Do people appreciate how remarkable this all was?

It certainly was a magical ride.

You hammered home some great points, here are a few more...........

1.) Pats were the first team ever to come back from TWO 14 point deficits to win a playoff game.

2.) Going deep in the playbook with Edelman? Sure, and also by throwing a TD pass to Nate Solder on thrid down in an absolute downpour.

3.) First team ever to comeback from a 10 point, 4th qtr Super Bowl deficit.

4.) Not only was our Super Bowl against a worthy opponent (not a low seed that managed to somehow get in) but was against the #1 seed that also happened to be the DEFENDING Super Bowl Champs.

5.) In prior playoff losses we have been devastated by our defense not being able to protect Brady's leads. Well, this time it happened .... no just once but twice!!!! (Harmon INT and Butler INT)

6.) This isn't as glamorous but how about Blount's story, pickign up where he left off and bowling over teh Colts D.

Danger Zone said:

I just read this piece of trivia today... way after it "trended" on the Internets, but it helps make you appreciate coming out the top dog.

Lions lose in gut wrenching fashion to the Cowboys.
The Cowboys lose in gut wrenching fashion to the Packers
Packers lose in gut wrenching fashion to the Seahawks
Seahawks lose in gut wrenching fashion to the Patriots.

What a year!

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Very true, the Lions and Cowboys have the refs to blame while the Packers and Seahawks only have themselves to blame.

PatsFanSince74 said:

I'm sorry, but I think the best parts were:
1) Watching Kurt Warner having to deliver the trophy to the podium. You just know that he volunteered for that duty because he was sure the Seahawks were going to do the Pats what they did to the Broncos last year. Watching him trying to keep a smile on his face for those three or four agonizing minutes was priceless...plus it all happened the day after he wasn't elected to the HOF.
2) The look on Bob Kraft's face as he glared at Goodell during the trophy presentation.
3) The speed with which Goodell exited the podium.

Oh yeah, the game was pretty good too.

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If you think Kart Warner trying to keep a smile deliverying the trophy this year...wait till you see Joe Montana deliverying the trophy to Brady next year, now that's coming back full circle!

Danger Zone said:

That makes 3 of us..

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Ahhh Yessss, Officiating Crew at Mile High Stadium.

The Kearse 'fluke' catch is DEFINITELY the craziest part about this. I mean, what are the frigging odds? And (as you say) that TIME OF THE GAME in the Super Bowl. I mean, if Butler had not interecepted that ball and we go onto lose, this would have been a devastating loss. I mean, that is some MESSED UP bad luck if we lose on yet another IMPROBABLE catch (to a guy named "KEARSE")!!!!!

If this was a script of a movie it would be thrown out due to the absurd improbability of these events really taking place.

Obviously now knwoing that we won I'm kind of glad Kearse made that circus catch. It's almost like things came full circle. With our past misfortunes and another improbable loss about to be completed, I'd say it gave fans even moe of an appreciation for victory.

hellolin said:

If you think Kart Warner trying to keep a smile deliverying the trophy this year...wait till you see Joe Montana deliverying the trophy to Brady next year, now that's coming back full circle!

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If I'm not mistaken I thought Warner actually changed his tune about Brady and the Pats, no?

I think he was one of the people on record leading up to the Super Bowl by saying that everyone should admire Brady's greatness instead of getting caught up in defaltegate.

Crazy Patriot Guy said:

We're down 10, 12 minutes left. Brady takes a sack on 1st down. I'm telling myself if they go 3 and out, I'm leaving my cousin's house and going home. 45 minutes later my phone is blowing up because we just won the Super Bowl.

After the catch and until the pick: "d%#*!@t, this crap is going to happen to us a 3rd time!!! How can this happen AGAIN? Just let him score................YES!!!! YES!!!!! YES!!!!!!!"

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These are the kind of posts that put a smile on my face, and when the timing is right my wife will walk by, see me and ask "what's so funny?" I just let her know it's about the Pats and she nods her head in agreement as she walks away.

I will always appreciate what TB and BB did for this team/franchise no matter what happens

brdmaverick said:

The Kearse 'fluke' catch is DEFINITELY the craziest part about this. I mean, what are the frigging odds? And (as you say) that TIME OF THE GAME in the Super Bowl. I mean, if Butler had not interecepted that ball and we go onto lose, this would have been a devastating loss. I mean, that is some MESSED UP bad luck if we lose on yet another IMPROBABLE catch (to a guy named "KEARSE")!!!!!

If this was a script of a movie it would be thrown out due to the absurd improbability of these events really taking place.

Obviously now knwoing that we won I'm kind of glad Kearse made that circus catch. It's almost like things came full circle. With our past misfortunes and another improbable loss about to be completed, I'd say it gave fans even moe of an appreciation for victory.

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What the Kearse catch did was make Seattle's loss that much more devastating to them. Some of the players and fans could still be in shock.

Brady_to_Moss said:

I will always appreciate what TB and BB did for this team/franchise no matter what happens

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Whenever I get nostalgic about the Pats success, I can't help but think of **** Rehbein, God rest his soul. How did that man know so early that Brady would become what he has?

The stars aligned properly and we ended up with Tom Brady and Bill Belichick.

SunsOutGunsOut said:

yeah .. but they haven't won 2 superbowls since spygate .. so that is that ..

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And only one since deflategate!!!

It was incredibly impressive. However looking at those 2 game Ravens/Seahawks it seems at that time (due to injuries as well to be fair) the Pats were the better team and they needed to make mistakes or have strange plays take place to keep the other team in it.

These results are incredible but we should look at them and think "should they really have been in those spots in the first place?".

BobDigital said:

It was incredibly impressive. However looking at those 2 game Ravens/Seahawks it seems at that time (due to injuries as well to be fair) the Pats were the better team and they needed to make mistakes or have strange plays take place to keep the other team in it.

These results are incredible but we should look at them and think "should they really have been in those spots in the first place?".

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I see what you are saying, but it's unrealistic to think that all game should be like the AFC Championship Game. After all, the other teams are getting paid, too.

hellolin said:

If you think Kart Warner trying to keep a smile deliverying the trophy this year...wait till you see Joe Montana deliverying the trophy to Brady next year, now that's coming back full circle!

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Brady's face when his boyhood idle delivers number 5 will be priceless!

Thank you for joining and posting this! Welcome to the forum. I will add:

1) Seattle was a yard away from knocking out the Patriots with a lucky catch, while breaking the Patriots back-to-back win record in recent years. The Patriots stopped them cold.

2) The reason nobody remembers such an amazing interception is that Seattle had a 93% chance of winning the game and 0.0% chance of interception all year, if you look at the league average success rate at the 1 yard line against all sorts of passing defenses.

3) The probability of winning jumps up to 97 or 99% if you take into account that Seattle faced an 8-man line. On top of that, one of three cornerbacks was a player nobody heard of (not even Patriots fans.) Thirdly, that rookie just allowed a giant play minutes earlier. Fourth, Seattle were not an average team. They got it done last year and came back against the Packers.

Here's the explanation, for those who care:

NFL 2014 season, passing plays from 1 yard line:

60% resulted in touchdowns
40% incomplete to stop the clock
0 interceptions at that point

If you throw it three times, that’s a 93.5% success rate!

But remember, Seattle’s chances were much higher than 60% for reasons stated above.

A 70% success rate repeated three times? 97.3% chance of TD. 80% success rate? 99.2%.

Seattle’s RB's could have been benched for the rest of the game, it doesn’t change the odds of a near-certain win for them.

Belichick, Browner, and the rest of the coaches made sure to share their knowledge of Seattle's tendencies with everyone including Butler, a rookie CB.

(I excluded a tiny chance of fumbling prior to the pass because I’m too lazy to check that number now, but you get the point.)

Ok, I think I see what you did there........

with a 60% success rate, that's a 40% fail. So the probability of failing on three straight plays is 0.4 * 0.4* 0.4 = 0.064 (6.4%), whcih makes the probability of success 93.6%

40yrpatsfan said:

Also in terms of rebuilding the team: throughout our "down" years of 09 thru 13, we still won the division every year and got to 2 AFC title games and 1 SB (which we shoulda won).

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Other fans would kill for a stretch like the "down" years, instead of critiquing those years. People definitely need to appreciate what a run this team has been on since '01. Enjoy it while it lasts.

1960Pats said:

Whenever I get nostalgic about the Pats success, I can't help but think of **** Rehbein, God rest his soul. How did that man know so early that Brady would become what he has?

The stars aligned properly and we ended up with Tom Brady and Bill Belichick.

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I highly doubt DR foresaw what Brady would become, but he did have foresight enough to see that TB12 would be able to play in this league and was worth "taking a chance" on.

To me this was by far the most satisfying SB victory of the four. Even more so than the first. The first SB, expectations were tempered. I was happy to just have them experience such a miraculous season. The Win itself was huge. Dramatic and a foundation builder for the franchise.

However this years win was important to me as a fan. We all agonized over Spygate... and all the crap that came with it. Which was crushing when compounded by the unfulfilled perfect season. The nature of the losses to the Giants were of course, painful.

The prospect that Brady's career successes would be lost on people since they were at the beginning of his tenure, then clouded with controversy. We didn't want to see him just fade away to be a prominent footnote. More importantly....we needed to validate to everyone in the league...that over the years...we beat your asses because we were just way effing better than you. Then the weight of a new, manufactured controversy leading up to the game was just a mood killer. Exacerbated by talking heads who seemed driven to put a nail in the coffin of the team's legacy.

The victory....that interception at the goal line was like 20 tons of rock lifted off my fan psyche. Totally liberating. No bigger joy nor bigger middle finger could have been directed at all of the trolls and ****-stirrers.

Pure Magic, that very few football fans in this country will ever enjoy.