And I'll say it again, the current narrative is that Brees "deserves" another ring and the NFL is still helping the Patriots and so that's the Super Bowl. Will the NFL have to help them? Who knows? But I'd be SHOCKED if any other teams were in the Super Bowl.
Most games have no or little interference, but if the NFL is going to continue to establish and focus on a narrative, then what we're watching is chaotic storytelling like those "pick your adventure" books. For the most part, the sport of football will still be what it is, but it will still be upsetting that a great season can amount to little or nothing.
Pretty sure that the idea was for Brees to have last year, but that fluke play at the end of the Minnesota game wasn't something that they could remove as the fluke part happened so late that a holding or other penalty would have been seen. So they switched to Philly with their narrative. It's not like they don't have a Plan B.
This is part of why I'm celebrating our season NOW. I have almost no faith that the Rams see the Super Bowl even as I hope for it.
I'd love to be wrong, but when I set my sights on something, that's kinda rare.