Super Bowl LV

On Feb. 7 the annual Super Bowl took place. Despite the difficulties supplied by the Covid 19 pandemic, the NFL season went off without a hitch and the playoffs were the same.

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers led by Tom Brady were set to battle it by the defending champions, the Kansas City Chiefs led by Patrick Mahomes. The Buccs did not win their division but earned a wild card spot with an 11-5 regular-season record while the Chiefs entered with the best record in the league with a 14-2 regular-season record.

With the game set in Tampa Bay, this Super Bowl was the first time in history that a team, the Buccaneers, played a Super Bowl game at their home stadium. The big question upon entering the game was if Tom Brady would hand over the torch to Mahomes, the new kid who has a ring already, or would his Superbowl dominance continue.

The first quarter got off to a slow start with the first points coming from a Chiefs field goal nearly 10 minutes into the quarter. Despite this, the Buccs struck back with Brady connecting with Rob Gronkowski to score a touchdown, and an extra point shortly after, to make the game 7-3 with less than a minute in the quarter.

The second quarter took a similar route as the first except this time Tampa Bay struck first with Brady connecting with Gronk for another touchdown nearly 10 minutes into the quarter. Kansas City would score a little bit of their own with another successful field goal with one minute left in the quarter. However, a few penalties on the Chiefs’ behalf allowed Brady to successfully throw another touchdown, this time to Antonio Brown, with only six seconds left in the half making the score 21-6 before the first half came to an end.

The Chiefs struck early in the beginning of the third quarter with another field goal around only four minutes in making the score 21-9. However, Tampa proceeded to expand their lead with a rushing touchdown from the running back Leonard Fournette around halfway through the quarter making the game 28-9. They would not stop there though with Tampa Bay kicking a field goal at the end of the quarter making the score 31-9.

Despite back and forth football in the fourth quarter, no team would score and the game would end in a blowout with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers winning 31-9. Tampa Bay has their first Lombardi Trophy since 2003 and Tom Brady was named the Super Bowl MVP.

The Super Bowl may have been lackluster for many fans, but it did bring new records. Brady and Gronk set the new highest amount of postseason TDs between one duo with 13, Tampa Bay has not only become the first team to play a home Super Bowl game but the first team to win it at home too, and Brady now has more Super Bowl rings than any franchise has with seven.

Sports as a whole faced a mighty challenge with the pandemic this year, but football proved it possible to be able to succeed despite this. Football season may be over once again, but it will be back soon.