Sports of The Times
By MICHAEL POWELL
GLENDALE, Ariz. — That was merely insane.
This was a Super Bowl in which narrative lines kept colliding with one another. Each team kept coming back at the other, daring pass following crazed pinball runs following savage tackle.
In the end, it was New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady who claimed the role of that most ambulatory and successful of river boat gamblers, tossing one brilliant pass after another.
At times in the second half on Sunday night, the Patriots appeared a team spent. The Patriots’ aging quarterback — Brady is 37, which is to describe someone who is sprightly in almost any line of work save the savage sport of football — looked stripped of tricks.
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“There’s really no one to blame but me,” Carroll said.
True that. Although perhaps simpler to say there was no one better to credit than old man Brady. He was M.V.P. again, and he could claim fewer wilder paths to his crown.
An earlier version of this article misstated the given name of a Seahawks defensive back. He is Richard Sherman, not Russell. It also misstated the surname of a Seahawks wide receiver. He is Jermaine Kearse, not Kease.
Email: powellm@nytimes.com
A version of this article appears in print on February 2, 2015, on page D1 of the New York edition with the headline: Tale of Comebacks Is Brady’s to Tell. Order Reprints| Today’s Paper|Subscribe
