As Don McLean sung, “February made me shiver, with every paper I delivered…” — except for most of the country, the shivering gets more intense with every NFL game off the board. Now, America waits with baited breath for the Patriots and Falcons to kick off February 5th in Houston.
Basic sports analysis tells you it’s a battle between two of the best quarterbacks in football, a great Atlanta pass rush and wide receivers, and the coaching of Bill Belichick, as well as the defensive power Dan Quinn brings to the Falcons. If we want to get political about this, however, there’s only one clear choice for readers of this site: the New England Patriots.
No, this choice isn’t to kiss up to Red Alert Assistant Editor and “Native New Englanduh” Siraj Hashmi; it’s based on several key elements of the team and matchup:
- Tom Brady Wanted To #MAGA Since The Start
On September 8, 2015, right before that season’s opener against the Steelers, reports came out that a classic red “Make America Great Again” hat was spotted in Tom Brady’s locker. The quarterback confirmed, in an interview with sports radio station WEEI, that the headgear was sent by Trump to Patriots owner Robert Kraft. Brady has been friends with Trump for almost his entire career, since he judged a beauty pageant in 2002. He definitely hasn’t just jumped on the liberal bandwagon, even though Boston has been famous for turning on star athletes who lean conservative, as Curt Schilling explained on his “38 Pitches” blog:
Although Massachusetts was the only state to have every county vote for Hillary Clinton, this underdog status should definitely inspire the Trump-faithful to come out for New England.
- Reverse Motivation
So let’s say the Patriots beat Atlanta; it’s Tom Brady, Bill Belichick, and Robert Kraft’s 5th championship in New England. This could be insanely farfetched, but after the year of the impossible, what if Kraft needed a new challenge? Jets owner Woody Johnson has already been assigned his post as Ambassador to the United Kingdom, with Johnson’s brother Chris now taking over head operations in New York. As a Trump supporter, maybe Kraft gets an ambassadorship or other sort of post, and the Patriots dynasty as we know it fades faster than if the gang were all together? Outside of Dolphins country, Trump finished well in the other National Football Conference (NFC) East territories, winning every county all the way in western New York outside of Erie, near Buffalo. He was also the first Republican to win Suffolk County, Long Island since 1992; and being a native New Yorker, I know a huge concentration of Jet fans reside in Nassau and Suffolk.
My honest prediction: Patriots find a way to win 38-35.
