Super Bowl Sunday was a rough day for Boston sports fans, including Bill Simmons.
After watching his beloved Boston Celtics get waxed by the New York Knicks in one of their worst losses of the season, he watched the New England Patriots lay an egg against the Seattle Seahawks in Super Bowl LX.
Simmons reacted to the Patriots’ 29-13 loss to the Seahawks with Cousin Sal on “The Bill Simmons Podcast” following the game. While he was clearly frustrated with New England and the outcome, he kicked off the podcast by naming several silver linings for the Patriots and their fans to take solace in.
One was that the game could have been much worse, as Sam Darnold missed several wide-open throws for Seattle, including a pair of potential touchdown passes. That prevented New England from getting completely blown out. “This game could’ve been, like, 50-7. This could have been an absolute shellacking,” Simmons noted, which would have been even more humiliating for the Patriots.
Another was that it will be a good learning moment for Maye and potentially help his career trajectory. The best lessons are typically learned from failure, and losing the Super Bowl should motivate Maye to work even harder and keep trying to improve. It also takes pressure off him to repeat next season.
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“Christian Gonzalez was really good. Wanna shout him out,” Simmons said. “The defense was good for three quarters. I thought we did a good job.”
New England’s defense didn’t allow a touchdown until the fourth quarter and allowed only one touchdown all game. The Seahawks’ other touchdown came on a pick-six by Maye, which wasn’t the defense’s fault.
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Simmons also praised the Patriots for being ahead of schedule and returning to contention a year earlier than anticipated. Nobody expected them to reach the Super Bowl this year, not even their biggest fans.
“This Pats team, this was a gravy year. We were supposed to be two years from now,” Simmons acknowledged. “We weren’t supposed to be in the Super Bowl this year. Silver lining. Overachieved.”
Lastly, Simmons was glad Maye didn’t win NFL MVP honors over Matthew Stafford, as the award would have looked bad in hindsight given Maye’s historically terrible postseason.
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Featured image via David Butler II/Imagn Images
