You wanted normal back. Well, you can't get much more normal than Tom Brady heading to the Super Bowl. But like everything else over the past year, this act of normalcy was about as abnormal as you can get. On a new team in a year with no preseason, Brady won three straight road playoff games to make it to his tenth Super Bowl. If this had been an ordinary year, we would have paid more attention to the competition between coach Bill Belichick and Tom Brady to determine who was more responsible for the Patriot's dynastic run. There was no more wanton, callous, example of NFL disloyalty than the Patriots indicating they were through with a 6 time Super Bowl winner. They should have let him sit in the pocket on a lounge chair if he wanted to. They betrayed the greatest player of an era, and the Football gods are punishing them. Did I mention that Tom Brady is 43? At the moment he was running out the clock on another remarkable achievement, I was pulling a hammie trying to find my Apple TV remote between my couch cushions. After defeating Aaron Rodgers and the Packers, Brady will face the amazing Patrick Mahomes who has now led the Kansas City Chiefs to back to back Super Bowls. This matchup gives Brady a chance to add to his legend by becoming the first player ever to beat two State Farm spokespeople in a row. SI: Tom Brady's Bucs Season Has Somehow Added to a Legacy That Barely Had Any Room to Top.

+ "Like it or not, here in Patriot Nation the narrative is that Belichick ran Brady out of town and now Tom has delivered the ultimate foam finger salute in the direction of Gillette Stadium." Dan Shaughnessy in The Boston Globe: Final score: Tom Brady 1, Patriots 0. (After each of Brady's legendary performances, I always picture him back home lounging on the bed next to Gisele watching highlights and occasionally muttering aloud, "This all seems like it's going pretty well.")

"The Biden administration is now running a race of vaccination versus variants—it must continue to suppress transmission, and vaccinate people, before more transmissible variants of the virus emerge. The winner of this race will depend on three unknowns: mitigation, evolution, and vaccine distribution." The Atlantic's Robinson Meyer: America Is Now in a Race of Vaccination vs. the Variants.

+ "Even though the vaccine generated disease-fighting antibodies that worked against the South African variant, that efficacy was diminished. Moderna said there was a reduction in response, prompting the company to design a new potential vaccine that could be added to the current two-dose regimen." The South African variant looks like it's the most different and dangerous. WaPo: Moderna vaccine protects against British and South African variants, company says.

+ "In just a month, Israel has vaccinated over a quarter of its 9.2 million people. At the same time, the virus continues to race through the country, with authorities confirming an average of over 8,000 new cases a day." Israel is way ahead of the US in terms of the percentage of the population vaccinated. And they just issued new rules that essentially shut the country off from international flights.

"The unassuming lawyer who worked on the plan, Jeffrey Clark, had been devising ways to cast doubt on the election results and to bolster Mr. Trump's continuing legal battles and the pressure on Georgia politicians. Because Mr. Rosen had refused the president's entreaties to carry out those plans, Mr. Trump was about to decide whether to fire Mr. Rosen and replace him with Mr. Clark. The department officials, convened on a conference call, then asked each other: What will you do if Mr. Rosen is dismissed? The answer was unanimous. They would resign." During the same week Trump was inciting an insurrection of the Capitol and pressuring Georgia officials to overturn election results, he was also plotting to oust the acting attorney general to help his cause.

+ Are these seditious acts bad enough to get Trump convicted by the Senate? As the articles of impeachment get sent over, it's not looking likely.

+ Trump won't face legal consequences for holding onto his DC hotel and other business interests while president. (Man, this era is going to teach some very troubling lessons to the next American authoritarian...)

+ Jane Mayer in the The New Yorker: Why McConnell Dumped Trump.

"All Americans who are qualified to serve in the armed forces of the United States should be able to serve. The all-volunteer force thrives when it is composed of diverse Americans who can meet the rigorous standards for military service, and an inclusive military strengthens our national security." Biden continues to executive order away some of Trump's signature moves. The latest: Biden Has Reversed Trump's Transgender Military Service Ban.

+ And in some great news for what has been a longtime cause here at NextDraft, the Harriet Tubman Twenty is back on track. It might be the perfect time to score your Harriet Tubman Twenty Shirt.

"It was clear that he was getting input from people who were calling him up, I don't know who, people he knew from business, saying, 'Hey, I heard about this drug, isn't it great?' or, 'Boy, this convalescent plasma is really phenomenal.' And I would try to, you know, calmly explain that you find out if something works by doing an appropriate clinical trial; you get the information, you give it a peer review. And he'd say, 'Oh, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, this stuff really works.' He would take just as seriously their opinion — based on no data, just anecdote — that something might really be important. It wasn't just hydroxychloroquine, it was a variety of alternative-medicine-type approaches. It was always, 'A guy called me up, a friend of mine from blah, blah, blah.' That's when my anxiety started to escalate." The NYT's, Donald G. McNeil Jr. talks to Anthony Fauci on What Working for Trump Was Really Like. (If I ever doing something horrible that leads to tens of thousands of unnecessary deaths, I really hope Anthony Fauci is the one to describe my behavior to historians...)

"Corporations that advertise on Fox News should walk away, and citizens who care about the truth should demand that they do so (in addition to trying to steer their friends and relatives away from the network). Big companies would never do that, you say? Don't be so sure." WaPo's Margaret Sullivan: Fox News is a hazard to our democracy. It's time to take the fight to the Murdochs. Here's how.

+ Speaking of people who lie for a living, Sarah Huckabee Sanders has announced a run for Arkansas governor.

+ And speaking of how corporations can help stop people from lying for a living, Dominion Is Suing Rudy Giuliani For Spreading The "Big Lie" About Election Fraud.

"Still, several things seem clear to me: Boeing should have paid substantially more money to settle the investigation; the government should not have been party to an agreement that appears to have been designed to mislead the public into thinking that the company is paying far more money than it actually is; and the exculpation of senior management should never have been included. In isolation, these items may seem unremarkable, but as a package, the deal is a triumph for Boeing and its executives without precedent." Ankush Khardori in NYMag with a very interesting look at Boeing's ridiculously sweet settlement, and why it flew right over our heads.

"In the southern city of Eindhoven, protesters threw fireworks, looted supermarkets and smashed shop windows. There were smaller protests in Amsterdam, and in some cities and towns around the country. More than 200 people have been detained, police said." Dutch PM Mark Rutte condemns curfew riots as 'criminal violence.' Humans should stop getting pissed at each other and start getting pissed at the virus.

"We're journalists, and we don't get to pick and choose how people react to things. It's okay for people to take a break from the heavy journalism and find lighthearted moments." The Connecticut photographer who took the shot that became the Bernie Sanders mitten meme.

Patrick Leahy is now third in America's line of succession. He's also been in five Batman movies. (Good, he'll benefit from that practice dealing with Jokers.)

+ Man Allegedly Hid From Coronavirus and Authorities In Chicago Airport For 3 Months. (If it's like most airports, cable news was on in the background for those three months. So he should be sentenced to time served.)