The Super Bowl. Luck, dumb, dumb-luck, and destiny.

First of all, only one team rightfully earned their way to the Super Bowl. In the conference championship games, New England crushed Indianapolis. The ninnies can continue whining about Deflategate, but it had absolutely no bearing on the outcome of the game. 45-7 had nothing to do with Luck, other than he was the QB on the losing end of a blowout.

On the other hand, Seattle got by Green Bay for two reasons. The Packers played incredibly dumb in the second half, and the Seahawks stumbled into some dumb luck. They had no business winning that game. Packers' QB Aaron Rodgers was absolutely right when he said they "gave it away". A handful of plays, where the Packers evidently went into brain-freeze, wound up making the difference. Nobody ever said so, of course, because the politically correct police simply won't allow it anymore. From players, to coaches, to scribes, to TV talking heads, they have all knuckled under. They can only accentuate the positives (see spin), and dare not speak of the corresponding negatives (see reality). In other words, winners are always toasted, no matter how lucky they may have been, while losers are never roasted, no matter how dumb they may have played. Destiny is what happens in the above-mentioned Pats/Colts game. Political correctness is practiced by those too afraid to speak the truth. This forum scoffs at such a notion. Did I mention ninnies?

But the recently concluded Super Bowl offered a little bit of everything mentioned in the title of this post. Tom Brady's early interception was just a dumb throw. Period. It cost his team at least 3 points, and possibly 7. That would come into play later.

Having just taken a 14-7 lead with only 30 seconds remaining in the first half, the Patriots appeared to go into Packer brain-freeze mode. They allowed the Seahawks to march 80 yards on only 5 plays to tie it up at halftime. Dumb, dumb, dumb, and would Seattle's run of dumb luck continue? Destiny, perhaps?

In the second half, Seattle scored the first 10 points to take a 24-14 lead. Nothing particularly dumb about it, just the way the game went, though Brady threw another uncharacteristic pick along the way to help them out. Seahawk cornerback Richard Sherman went into full jive mode for a camera, but that's nothing new.

Yet the game was far from over. Indeed, the Patriots defense would stiffen and Brady and crew went back to work. By that point, it had become obvious the Pats' offensive game plan was to use their smallish, but speedy and elusive wide receivers on short pass routes -- with an occasional Gronk or running play thrown in. They didn't want to challenge Seattle's superior (and physical) secondary on vertical routes, but rather took what was available. Eight yards here, 12 yards there, and keep the chains moving.

It paid off. The Pats would score two more touchdowns and retake the lead, 28-24. There was no luck, dumb or otherwise, involved. Just execution.

But with Seattle, it's never over until it's over. After the two-minute warning, they needed another touchdown and had one last shot to pull it off. Could they luck-up and snatch victory from the jaws of defeat as they had against the Packers?

And then the first of two incredible plays happened. Seattle QB Russell Wilson threw a long pass to wide-receiver Jermaine Kearse. Kearse is the same guy that had two passes bounce off his hands for interceptions against the Packers, but also the same guy that caught the winning touchdown pass in OT to win that game two weeks ago. From curse to Kearse and on to the Super Bowl.

On this particular pass, Kearse was extremely well-covered by a Patriot defender. There was no way the pass could be completed. After the football bounced off both his and the defender's hands, Kearse fell to the turf. But along the way down, the ball hit him in the leg, then the other leg, then a hand, then a hand again, then popped up in the air -- only to fall back into his chest while he was flat on the ground. Pass complete. The Patriots were likely thinking -- you've got to be kidding. We might lose the game because of an incredibly dumb luck play like that?

A couple plays later, Seattle was at New England's one yard line and time was running out. 40 seconds, 35, 30. If they poke it in for a touchdown, they're repeat Super Bowl champions. Still only on "second down" and with their full complement of time-outs, not to mention having one of the best running backs in the league named Marshawn Lynch, the Seahawks had 3 shots to score the winning touchdown from only one yard away. All seemed lost for the Patriots.

Then the other incredible play happened. Pete Carroll and his Seahawks called likely the stupidest play in the history of the Super Bowl. They had QB Wilson try a quick pass over the middle. But a Pat defensive back, a rookie no less, sniffed it out. He jumped the mini-route and intercepted it. There was nothing lucky about it. The guy read the play and made a play of his own. Seattle's dumb-luck had finally run out, in no small measure due to their own stupidity. Far be it from Pete Carroll to admit this in his post-game interview. Au contraire. The gum-chewing snake-oil salesman was up to his usual spin, saying that was the plan all along.

Idle thought: Would you buy a used car from a guy like this?

But we all know better, don't we? It was a mind boggling dumb play call, and he knows it. So do his players. So do the Patriots. So did all the texts that came pouring in from other players around the league. And we could see that the post-game talking heads were just itching to call him and/or his offensive coordinator out for calling such a stupid play and ultimately losing the Super Bowl because of it. But they can't. The politically correct thing, remember? One must talk nice. Right.

The only thing left at that point was for Tom Brady to take a couple knees and run out the clock. The game was over and Seattle's luck, dumb or otherwise, had finally run out. To the credit of both teams, the game was relatively penalty free. But far be it from the Seahawks to honorably admit defeat. Oh no. They had to goon it up at the end -- on "take a knee" plays, of all things. A mini-brawl would ensue and flags flew everywhere. Though basically no harm was done, because this offset that, one player was ejected from the game. That would be the Seahawks' Bruce Irvin, #51, the instigator.

Though only one more kneel down remained, here's the thing. Having been ejected, Irvin didn't immediately leave the field of play as required under NFL rules. He stayed on the sidelines with his teammates. The TV cameras were all over him. A technicality? Perhaps, but aren't a lot of penalties?

The hot-headed Mr. Irvin had a bad day being on the losing side of the Super Bowl. But rules are rules. He might have another bad day coming up soon. After the NFL honchos have thoroughly reviewed the game, yours truly wouldn't be a bit surprised to see his wallet lightened to the tune of a  $10,000 fine or so because he didn't follow protocol after having been ejected. Yes, it was lost in the moment, but it still happened. (Never underestimate the boneheaded capabilities of the NFL offices these days. The last year or so should be proof enough of that.) Ten grand is chump change in the NFL, you say? I agree, so it only seems fair a player that acted like a chump should be treated as such.

So we've come full circle. Along the way there was luck, dumb, dumb-luck, and finally destiny was on the Patriots side. They should have won, then lost the Super Bowl. Yet at the very end, a gift was handed to them.

Nevertheless, all hail the New England Patriots. Super Bowl champions. May they have a grand parade in Foxborough, if the snowplows can clear a mile or so of road. Good luck with that in the next few days.