Tag: Super Bowl 51

NFL fans scorched the Falcons with 28-3 jokes after they interviewed Bill Belichick for their coach opening

The Falcons are down so bad that they’d hire their greatest tormentor.

The Atlanta Falcons haven’t qualified for a postseason in over six years. In that time, they haven’t finished above .500, either. Even with three consecutive top-10 picks in recent years, the Falcons are somehow still mired in persistent mediocrity.

Owner Arthur Blank seems desperate to field a winner again. How desperate is he? He’s apparently willing to hire perhaps the most infamous tormentor in Falcons’ franchise history. (Not you, Desmond Ridder. Don’t worry.)

Bill Belichick.

On Monday night, the Falcons revealed they had officially interviewed Belichick for their head coach opening. If we set aside questions of fit for a second, this is unbelievably funny. Belichick is, of course, the architect of the worst loss the Falcons have ever suffered — a blown 25-point lead in the fourth quarter of Super Bowl 51.

Now they’re turning to him to right the ship? The NFL can be such an amazing comedic stand-up act sometimes.

The irony of Belichick potentially coaching in Atlanta wasn’t lost on NFL fans, either. To say the Falcons have reached rock bottom would probably be an understatement.

80 for Brady review: A surprising combination of charm, chuckles and chutzpah

80 for Brady is an easy win for all involved.

If you want to understand the unbeatable charm of 80 for Brady, watch Sally Field chow down on hot wings in a contest hosted by Guy Fieri.

In a world where we’ve lost touch with how to build consistent studio comedies for theaters, it seems strange to imagine that there aren’t 500 more movies like this. You know, just watching an elderly screen icon doing something silly can bring forth laughter you never know you had in you.

That’s the fun of 80 for Brady, a sports-centric comedy with four undisputed entertainment legends who just want to have a good time watching Tom Brady play football. If you can’t find at least something enjoyable in watching a stoned Rita Moreno walk around a mansion in a Venetian mask to discover a room full of Guy Fieris playing poker, you need to loosen up a bit.

What’s refreshing about 80 for Brady is the commitment to the concept. It’s easy to get a bunch of hyper-talented comedic actors like Lily Tomlin and Jane Fonda together and let them just do their thing. Tomlin and Fonda have been doing that together for decades, going all the way back to 1980’s 9 to 5. It’d have been easy to just throw these four ladies in any sort of situational comedy and let it all just work itself out. However, the feisty screenplay from Sarah Haskins and Emily Halpern helps the broader humor all blend in together with the Super Bowl-related shenanigans.

They do have a real-life story to kinda-sorta consider, even though there are clear fantastical licenses the writers had to take with what inspired this. You can’t really make that much of a movie just about four seniors heading to Houston to watch Brady and the New England Patriots take on the Atlanta Falcons in Super Bowl 51. You can, however, delightfully embellish just how that might’ve gone down.

There isn’t a nuanced bone in this movie’s body, and it’s all the better for it. Playing it as broad as possible allows 80 for Brady to maximize its loonier plot developments, and it gives the primary quartet plenty of room to just let their organic comedic chops take over whatever scene is going on. Moreno has been doing this since the 1950s, and she’s still as spry as ever. You could argue, even though Tomlin and Fonda are the comedic titans here, that Moreno and Field get the biggest laughs.

While any Falcons fan attending might want to excuse themselves for a bathroom break during the film’s actual Super Bowl sequences, there’s enough for even the most begrudged Dirty Bird fan to find something pleasant in a lighthearted comedy that’s very sure of itself.

How is Brady, you might wonder? While he’s certainly not going to have an acting career like the one former NFL cornerback Nnamdi Asomugha has built for himself, he holds his own with what he’s asked to do. He and Tomlin share one sweet moment toward the end of the movie that does make you wonder if Brady does have something in him for acting, but more than likely, he won’t grace the screen with any movie that doesn’t have his name in the title.

Watching 80 for Brady is a bit like joining in for a game night at your grandma’s retirement village. There’s just something nice about watching an entire room of elderly people crack jokes and sip the bubbly on a Saturday afternoon. If you have a grandma, take her to see this one. The smile on her face will undoubtedly make the one on yours grow even bigger.

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Cowboys DC Dan Quinn finally got some revenge on Tom Brady for that 28-3 Super Bowl debacle

Good for Dan Quinn!

Nearly six years after suffering one of the worst losses in NFL history to Tom Brady, Dallas Cowboys defensive coordinator Dan Quinn finally got even.

On top of a superstar performance from Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott, Quinn’s vaunted Cowboys defense absolutely smothered Brady and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on their home turf.

The Falcons finally (technically) got their first franchise win against Brady to close the 2022 regular season. Now it’s Quinn who got his dose of 28-3  revenge.

In what’s probably the worst performance Brady has ever had in his multi-decade playoff career, Quinn’s Cowboys defense held Brady’s Bucs offense to 13 points and forced Brady to 66 passing attempts as the Tampa Bay run game sputtered.

In the quick view of things, Quinn’s defense helped Dallas in part advance to the next round of the NFC playoffs. It also helped boost Quinn’s credentials to land another head coaching job after being let go by the Atlanta Falcons in 2020.

In the long view, however, Quinn finally shook off Brady after the latter snatched a Super Bowl win from the Falcons back in 2017. You know, that one.

Yes, it was that fateful February Sunday six years ago that Brady and the New England Patriots rallied back from a 28-3 deficit in the second half to win Super Bowl 51 in overtime.

The game salted what was the best season in Atlanta Falcons history, and a season that sent Quinn from one of the league’s emerging head coaches to the guy whose team blew a 28-3 lead in the Super Bowl. Quinn went from a rising star to an internet meme. His team never fully recovered.

The Falcons started their slow descent into the NFL’s basement, while Quinn saw his Seattle-style defense decay in Atlanta as draft and free agency whiffs started to mesh with uninspired play calling. The Falcons have never been known as a defensive heavyweight, but Quinn came to Flowery Branch as a defensive mastermind and left a relative pariah.

In Dallas, Quinn returned to the booth and revitalized his defensive scheme and inherited a much better defensive roster than what he ever had in Atlanta. He helped the Cowboys reemerge as a factor in the NFC. With 2021 first-round pick Micah Parsons the missing piece to a giant, the Cowboys had a buzzsaw defense that nobody in the NFL wanted to play.

However, Quinn was always going to carry 28-3 with him in his attempt to get back to being an NFL head coach. He was going to need some sort of achievement to prove to teams that, indeed, he could get past it and lead an NFL team again. On Monday night, Quinn finally got Brady back after the latter robbed him of a Lombardi.

Brady shredded that Falcons defense to a fine powder during Super Bowl 51, but Quinn did the exact same thing to Brady during Monday night’s Wild Card blowout.

It remains to be seen how far the Cowboys will go in the NFC playoffs, but Quinn’s defense will certainly have the San Francisco 49ers offensive staff staying a little later at the office this week to prepare. That defense is so good that it could launch Dallas to a Super Bowl berth. If Prescott keeps playing like this, the sky’s the limit for America’s Team.

At the very least, Quinn won’t just be known anymore as one of the NFL’s most friendly, player-first coaches. He’ll be known as the guy was able to finally get Brady back after 28-3. That might be enough to get Quinn a spot back on an NFL sideline sooner than later.

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Another Tom Brady celebrates a special anniversary today

Bucs QB Tom Brady took to Instagram today to give a special shoutout to a few special people in his life, including Tom Brady.

Buccaneers quarterback Tom Brady has had a lot to celebrate over his Hall of Fame career. From numerous records set to six Super Bowl championships, every year is an anniversary of some achievement in the quarterback’s football life.

But, today, it’s another Tom Brady who is celebrating an anniversary — Tom Brady, Sr. that is. The junior Brady took to Instagram today to wish his mother and father a special 51st anniversary.

Fun fact: Brady and his New England Patriots mounted the greatest comeback in history in Super Bowl 51 against the Atlanta Falcons, overcoming a 28-3 second-half deficit. 

Congratulations to the Brady bunch!

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Sean Payton gets in a crafty dig at the Falcons on Twitter

New Orleans Saints head coach Sean Payton had some spare time, so he got on Twitter and joked about the Atlanta Falcons Super Bowl collapse:

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The rivalry between the New Orleans Saints and the Atlanta Falcons is one of the NFL’s most underrated competitions, representing the closest thing the pro level has to the generations-long bouts you’ll see in college football. And not even Saints coach Sean Payton is above indulging in the fun every now and then.

Approached by a Falcons fan on Twitter who joked that Payton should, “Get back in your bag and provide us some show reviews,” during the lengthy stay-at-home orders many Americans are respecting in light of the coronavirus pandemic, Payton obliged — but was careful to take a jab at the Falcons’ expense.

We’ve embedded the exchange below; read it once for some legitimate recommendations from a few prominent streaming services, then look a little deeper.

The first letter in each line of Payton’s response spells out, “28 to 3, Houston we have a problem,” referencing the Falcons’ historic collapse in Super Bowl LI against the New England Patriots (at the Houston Texans’ NRG Stadium, no less. Good on Coach for doing his homework).

That game of course saw the Falcons surrender a 25-point lead late in the third quarter, setting the franchise back years and denying Falcons faithful the Super Bowl win they’ve spent so many years chasing. Honestly, you love to see it.

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