Members of the liberal elite view social media as primarily serving two purposes: as a platform for pontificating over subjects they don’t know too much about and giving the rest of us a political education by bombarding us with their ‘tolerant’ views.
When it came to the Super Bowl, these factors collided in epic, farcical fashion. Before the New England Patriots woke up to win Super Bowl LI against the Atlanta Falcons, prominent liberals didn’t wait for the game to play out, instead taking to social media to prematurely pronounce why the halftime score and the Pats’ plight served as no less than a parable of America.
Their analogies zeroed in on Donald Trump’s ties to Patriots’ owner Robert Kraft, coach Bill Belichick and QB Tom Brady.
Even if the Patriots had lost, they would have been flawed. The eventual result rendered the social media political-sporting comparisons more risible than ‘Rise Up’ (the Atlanta Falcons’ official Twitter hashtag which many of the anti-Patriots/Trump posts cited).
House of Cards creator Beau Willimon, who seems to have swapped a promising career in TV to become a glorified community organizer, tweeted:
Brady’s first half has been like Trump’s first two weeks: disastrous and shut down. #SuperBowl
— Beau Willimon (@BeauWillimon) February 6, 2017
‘Woke’ Daily News columnist Shaun King tweeted a vengeance-fueled ‘note to America’ which he subsequently deleted:
Hey @ShaunKing, why’d you delete this tweet? Don’t worry, I saved it for you. You’re welcome..#SB51 #NotMySuperBowlChamps #boycottbudwiser pic.twitter.com/pOHfI7bmzt
— Tennessee (@TEN_GOP) February 6, 2017
Doesn’t seem like historian Simon Schama will be adding to his acclaimed books on the French Revolution and America with a guide to football any time soon:
Tom Brady in Superbowl a perfect example of what happens when you cosy up to Trump: you lose everything you thought you had
— Simon Schama (@simon_schama) February 6, 2017
Hip hop artist and die-hard Atlanta Falcons fan T.I. is not a member of the liberal elite. But he felt he had a hotline to the “football Gods” only for events to crash him back down to earth soon afterwards:
Even the Football Gods don’t like Ugly#RISEUP #SUPERBOWLLI pic.twitter.com/NqcBpnsEpt
— T.I. (@Tip) February 6, 2017
When the Patriots came back to win, no analogy was drawn between the result of the game and Trump’s administration. But that didn’t stop the usual suspects from clutching at straws:
Amazing game. Egg on face. Trump will of course take credit tho he got just 30% of vote in Massachussetts
— Simon Schama (@simon_schama) February 6, 2017
Lest we forget, Boston showed itself to be a city of Patriots:
CLINTON – 81.7%
TRUMP – 14.2%— Beau Willimon (@BeauWillimon) February 6, 2017