The New England Patriots and Los Angeles Rams are to play for a Super Bowl title today in a generational clash that could come to define an era or mark a new beginning for the NFL.
The league is to celebrate a landmark 100th anniversary next season with either the Patriots’ old guard as defending champions looking to extend their dynasty into a new century or with the kids from Los Angeles having seized the torch.
In sport a changing of the guard is usually a slow, drawn-out process and rarely comes as sharply defined as it could be in this year’s Super Bowl.
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If Los Angeles beats New England today in Atlanta, Rams head coach, 33-year-old Sean McVay, is to become the youngest to win a Super Bowl.
If the Patriots lift the Vince Lombardi Trophy, 66-year-old Bill Belichick becomes the oldest.
“To even be mentioned in the same breath as coach Belichick... I’ve got a long way to go to even be in the same category,” McVay said. “He’s been doing it for so long, so consistently.”
At 24, the Rams’ Jared Goff is the fourth-youngest quarterback to start a Super Bowl and with a victory would become the second-youngest winner behind the Pittsburgh Steelers’ Ben Roethlisberger.
The Patriots’ Tom Brady, 41, would replace Peyton Manning as the oldest quarterback to win a Super Bowl if he can secure a sixth ring that would also all but put an end to the debate over whether “No. 12” is the greatest player of all-time.
The future Hall of Famer is the only starting quarterback in league history to win five Super Bowls and the only player ever to be named Super Bowl MVP four times.
He owns almost every significant Super Bowl quarterbacking record, including single game passing yards (505), career passing yards (2,576), completions (235), passing attempts (357) and touchdown passes (18).
The Super Bowl is to provide a matchup that could not be more different in both style and substance.
The Patriots are to be making their third consecutive Super Bowl appearance, their fourth in the past five years and ninth since 2002, winning five times.
With a win, the Rams, who won a Super Bowl in 2000 before relocating to the west coast, would celebrate their second Super Bowl title and first since their move to Los Angeles in 2016.
For all of Belichick and McVay’s coaching and motivational brilliance, and the quarterbacking wizardry of Brady and Goff, the battle for the Super Bowl will most likely be won in the trenches.
The Patriots’ offensive line has put an impenetrable force field around Brady, allowing him time to work his magic, particularly in two contests in which the Kansas City Chiefs and San Diego Chargers failed to register a sack.
Keeping Brady upright against one of the NFL’s most menacing defenses spearheaded by Defensive Player of the Year Aaron Donald, is to be a challenge for the Patriots’ offensive line that must also open holes for the New England running game.
“We’ve been able to play the game on our terms and that includes being able to run it and throw it on our terms,” Brady said. “Our line has done an incredible job all year, but we have the biggest test of the year coming up.”
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