The most enjoyable Super Bowl matchup in years

I would be happy to see either of these teams win, and nearly as devastated to watch either of them lose.

Patrick Mahomes and Nick Bosa.
(Image credit: Illustrated | Tom Pennington/Getty Images, John Cordes/AP Images for Panini, Victor Metelskiy/iStock)

It was with a sigh of relief that I watched Mike Vrabel's Tennessee Titans grind out another unexpected victory. It was with an emotion much more pronounced than relief that I watched Tom Brady throw a pick-six on what could easily have been his final passing attempt in a Patriots uniform at Gillette Stadium. If I'm being totally honest, I almost fell out of my chair laughing.

Let me be clear. My animus against Tom Brady, the Man of Kale, is matched only by my admiration for Bill Belichick, the greatest coach in the modern history of the sport, the Herbert von Karajan of the NFL. That doesn't mean I want to watch either of them win another Super Bowl, even if the old maestro's adagissimo beatdown of the Rams' high-powered offense last February was more enjoyable to me than it seems to have been for roughly 90 percent of America's football-viewing public.

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Matthew Walther

Matthew Walther is a national correspondent at The Week. His work has also appeared in First Things, The Spectator of London, The Catholic Herald, National Review, and other publications. He is currently writing a biography of the Rev. Montague Summers. He is also a Robert Novak Journalism Fellow.