Something with the heft of history is going to happen on Super Bowl Sunday, no matter who wins the game — something you cannot say every year, or even most. And you’d have a good argument debating whether the New England Patriots winning or the Philadelphia Eagles winning would be more significant. Bigger. Better for the NFL.
The league wins either way, and this is a league, and a commissioner, Roger Goodell, and a sport, that could use the lift of a special Super Bowl after a particularly beleaguered season of woe.
Ongoing controversies over anthem-kneeling as a symbol of social injustice protests and player health-safety issues won’t be made to disappear by a great championship game.