Super Bowl LII(E), One Versus All: The Official Super Fraud Prediction

As I start this, we are about 3 1/2 hours before kickoff.  I'm still not sure I'm going to watch the game as I have the last several Super Bowls (out in a restaurant, notebook in full effect)...

The National Football League is in about as much trouble as it has been over the last 25 years:

• The league now has a serious on-field thuggery problem it can no longer ignore.  (Both injurious play and unsportsmanlike conduct against the officials.)
• The entire mode of operation (sans the Patriots -- Gronkowski incident excepted) has been "Hit them.  Hurt them.  Put them out.  Win."
• For the first time since the first XFL, a top-level league will compete with it in three years.
• For the first time (period):  The NFL has made the rulings, officiating, and the conspiracy for the Patriots the main storyline of these playoffs.

And so, for the eighth time in the 9/11 National Religion Era, Tom Brady and Bill Belichick will lead the New England Patriots to play for the NFL's championship.

For, realistically, the first time I can think of:  On a national scale, their opponents have been rendered an absolute IRRELEVANCY.  I've said it myself (and did two weeks ago when it appeared the initial plan -- or at least the leaked one to misdirect, should you believe the NFL went that route):  The opponent today is irrelevant to the process.

This is, and always has been, about the New England Patriots.  And, really, they've been the only team to matter since (with respect to this season) the day the league ended the season of the Pittsburgh Steelers back in Week 15.  The league, barring some sort of scandal scenario, has told you for SEVEN WEEKS that the New England Patriots are winning this game today.

Another angle to look at is Las Vegas.  I pulled up a report from Vegas Insider, looking at the current situation.  Most books have the line NE -4 with the total 49.  They really don't want to move either, in the eyes of a Bookie's Hangman scenario:  A Super Bowl Middle.

They're getting Over money, and a lot of it, especially in parlays.

Late money has finally come in on the Patriots, after almost two weeks of getting blasted with big-money Philadelphia plays.  Still, with only a few (but very prominent -- the Wynn and the Superbook are two) exceptions, Vegas, almost across the board, needs a Patriots win.  And most need the game to go Under the 49.

However, there is one final scenario picking at it all here, and it's one that I think will decide how this game goes:

This whole Brady/Belichick thing about that doctor, Alex Guerrero.

It all seems like a backstory, frankly, to most people.  To me, however, I go back to when I was watching the spectacle of 80,000 in Philadelphia for the first round of the NFL Draft -- thinking "They've [Brady and Belichick] accomplished everything there is in this league.  Why are they coming back?"

The answer was obvious:  Another ring, and, for Brady, this would tie Jordan.

But he's 40.  He is the fifth-oldest player in the league -- and the oldest player in the league not a kicker or punter.  (Ironically, the kicker who consummated the first of this rig-job, Adam Vinatieri, is the oldest at 44.)

And there are increasing questions about this doctor of his.  So much so that Bill Belichick banned him in December from whatever he could with respect to the Patriots.

That indicates to me a scary reality that would not only shake the foundations of the NFL, but would also shake the foundations of the Republican right-wing arm of this Patriots dynasty:  Tom Brady was invited, by then-First Lady Laura Bush, to the State of the Union Address, and was represented to the cameras during an anti-steroids-in-sports statement by President George W. Bush as a paragon of drug-free play.

I'm going to say it:  If that was ever true, it's not now.  I believe today will be Tom Brady's last game, and I do not believe it is his choice.

I also do not believe it will be through injury either, just for the record.

Whether it becomes a function that something gets exposed or not, I believe Tom Brady will walk away with the six titles.

And that's why I think this game will not be particularly close.  Not only did the NFL already play this card from last year's Super Bowl (so much that there are actually hats with the FOX Scoreboard at 28-3 Falcons -- I know, I saw one yesterday on a Brady-uniformed Patriots fan in my hometown!), but I believe that NBC will need the fourth quarter to place Brady into Sports Godhood next to NBC's Patron God, Michael Jordan.

With that in mind, my prediction is 31-10 New England.