Super Bowl LI is one of the greatest games of all time, as the Patriots came back from being down 28-3 to the Falcons to win the game in overtime.
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Former Falcon Robert Alford made a wild admission about the Falcons’ overconfidence during halftime.
Super Bowl LI was only the Falcons’ 2nd appearance in the big game and for the majority of it, it looked like they would finally bring a championship to ATL. For 59 minutes, they were leading, and for 45 minutes, they were dominating a Patriots team that seemed helpless to do anything about it.
But the Patriots overcame a 25-point deficit to take the game to overtime. They then won it, 34-28, on the very first series after James White dived in from two yards out. The 31 unanswered points in the thrilling game cemented the Super Bowl as the greatest comeback of all time.
February 5, 2017: The Falcons blow a 28-3 lead, and the Patriots win Super Bowl LI 34-28 in overtime in Houston. pic.twitter.com/bcrGE4wPaz
— This Day In Sports Clips (@TDISportsClips) February 5, 2021
The Falcons went into halftime being up 21-3 and were pretty confident that the game was in the bag. But that overconfidence ended up costing the team.
Ex-Falcon Robert Alford revealed the Falcons mindset at halftime
Malcolm Butler, who was a cornerback on that Patriots team, now is teammates on the Arizona Cardinals with Robert Alford, who was on the 2016 Falcons. And Alford made a hilarious admission to Butler about the haunting loss.
“I talked to him about (that Super Bowl), I asked him if he wanted his ring back,” Butler joked in an interview with 12 News’ Ryan Cody. “He told me a story, he said he was in the locker room at halftime, he told me he was about to pop a bottle and things like that, it was so funny. And we came back and beat them.”
“I’m just imagining him at halftime. Robert, he’s a funny guy, he’s got a lot of energy, tells a lot of jokes, and he told me at halftime they were in there dancing and hooraying, then we came back and beat them, so I think that was pretty funny.”
“He told me he was about to pop a bottle!”😳
The #Falcons celebrated in the locker room at halftime of Super Bowl LI, Robert Alford tells new @AZCardinals teammate Malcolm Butler about the #Patriots comeback. pic.twitter.com/OAo9UNdgFE
— Ryan Cody (@RyanThomasCody) August 19, 2021
The February evening will go down as the darkest in Falcon’s history. But it’s good to see that at least the players have jokes about it. And we probably won’t see teams celebrating prematurely in the Super Bowl anytime soon.
