While it was impossible to ignore the improbable and historic Super Bowl comeback on Sunday night, the bigger battleground for far too many was in the Twitterverse instead of on the gridiron.

The New England Patriots completed the most spectacular Super Bowl victory over the Atlanta Falcons with an overtime win despite a 25-point deficit late in the game. In doing so, they humbled NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell – the
region’s favorite punching bag – and cemented Tom Brady’s place as the greatest quarterback in history. Couldn’t we just be happy with that?

Apparently it was too much to ask that we take one night from making ridiculous comparisons between sport and politics.

James Pindell of the Boston Globe declared it the "most political Super Bowl ever."

"For much of a politically polarized America, the Super Bowl only further underscored the country’s deep divisions (and you thought national football fans were conflicted on coach Bill Belichick!)," Pindell noted in his politics newsletter Ground Game.

Outside of former President George H.W. Bush’s coin toss, there shouldn’t have been any mention of politics for the next four quarters (and overtime) of football.

Instead, social media exploded with jabs from all ends of the spectrum – liberal users were licking their chops at halftime when Atlanta possessed a 21-3 lead, knocking President Trump and his connections to Brady, Belichick and franchise owner Robert Kraft. Conservatives, on the other hand, gleefully posted photos of Brady together with Trump and scoffed at their defeated foes by mockingly demanding recounts or insinuating Russians interfered with the results.

Falcons star Matt Ryan is probably tired of seeing Hillary Clinton’s head superimposed over his own, as well as the snarky tweets comparing Atlanta’s performance to Clinton’s popular vote argument.

And it wasn’t just the game. Some of the commercials sparked backlash, including a #BoycottBudwiser trend – ironic not only because the product is misspelled in the hashtag, but it wasn’t that long ago Budweiser rebranded itself as "America" to directly appeal to Trump supporters.

At the risk of sounding too campy, it’s time for America to have an inspiring halftime speech to come together, putting aside the petty political differences when arguing on social media. Sounds cliche, but stranger things have happened this week.

"We never doubted that we could come all the way back. We just pulled for each other," Brady said after winning his record fourth Super Bowl MVP trophy.

Everyone may not root for New England, but we are all Patriots. Let’s start by acknowledging that
improbable fact.

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