rang from Seattle asking him try out for the upcoming season.
According to Pro Football Talk and NBC Sports, Matthews managed to hang around through the preseason, but he was waived on August 30 in the reduction to 53 players. Initially, he latched on to the Seahawks’ practice squad, but he was released on September 3. Matthews would re-sign with Seattle’s practice squad on October 29, but his spot was tenuous; Seattle released him six days later.
On November 18, Matthews was added back to the practice squad. Eighteen days later, the Seahawks promoted him to the 53-player roster, where he has stayed since.
Before the Super Bowl, Matthews had only one catch in the NFL, and it was an onside kick that propelled the Seahawks to an improbable come-from-behind victory over the Green Bay Packers.
As the seconds ticked down and the Seahawks all but destined to take the lead and win, all eyes were on Matthews. A player who was not even in the NFL as late as November was now the leading pass catcher for the soon-to-be back-to-back Super Bowl champs.
Now, with 20 seconds remaining, 4 catches 109 yards and one touchdown later, his name was known by over 100 million people. Yet he stood on the sideline with a glazed look on his face, unable to fathom what had happened to his dream game.
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Brady’s career was never supposed to be like this. He was drafted in the 6th round. Six quarterbacks were drafted before him. None of them remain in the NFL. None of them have started a Super Bowl, let alone won one. 15 years later, and one could argue there’s no one better.
He has orchestrated nine come-from-behind victories in the postseason. No quarterback has started as many Super Bowls as Brady (6), Brady was now mere seconds away from tying Terry Bradshaw and Joe Montana for most Super Bowls won (4). 20 seconds away from adding to the record books. Most Super Bowl MVPs (3), most Super Bowl touchdown passes (13) and the most completions in a Super Bowl (36).
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Brady looked over the landscape, no doubt at his legacy as well. He probably relived former New York Giant wide receiver David Tyree’s helmet catch ruin the Patriots perfect season. It was only a few minutes earlier that it had looked like history would repeat itself when Jermaine Kearse made an unbelieveable catch for the Seahawks to put them in to position to win the game.
He was backed into a corner. They needed to run out the last 20 seconds but had no room to down the ball and let the clock run out. He sat there and waited. Probably much like he waited for his name to be called back in 2000. When the pressure and urgency of the moment got the best of a few Seahawk defenders, Brady had provoked a 5-yard penalty.
Twenty seconds would not be enough for the Seahawks to pull off another miracle.
When Brady finally kneeled for the last time, Matthews shuffled off, his career game will now be a footnote in Brady’s legacy. Butler was now being mobbed by teammates, the gravity of the moment too much for him to contain. As NBC’s Michelle Tafoya interviewed him, he said, “I just had a vision that I was going to make a big play.”
The vision of Brady’s legacy is now 20/20.
He will go down as the greatest quarterback to ever play in the NFL.
“It wasn’t the way we drew it up,” Brady said after the game.
You could say the same about his career.
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Photo Credit: AP/File
I just hope this puts a final nail in the ridiculous “deflate gate” nonsense. Not surprisingly, today an article revealed that only one of the balls used by Brady against the Colts was under the minimum pressure. The rest were “within a few ticks”. The underinflated ball was the ball that was intercepted, so I’m not sure how that gave the Patriots an advantage…. common sense gave way to hype. Personally I think Gronkowski must’ve landed on the underinflated ball a number of times – how much air would you lose with a 6’7″ monster crashing down on you? Youch!… Read more »
My husband just flew out to Arizona to watch the super bowl this weekend. Since he grew up in Washington he is a pretty die-hard Sea hawks fan. He is most excited to see the game with his buddies more then anything. I am glad he is going to have a good time.
http://www.legendarysports.com/super-bowl/