Pats Win 6th Super Bowl & I Get To Miss Another Championship Parade

The New England Patriots won their sixth Super Bowl defeating the Los Angeles Rams 13-3 in Super Bowl LIII in Atlanta. The win comes exactly 17 years to the day the Pats won their first Super Bowl also against the Rams who were based in St. Louis. The Pats join the Pittsburgh Steelers as the only other NFL franchise with six Super Bowl titles.

Both head coach Bill Belichick and quarterback Tom Brady have been there from the beginning. But this year it was wide receiver Julian Edelman's turn to shine. Edelman caught 10 passes for 141 yards and earned the Super Bowl MVP.

Much to my surprise, the Pats were the overwhelming fan favorite in Atlanta despite their epic comeback against the Falcons two years ago. Then again there was some question to the legitimacy of the Rams being in the Super Bowl to begin with the referees missing an obvious pass interference call near the end of the game which denied the New Orleans Saints the NFC title.

But two years is a long time. Time can heal wounds. Of course, Pats fans hate NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell with the same intensity and passion they did at the beginning of Deflategate. In which case, time wounds all heels.

For the second time in three months, I will be missing a championship parade. I guess Boston will continue to carry on with championship parades long after I'm gone. It's just as well. This one won't hurt as much as missing the Red Sox parade even if I had attended three others. The only Pats parade I attended was two years ago and that was because I was working in Boston's Government Center where the parade rally was held. The weather was miserable and no one cared. I remember Pats fans chanting, "We want six!!!" We want six!!!"

Well, now they've got six they will surely want seven. A seventh Super Bowl title for the Patriots would put them in a class all their own. But Pats fans will enjoy six for now. Most of my colleagues at the Chrysler Building won't. That's OK with me. Where it concerns football, there's the New England Patriots and there's everybody else.