Goodbye NFL? Super Bowl LIV Recap

The game was great. The playoffs were great. My predictions were horrible. I finish with a pitiful playoff record of 3-8 ATS and a mediocre record of 7-4 straight up. I’ll save myself the embarrassment by not dwelling on that any longer. Instead, let's get right to the recap instead. 

Kansas City Chiefs win Super Bowl LIV, defeating the San Francisco 49ers, 31-20

Well, this game certainly lived up to the hype. Two great teams went head-to-head in a battle that was only decided in the final minutes. While my prediction didn’t exactly unfold as expected, there were certain aspects of it that came fairly close to being accurate. I predicted a Kansas City comeback, though I said that the Niners would ultimately prevail. I predicted that Garoppolo would get the ball down by five points with 2:35 remaining in the game. Instead, he got the ball down by four points with 2:39 remaining in the game. Of course, I predicted that Garoppolo would lead the Niners to victory, throwing a touchdown pass to George Kittle with no time remaining. Instead, the Chiefs defense stepped up, forcing an early turnover on downs, and ultimately icing the game on the ensuing drive, when Damien Williams scampered into the end zone from 38 yards out. 

On the biggest stage of the season, every play and every call was magnified. Shanahan’s odd clock management to end the first half was inexplicably bad. The offensive pass interference on Kittle was a 50/50 play that I would not typically expect to see called in the Super Bowl. And Garoppolo failed to put together a scoring drive when it counted most, in the final two minutes of the game. Jimmy G had his potential "Super Bowl moment" served up to him on a silver platter. It was his opportunity to prove all the naysayers wrong. His chance to cement his place in NFL history with an epic game-winning drive. However, with everything on the line, Garoppolo came up short. Whether or not it is fair to put all the blame on one player is beyond the point. History will remember the players who won games in the critical moments of the NFL’s biggest game, and Garoppolo may have missed the best chance he’ll ever get. 

But let’s turn that narrative on its head for a moment. Garoppolo came inches away from having his "Super Bowl moment." It was 3rd & 10 from the Kansas City 49-yard line. Emmanuel Sanders got behind the defense, streaking down the field on a post route. Garoppolo ripped the ball deep… but just overthrew his streaking receiver. It’s a throw that Garoppolo is certainly capable of making. If he hits it in that crucial moment, there’s a strong chance that the Niners go on to win the Super Bowl. But that’s football. With only a handful of possessions in each game, you only get a few possessions to win or lose a game.

However, the game was not only about missed opportunities. The optimist will say that what ultimately decided the game was Kansas City’s incredible ability to strike fast and relentlessly, something that they have proven to be adept at all season long. In the first 54 minutes of game time, the Chiefs scored 10 points. In the final 6 minutes, they scored 21 points. And that’s all it took to win. You can never count Mahomes out, and he proved it on the biggest stage, against one of the best defenses in the NFL. Whether you view this Super Bowl result as Shanahan failing to protect a lead again or Andy Reid finally exorcising his Super Bowl demons, one thing is for sure: Patrick Mahomes is here to say, and I have a feeling that this is only the first of many more Super Bowls to come for the exciting, young signal-caller. 

Prop Bets

But enough about the actual game. I’m sure what everyone is really wondering about is how my many Prop Bets went. And, as expected, I missed nearly all of them! I got the Coin Toss right, then missed basically every other bet! Demi Lovato’s National Anthem was well under two minutes. The first touchdown scorer was Mahomes, not Coleman (Coleman didn’t even score!). Pitbull wasn’t in the halftime show at all (thank god)! The final score was Under 54.5. The Gatorade bath was with orange Gatorade (yuck!), not red. For obvious reasons, Mahomes (not Garoppolo) won Super Bowl MVP. And Team Ruff didn’t even win the Puppy Bowl! Though they did cover the spread, as Team Fluff was able to avenge last year’s loss in a 63-59 thriller. 

In Closing...

And with Super Bowl LIV officially in the past, the 2019-20 NFL season has finally come to a close. The Super Bowl was entertaining. The season leading up to the game was entertaining. However, it all felt a bit hollow this year. Typically, I am already looking forward to next season, thinking about how [insert year] could finally be the year for the Raiders. However, that isn't the case this time. I don’t find myself looking forward to September 2020, when a long NFL offseason will finally come to an end. Maybe it’s the Raiders leaving Oakland. Maybe it’s my growing disgust for the league. Maybe it’s the sadness I feel when I watch these young men risk their future livelihoods on this silly and vicious game. Maybe it’s a combination of all these things. 

Will I be a football fan next season? I feel as though the proximity of the Raiders - the fun of the tailgates, the thrill of the Coliseum crowd - may have been one of the last things keeping me around as a fan of football. Proximity seems like a silly criterion for my fanhood. As I've noted in this blog many times before, when I first became a Raider fan as a child, I didn’t even know where Oakland was located. I only moved to the Bay Area after 18 years in Southern California and 4 years in Boston. It was only after college that I finally moved to Oakland, where my favorite team happened to play. And with my move, my fandom grew. However, almost by coincidence, my disdain for the league seemed to grow at the same rate. 

As my friends matured, most of them lost interest in the NFL and football in general. They began to see the darker side of this brutal sport. I was blinded by my fanhood. When they enlightened me, I felt ashamed. The games were entertaining, but deep down they made me feel sad and guilty. I saw the league for what it was and always has been, a modern day Gladiator Industry, where the rich effortlessly profit off the hard work of their labor. Fantasy Football began to lose some of its appeal, as it dehumanized the players to an even greater extent. All I had left was my fandom of the Raiders. The Oakland Raiders. Will the exploits of the team even interest me when they finally make their move to Las Vegas in 2020? 

So, why stick around? I enjoy the league for two reasons: the Raiders and, though it may seem silly, this blog. I’m an Engineer. I don’t have much of an outlet for my writing, beyond some Technical Writing in the form of dull Validation Protocols and Reports (which I admittedly enjoy). This is my outlet. However, I simply didn’t feel as inspired to write this season like I usually do. Maybe the monotony of the football season is finally beginning to bore me, or maybe I am simply losing my interest in the sport itself. So, will this be the end of Brosh Knows Football? Would anyone even care if it was? I’ll have to consider these things over the offseason, as I mull over the NFL's significance in my life. Will predicting the league still excite me? Will football still entertain me, rather than upset me? Will I even be a Raider fan in a few months? I guess only time will tell…