Epic Super Bowl LI comeback ends NFL’s 2016 season
By Brian Miller
On Sunday night the New England Patriots and the Atlanta Falcons finished off the final game of the 2016 NFL season. And it was epic.
Entering the 4th quarter, 100’s of New England Patriots began leaving the stadium in Houston as the Patriots were losing and losing badly but as is the case with Bill Belichick and Tom Brady, no lead is insurmountable.
Brady led the Patriots back into the game and then with 30 seconds left in the game tied it up and thus sent the game into overtime where they won the coin toss and minutes later won their 6th Super Bowl title.
Now it’s time to get back to work. For all 32 teams in the NFL.
The league new year does not start until early March but teams will soon be adding and in some cases subtracting from their rosters as they get ready for the start of free agency. Tenders will be placed on some players while franchise tags and transition tags will be placed on others.
While the off-season is typically the slowest part of the year, the period between the conclusion of the Super Bowl to the late April draft is some of the busiest for NFL teams. Free agency, the NFL Combine, pro-day workouts, and of course the NFL Draft. The process to build, rebuild, and improve teams will start.
The Miami Dolphins will have to deal with several impending free agents. They will need to plan their vision of the 2017 roster and then put it into play. Delegation of money on positions will impact their spending and their draft needs. In other words, the next few weeks will be internally busy.
Perhaps the best part or the worst depending on your style of thought will be the rampant rumors that will begin as the league new year approaches. While rumors can, most of the time at least, be nothing more than a string of misdirection, it’s still something fun to talk about.
For now we can all say congratulations to the Patriots for at least keeping the Lombardi Trophy in the AFC East and then immediately going back to hoping they somehow find a way to fall on their faces in 2017.
Welcome to the start of the 2017 NFL season even if the official start is still a few weeks away.