Super Bowl LI Open Thread

On Sunday, February 5th, the Atlanta Falcons face the New England Patriots in Super Bowl LI.

Jommy provided the game time, TV channel, spread, over/under, etc, and other info awhile back.

Atlanta’s Offensive Coordinator Kyle Shanahan, the soon-to-be head coach of the San Francisco 49ers, won the NFL’s Assistant Coach of the Year award on Saturday night. Matt Ryan was named the NFL’s Offensive Player of the year and the NFL’s Most Valuable Player.

The Falcons have only ever made it to one other Super Bowl, where they lost to John Elway’s Broncos (their second consecutive championship) (Terrell Davis, who was voted into the NFL Hall of Fame on Saturday night, was also on that team).

Meanwhile, The Patriots’ duo of Bill Belichick and Tom Brady have won four super bowls together. No quarterback has ever won more than four super bowls, though Terry Bradshaw and Joe Mantana also have four rings apiece. This will be the ninth Super Bowl appearance for the Patriots franchise, more times than any other team has ever played in the big game. Belichick now holds the record for most Super Bowl appearances for a head coach with 7, and has the chance to break his tie with Chuck Noll for head coaching super bowl wins if he gets his 5th.

To add extra intrigue to the sport’s biggest game, the Patriots Super Bowl appearance comes on the heels of the ‘deflagate’ controversy. Many people think that it would be quite dramatic to see Roger Goodell hand over the trophy to Patriots’ owner Robert Kraft, Belichick, and Brady.

If you don’t care for the game itself, I hear the commercials are supposed to be pretty good.

Lady Gaga will be performing the half-time show.

What about Titans’ ties to the Super Bowl game? Jommy covered that, too.

TV Info: The game starts at 5:30PM CST and will be aired on Fox. There is pre-game coverage broadcasting all day on both Fox and NFL Network.

I will be watching this game in my $20 Chinese-made Julio Jones jersey rooting for a historical outcome in the form of Tom Brady becoming the first quarterback with 5 Super Bowl victories.

Use this thread to discuss the game...