PHILADELPHIA — I don’t know. Maybe it’s me. I’m not feeling the Super Bowl this year. You? Rams-Bengals is this Sunday, at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood. It’s understandable if you forgot. For the first time in a long time, the big game feels small. There are reasons to be interested in Super Bowl LVI, sure. There always are reasons to be interested in the Super Bowl. There just aren’t as many in this Super Bowl.
Hey, I get it. If you’re a football junkie, someone who digs the sport’s Xs and Os, you’re probably already poring over All-22 film and spreadsheets and algorithms, analyzing the game’s most important matchups, tweeting out all your insights and look-out-for-this-on-third-and-long scenarios: Ja’Marr Chase vs. Jalen Ramsey, Cooper Kupp against the entire Cincinnati secondary, Sean McVay’s tendencies vs. Zac Taylor’s tendencies, etc. But football junkies can geek out over any game, any set of matchups. The Super Bowl is different. The Super Bowl is the most popular TV show in America, and among the factors that compel people to tune in, Xs and Os aren’t so high on the list. Other elements matter, and this game is missing them.
— It’s missing … Tom Brady, both who he has been and what he represents. Brady had played in five of the previous seven Super Bowls, winning four of them, and his presence in the game set up dramatic conflicts and story lines that were attractive to the broader public. Last year, it was Brady vs. Patrick Mahomes: The Best of the Best vs. The Best of Today. In 2018, it was Brady vs. Nick Foles, The Ultimate Favorite vs. The Ultimate Underdog. You watched to see Brady win again, or you watched to see someone beat him. Either way, you watched.
