A small, flat piece of metal spun in the cold Kansas City air Sunday evening, and the nearly 100 men dressed in football uniforms knew their Super Bowl fate was at stake. New England captain Matthew Slater, a special teams guru, called heads a split-second before the coin left referee Clete Blakeman’s hand. A sold-out crowd at Arrowhead Stadium embraced a collective silence.
As the coin finally hit the emblem-stained grass, the advantage in an AFC Championship Game was settled.
Heads, it was.
The overtime football belonged to the Patriots. Thirteen plays later, so did the Lamar Hunt Trophy.