The Patriot Post® · Patriots Win, Moralizing Advertisers Lose

Super Bowl LI (that’s 51 for you non-NFL/Roman numeral fans) featured all the elements of a public attention-grabber: a flashy young Atlanta Falcons team facing the New England Patriots’ dynasty, a seemingly insurmountable halftime lead blown and the first overtime Super Bowl in NFL history. Oh, and politics. Yeah, in 2017 America, nothing is unsullied by our true national pastime — political bickering.

First, we back up to last Friday before the game, when the Boston Globe found some Patriots fans to be feeling suddenly un-Patriot-ic. The Globe reported, “The ‘Make America Great Again’ hat that [quarterback Tom] Brady kept stationed in his locker for a time put some on edge, as did the letter of support [head coach Bill] Belichick wrote to Trump prior to the election. [Team owner Robert] Kraft, a longtime friend who credits the president with supporting him after the 2011 death of his wife, Myra, attended last month’s inauguration. The willingness of three prominent members of the organization to associate themselves with Trump — particularly in a state as blue as Massachusetts — has left some scratching their heads.” Conservatives, of course, are used to hearing public figures disagree and even viciously slam us. For those sheltered leftist souls in the deep-blue Bay State, however, these are uncharted waters. Maybe these “progressives” will cheer to know that tight end Martellus Bennett will boycott the White House ceremony celebrating the Patriots’ win.

Second, we’ll note just what conservatives usually have to put up with: leftist lecturing. Many Americans watch the game for the ads. Audi hectored us about the phony gender wage gap. But immigration was the dominant theme, with not one, not two but three ads moralizing about the issue — the one from 84 Lumber being the most heavy handed. We suspect most Americans vastly prefer to be entertained by humorous and silly commercials than ads designed to shame half the population. The same goes for the sport itself. We watch to see the clash of combatants on the gridiron, not the pouty nonsense of kneeling social justice warriors. Let’s make sports (and commercials) great again.