The 49^th Super Bowl kicked off in Glendale, Arizona featuring the two best teams from each conference of the National Football League. The NFC Champion Seattle Seahawks faced off against the AFC Champion New England Patriots. The game was a shootout between two high-powered offenses, and came down to the final minute of the fourth quarter.

With time running out late in the fourth quarter, Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson marched his team down the field. Down 28-24, Wilson and the Seahawks needed a touchdown to secure the game with a lead. Seattle’s drive brought them inside New England’s one-yard line, and it seemed inevitable that the Seahawks were going to win their second Super Bowl in as many years.

With under 30 seconds left in the game, Russell Wilson snapped the ball and threw to wide receiver Ricardo Lockette on a quick slant. New England cornerback Malcolm Butler lunged in front of Lockette and grabbed the pass out of the air. Butler ran with the ball for three yards until he was brought down, ending Seattle’s run at a second Super Bowl title. New England won the game 28-24, and quarterback Tom Brady was named Most Valuable Player. Brady, who along with the MVP honors received a brand new 2015 Chevrolet truck, decided to defer the gift to teammate Butler, saying he was the one who really sealed the game.

The ending of the Super Bowl was definitely one of the closest in recent history, with the game literally coming down to the final seconds. The question in everyone’s minds after the final whistle blew however was, “how did Seattle not score from the one-yard line??”

Marshawn Lynch, running back for the Seattle Seahawks, is arguably one of the greatest at his position right now. Had common sense prevailed, Lynch would have been given the ball run straight, with a high probability of finding the end zone. So why did Seahawks coach Pete Carroll decide to pass it on an obvious running down? Carroll admitted the play did not go as planned, but he did defend his call during an interview with Matt Lauer:

“It was the worst result of a call ever. The call would have been a great one if we catch it. It would have been just fine and nobody would have thought twice about it,” Carroll said.

Folks around the nation are debating the reasoning behind Carroll’s play call, and whether or not the Patriots deserved to play. Not in a long time has a Super Bowl ended in such turmoil, but it is certain that the game will be remembered for quite a long time.

FSA Connection Questions

1. In the article, the author organizes the sequence of events during the Super Bowl for what purpose?

2. In the piece, the word “defer” means what?

3. What is the main idea of the story?

4. Select two sentences that support the main idea.

5. What is the connotation of the word “prevailed”?