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.”)