There was a time when Super Bowls were like film credits. They arrived at the end, briefly celebrated talented people, and signaled that the interesting stuff was over.
The modern Super Bowl is the epic it was always advertised to be. The event marked by the silly pomposity of Roman numerals has evolved into a sleek modern entertainment vehicle, packed with plot twists, story lines, celebrities and a zillion commercials.
In the olden days, back when "press conferences'' consisted of a few sportswriters sitting around a pool interviewing a shirtless Joe Namath, the matchups were often more intriguing than the games.
In the first 37 Super Bowls, the average margin of victory was 16.2 points, and in 20 of those games, the final margin was 15 points or more.
In the past 15 Super Bowls, the average margin of victory is 8.7 points, and there has been only one game decided by more than 15 points — the Seahawks' 43-8 victory over Denver in Super Bowl XLVIII.
The Patriots and Rams, who will meet in Super Bowl LIII on Sunday in Atlanta, embody this trend.
The Pats were patsies in their first two Super Bowl appearances, losing 46-10 to the Bears in 1986 and 35-21 to the Packers in 1997.
In their eight Super Bowl appearances since the arrival of Bill Belichick and Tom Brady, the Patriots are 5-3. They have outscored their opponents in those eight Super Bowls by a total of four points. In those eight games, only two have been decided by more than four points — when they scored an overtime touchdown to beat Atlanta in 2017, and when Brady fumbled on their final drive at U.S. Bank Stadium last year to seal the Eagles' eight-point victory.
