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RUSH: So we had the Super Bowl last night. Folks, I don’t quite know how to express this. I still feel cheated. I don’t think that ended up being a pro-football game. I mean, it was, but that last call — I’ve looked at it every number of ways. I’ve listened to every excuse offered. You know, it would be wonderful if Obama would actually stand up and take responsibility for his mistakes like Pete Carroll has. If Obama had made that call last night and it blew up, Obama would say (imitating Obama), “I knew nothing about it. I found out about it when you did when I watched the replay on TV from the sideline.” He would totally divorce himself from any responsibility.


I don’t think it was Pete Carroll’s call. It might have been what the offensive coordinator thought Pete Carroll wanted, but it was the offensive coordinator’s call. If I were the quarterback, I would have protested. I would have said, “No way, we’re not running this play.” And I’ve heard them say that, yeah, second down we have to throw the ball, it’s a wasted play. Wasted play? You’ve got 40 seconds left. You’ve got a time-out left. You’re on the one yard line after your best running back has just gained four yards and just barely missed scoring, you’re gonna waste a play because protocol calls in that situation for at least one pass play?

Why would you even think about stopping the clock? You would want to run as much time off the clock as possible, in the event you do score, give the Patriots as little time as possible to march down into field goal range. But the play call itself — you know, I’ve watched it. I’ve watched that play in a gif format, it just loops, and that cornerback, the rookie, Butler, he knew that play was coming. If you get a chance and watch that play, look at how far off the line of scrimmage he was from the defensive perspective on the left side and look how far he had to go to get there. He could have only made that play if he knew it was coming.


And for the life of me, if you are going to throw the ball in that situation, why in the world do you make it obvious Marshawn Lynch is not part of the play at the snap? Brian, did you see this? At the snap, Marshawn Lynch, who everybody thinks should have gotten the ball, is jogging out to the left flat, totally out of the play. It’s instantly visible to the defense so you don’t have to worry about him. And that’s one of the keys, I think, for this rookie cornerback. He saw Lynch not even be part of the play, but they had watched tape. They knew the Seahawks ran that play in goal-line circumstances, and it was part of the preparation. When he saw that the quarterback was gonna throw, he knew exactly what was coming, quick slant. I think the offensive receiver didn’t run an aggressive root. He didn’t get there quick. I’ve watched it. He didn’t really get a good start off the line.

I’m just stunned. I’m really stunned. The way I feel, I know it’s gonna offend a lot of people. I know Tom Brady had an MVP performance, and he did. I know he had a great fourth quarter line. I know that he won that game in the fourth quarter for the Patriots from their perspective. There’s no doubt, there’s no question Brady’s greatness is enshrined and no beef with that. But I don’t think the Patriots won that game. The Seahawks lost that game.

Now, you might say, “Yeah, but the defense still had to perform. They still had to pick, intercept the pass.” I understand that. And from the Patriots defensive side, brilliant execution, and they spotted it. You know, I knew something was weird. We got 40 seconds left and Belichick does not call a time-out. And I’m gonna tell you what’s gonna happen. As this all settles, I’m gonna make a prediction.

I predicted to you, by the way, that this Super Bowl would be the highest rated Super Bowl ever. Grab audio sound bite number one. I made this prediction. We had phone calls last week, people who thought that Deflategate would do great damage to the integrity of the game and it would cause people to be distracted from it, and I said au contraire, Pierre.

RUSH ARCHIVE: Don’t believe all this talk about this being a blight on the game, a blight on Goodell, another black eye for the NFL. My God, they’re gonna have the highest ratings a Super Bowl has ever had.

RUSH: And they did, a 49 share in the overnights. Before this is all over they’re gonna be over 50. Super Bowl record. There was no question. So I’m gonna make another prediction to you because one of the keys in that last play — and folks, I know, this is for the sports talk show. We talk about everything here. No boundaries on this program, and I’m telling you, this thing has the country captivated. This will do nothing but raise the NFL to even greater heights. You would think that this would do great — no, no, no. This is gonna raise the NFL to even greater heights.

But this play is gonna have a lifetime legacy for people. And this play is gonna have a lifetime effect on the mental attitudes of the defensive players in the Seahawks, I guarantee you. In the locker room, the defense of the Seahawks, I mean, they’re the ones that are scratching — well, the offense, too. I mean, nobody can understand. But here’s what’s gonna happen. The legend is Belichick’s a genius, and that’s how this is all gonna end up. I’ll tell you what’s gonna happen. Belichick didn’t call time-out. Forty seconds left, second and goal, 40 seconds. The story is that the Patriots had capitulated, given up, meaning let them score with as much time left and get down for a field goal that would tie it. That’s the thinking, capitulation, not conceding, capitulate, just don’t contest, let them score the touchdown.


This last made its appearance, this capitulation, there was a similar situation in the Green Bay-Denver Super Bowl in San Diego where Mike Holmgren let the Broncos score. They were going to anyway, on the one or two yard. Get the ball back with as much time as you can to take it back down to tying field goal or a winning touchdown. So Belichick doesn’t call time-out. There’s 40 seconds left. The Seahawks don’t call time-out, therefore there aren’t any major substitutions going on. So Pete Carroll says (paraphrasing), “We didn’t have the personnel to go up against what they had on the goal line down there. We had three receivers out there. That’s not a goal line offense.”

Everybody said: “Goal line offense? You got your beast here. You can score half a yard just exhaling, for crying out loud. This guy can’t be stopped.” It was situational football that was overruled by preplanning, over-thinking, and in a situation where we got four downs at the goal line we’re gonna make one of those plays a pass. They didn’t change that. They didn’t adapt to the situation. Belichick is gonna be said to be a genius. What’s gonna be said is, and it may have been said already in other places, I don’t know, ’cause I haven’t listened, ’cause I never do, but the key Belichick not calling a time-out, they’re gonna say that Belichick not calling a time-out lured Pete Carroll into making the mistake. That Belichick’s genius by having the defensive personnel in the game that he had at that point was a lure.

They were attempting, they were daring, they made Carroll throw the ball. They didn’t want the beast running the football right at ’em. They wanted the Seahawks to throw the ball and by not calling that time-out, that creates in the Seahawks’ mind-set that the Patriots have capitulated, they’re not even making any substitutions, not changing their personnel on the goal line. And so that’s where this notion that you can waste a play comes from. They have used that lingo. Carroll, the coaches used it.

Why would you even think about wasting a play? It’s the Super Bowl. It’s like in baseball, when a pitcher gets up on a hitter 0-2, two strikes, no balls, there’s a common phrase used, that the next pitch is “wasted.” And there’s no such thing. There’s no wasted pitch. What that actually means is the pitcher is not gonna throw a strike. He’s gonna tempt the hitter with the corners. He’s gonna try lure the hitter into swinging at a bad pitch, but it’s not wasted. It has a purpose. When you say the play is wasted, you’re basically saying the play has no purpose, other than to set ’em up for what — but everybody knew that Lynch was gonna be coming at some point.


But the way they lined up with Lynch not even part of play action. If they would have just faked running the ball to Lynch they would have held the cornerbacks and the linebackers to the split second to make that play work. They didn’t even do that. They sent Lynch just jogging out toward the left end zone. I was just stunned. The left pylon. I watched that, when Belichick didn’t call a time-out, I jabbed Kathryn. I said, “Wait, whoa, something’s wrong here. This is not right. They gotta stop the clock here.”

You need 40 seconds, 35 seconds on the clock after the score. Everybody assumed that the Seahawks were gonna score here, except Malcolm Butler, the rookie cornerback for the New England Patriots who saw that play coming a mile away because he’d watched tape and the Seahawks do have that tendency. They do run when they’re on the goal line, first and goal on the one, one of their plays is always a pass, wanting to run that quick slant because they figure little chance for a pick. Worst chance is it gets tipped up in the air and intercepted, but the odds are you either complete it or it goes incomplete.

Some people have said, “Rush, that pass interference. You see Butler knocked the offensive receiver to the ground.” But everybody has equal right to the football. The reason the receiver — name is Lockette, I believe — the reason he was knocked to the ground is that he wasn’t going a hundred percent on the route, folks. And, no, I didn’t have any money on the game. And no, I had no investment in somebody winning or losing. Well, I did, but it doesn’t matter to my feeling about this.

But I just, I’m still — and if I’m feeling this, I can’t imagine the way the people on the Seahawks are feeling. This is a decision, this is going to never stop. This play is now in NFL Films lore. They are gonna be doing 30-minute and 60-minute programs on this play. That is how strange it was.

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RUSH: No, no. I know. Here’s the strategy. What the Seahawks are trying to do, Pete Carroll said so, they wanted to use up all four downs to score the winning touchdown to eat up the clock. He as much as said so. He said on the second down we threw the ball, it’s not the right matchup for us to run the football there, so on second down we threw the ball really to kind of waste a play. How in the world do you admit that you are wasting a play in the Super Bowl, even if you’re speaking euphemistically. He said if we score, we do, on the pass play. If we don’t, well, then, we run it on third down. Then we run it on fourth down. We call that second down play with no hesitation whatsoever. We’re gonna use all four downs to score. One yard? And you’re gonna not score ’til fourth down?

You want to score as soon as you can, get out of the risk of fumbling or turning it over. They must have been scared to death of Brady and they must have been really worried their defense could not stop the Patriots for 30 seconds and get ’em into field goal range. This is not the first time Pete Carroll’s made a call like this. Football fans will remember this. There was a BCS Championship game, Texas against USC, and USC had a fourth and one, that, had they converted, they would have run out the clock and won the national championship.

Well, on that team was the number one rushing player in college football, a Heisman Trophy winner, Reggie Bush. You know where he was? He was on the sideline. He wasn’t even in the game. On fourth and one they go for it and throw a pass and it didn’t happen and Vince Young comes back, single-handedly beats USC for Texas. So there’s a history of this kind of thing with Pete Carroll. But man, oh, man, I couldn’t get over this last night. And I wasn’t even — I mean, neither of these two teams am I a huge invested fan like I am of the Steelers, for example.

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RUSH: Now, I know I’m probably angering a bunch of fans of the Patriots in Boston and around the country, and I don’t mean to. This isn’t personal, and I’m not denying how well Brady played, particularly in the fourth quarter. Not at all. That game was over. “But it…” I know, but that game was over. The Seahawks lost that game is the point. And I’ll tell you, you can look at number of different ways: Maybe things kind of evened out for the Patriots.


I mean, you go back to the Super Bowl with the Giants where Dave Tyree makes that helmet catch? I mean, how odd is that? So this might have been evening that out, because before we even got to the goal line, Jerome Kearse, number 15, makes one of the most incredible catches in football history, not just the Super Bowl, and it’s what permitted Marshawn Lynch to run the ball next play, and gain four yards down to the one. It was an on-his-back, two-or-three-bobbles catch that kept the drive alive.

Well, this kind of negated that. The next Super Bowl the Patriots lost in Indianapolis also against the Giants where Brady misfired on a pass to Wes Welker. Welker got his hands on it, couldn’t hold it. It was after that game that Brady’s wife erupted and claimed that he couldn’t throw and watch the ball, both. That was a tough loss. The Patriots have had their share of tough loses. And the Patriots sideline, when Kearse, number 15, for the sideline makes that play, makes that catch with 45/50 seconds left?

You could see Brady on the sideline. “Oh, no, not again!” I mean, it was just total capitulation and deflation. And then comes this stupid play call that permitted Malcolm Butler to intercept it. I mean, the ebb and flow, the emotion, you could say it all evened out for the Patriots after a while. The Seahawks finally caught theirs ’cause they caught some breaks they didn’t deserve against the Packers. They didn’t deserve to win that game.

It all evens out, people say. I guess if you judge football over enough seasons, yeah. Bad breaks get spread around equally and what goes as a bad break ends up going for the team that got screwed at one point. So it all evens out. It’s what makes football and sports in itself so intriguing and captivating. It had the highest ratings ever, and there was little doubt. Now, there’s other news here on football regarding Deflategate.


It turns out that there may only have been one football underinflated, not 11. Preliminary news from the investigation so far “over the course of the last two weeks, multiple sources have shed light on the situation surrounding the Patriots, their 12 game-day footballs” in the championship game, and it’s been learned that the employee that took the balls into the bathroom for 97 seconds was an “elderly” guy. So it’s now being assumed that an “elderly” guy, because he was an “elderly” guy, could not have deflated 11 or 12 footballs in a minute and a half.

Now they’re finding out, claiming, only one of those balls was underinflated, not all 12. Oh, and it has also been learned that the official complaint was lodged by Ryan Grigson, who is the general manager of the Indianapolis Colts. That was also… It was suspected, but it wasn’t known for sure. This whole Deflategate and the insinuation, the assumption, the presumption that the Patriots a bunch of cheaters? This has grated on Belichick and Brady. Did you notice Belichick shows up to the game wearing a T-shirt saying, “Don’t tread on me”?

Belichick’s desperately concerned with his legacy. His whole life is football. His integrity. But Bob Kraft, Robert Kraft, the owner of the Patriots has been privately seething over this, ever since the charges of purposeful deflated footballs hit the owner of the Patriots has just been livid at the insinuations by the media, at the presumptions people have made. “Well, there was Spygate; now this. Obviously, they cheat,” and he’s been really frustrated by it because there hasn’t been any proof.

He’s spoken up numerous times in defense of both Brady and Belichick and did so after the game last night. Michele Tafoya, NBC, interviewed Robert Kraft. I tell you, NBC wouldn’t let this go last night. I mean, they kept talking about Deflategate, which I kind of found interesting. Because, as a broadcast network, they’re partners with the NFL. At any rate, the question by Michele Tafoya: “Questions regarding air pressure in the footballs, the AFC Championship Game. Some are gonna question because of that this team’s accomplishments,” i.e., this win tonight, “Mr. Kraft. What would you say to those people?”

KRAFT: Well, we won that game 45 to 7. We won today 28 to 24. Our people didn’t touch the balls. I love our team, I’m proud of our guys, and we’re gonna carry on and hopefully continue to do well.

RUSH: So that’s where we are now. This Deflategate investigation’s gonna take some time. They’ll make sure that enough time goes by to makes it look like they’ve done it right. The latest is only one ball was significantly underinflated which now they’re saying, “Eh, it could have been the atmospheric conditions that did it.” So, at any rate, I still can’t… I’m never gonna forget how I felt the last minute of that game. It’s never gonna leave me, and I didn’t have anything personally invested in it.

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RUSH: Here’s Paul in Vail, Arizona; is that right? Vail, Arizona. Great to have you on the program, sir. Hello.

CALLER: Good morning, Rush. I was watching the game yesterday, and the ball was tipped up in the air, I guess it was Kearse that was on his back trying to make the catch.

RUSH: Right. He did make the catch.

CALLER: He did make the catch, and I watched I think it was the safety that came over and switched to track and field and did the high hurdles over the pile to make sure he didn’t hit anybody.

RUSH: Right.

CALLER: I was thinking back to Jack Tatum and “They call me assassin.” That’s not how the play would have finished up if Tatum was around. They would have taken the receiver out. That was a live ball, and that safety from New England should have hit the guy even though he was on the ground and —

RUSH: I’m trying to think, I’m trying to visualize the play. You’re right, I mean, in the old days, once the ball’s tipped there’s no such thing as pass interference. There is today unnecessary roughness and he was too mean to him in there. There’s a penalty for that.

I’m trying to visualize the play when it happened. I don’t know that there was a safety or cornerback for New England that had a chance to hit Kearse after the ball was tipped. They had all overrun the guy. Now, you’re saying maybe they wouldn’t have hurdled him; they would have speared him. You may have a point. His point is the game’s been chickified here, folks, and the play wouldn’t have happened.

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RUSH: This is Jacqueline, Severna Park, Maryland. Welcome. I’m glad you called. Nice to have you with us today.

CALLER: Hi. Thank you for having me. Can I first thank you, as a military family, I know you don’t tout all of the things that you do for military families, but I know firsthand of friends of mine who you’ve helped, so I just want to thank you for that. I know you don’t talk about it, but you should be recognized for it.

RUSH: Well, I appreciate it very much. Thank you.

CALLER: You’re welcome. My question is this. You mentioned the Deflategate issue a little earlier in the program where it was reported there’s a report from an ESPN.com reporter who says now it’s only one football was that deflated, and I guess my question is, I’ve been following it since yesterday, and I’m just blown away by why it isn’t covered. As recently as a couple hours ago Sports Illustrated had a story about how this win makes the stakes even higher for this controversy, and yet they didn’t even seem to have the most up-to-date facts. Is this just the poor state of journalism today or is —

RUSH: Well, I’m gonna blindly try to analyze this. It may well be that that’s an unconfirmed report, that only one ball was underinflated.

CALLER: Right.

RUSH: And therefore it could be that Sports Illustrated, until they can confirm it themselves and put their exclusive stamp on it, doesn’t want to credit somebody else who may have found out about it yet. So they might just ignore this until it can be confirmed rather than have it just be an assertion by one network, even if it is ESPN. But they could still report that, I agree with you. I know your point is that what is driving all this is anti-Patriots bias in elements of the media. Am I right about that?

CALLER: Yes. And I mean I think it’s similar to Yankees bias. I mean, they’re an incredible team, and people always kind of want to tear that down. And of course the scandal in the previous years, it was probably a bit overblown —

RUSH: You want to know why there’s Patriots bias? There’s two reasons why there’s Patriots bias. Do you really want to know what they are?

CALLER: Yes, I do.

RUSH: First one’s Spygate. Actually, three. Spygate. Number two is Belichick. Nobody should be that successful who’s that surly and mean all the time. You gotta at least be nicer. And the third reason is Gisele Bundchen.

CALLER: Right.

RUSH: Which makes everybody hate Tom Brady. Jealous.

CALLER: You’re right.

RUSH: Jealous and all that. You know, he’s too perfect. It’s not fair. And then when the guy wins all the time, that’s even worse. They have to be cheating. Nobody’s that good, nobody’s that good-looking, nobody’s that lucky. It’s all human nature. It’s all encapsulated in human nature. Don’t doubt me.

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RUSH: It’s an NFL Network report, by the way, by Ian Rapoport. He said he was told by sources, quote, “Eleven of the 12 footballs used in the first half were judged by the officials to be under the minimum of 12.5 PSI, but just one was two pounds under. Many of them were just a few ticks under the minimum.” That is 11 balls were underinflated but only one of those 11 was under by two pounds.

Our previous caller was upset that that’s not being reported by anybody. They’re still harping on Deflategate. So it’s an NFL Network report. I saw it, I think, mentioned on ESPN. Heck, I actually don’t remember where I saw it. But I did see that. It might have been sourced to the NFL Network. But our Patriots fan was upset that that hasn’t become widespread out there, and I guarantee you…

The NFL Network is owned by the NFL. So some journalists are a little standoffish about what comes out of there, sometimes. Not always. But I mean the owners own it. So there’s a natural journalistic tendency to be guarded. They might be biased, you see? (coughing) Isn’t that funny. (laughing) Hee-hee-hee-hee.

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RUSH: Here’s Will in Bergen County, New Jersey. Welcome to EIB Network. Great to have you here. Hello.

CALLER: Thanks, Rush. Nineteen years, eight months, 31 days, I finally got a hold of you.

RUSH: (laughing) You’re counting it. I appreciate that.

CALLER: Listen, real quick. Two iconic games you could actually say where the coach took a chance, and I only have time for one, but that’s the ’67 Ice Bowl. Vince Lombardi today would have been excoriated if Bart Starr slipped on third down at the goal instead of taking the easy three-point field goal and sending that game into OT.

RUSH: No, wait. It depends on —

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CALLER: We wouldnÂ’t be talking about the Lombardi Trophy today.

RUSH: Hold it a second. Not entirely true. In your hypothetical, if the Packers had gone on to lose, then Lombardi might have taken a hit. If they had won in overtime in your scenario, it wouldn’t have mattered. But you’re equating what the Seahawks did last night with Lombardi running a QB sneak?

CALLER: Listen, I was rooting for the Seahawks. I gutlessly would have given the ball to Marshawn Lynch and not taken all the slings and arrows of media criticism like Carroll’s doing. I’m not a Carroll fan. But sometimes the great coaches take risks, and on that field, if you listen to Starr when he does the recap of that, it was slippery. That’s why he kept the ball instead of giving it off to his running back. If he had slipped just like his running backs did on the prior two plays, we may be talking the Cowboys and the Tom Landry Trophy at the Super Bowl instead of Vince Lombardi.

RUSH: Even so, I don’t get the analogy between that and what happened last night.

CALLER: Well, don’t you think he took a huge risk?

RUSH: No.

CALLER: Oh, I do! Listen, today, we would be saying, “Why aren’t they going for three points and sending this game into overtime where you’re the home team.”

RUSH: No, they had a chance… Wait a minute. That’s where I’m losing you. They had a chance to win this game.

CALLER: They had a chance. So did Seattle Seahawks. They had 40 seconds.

RUSH: That’s what I’m saying, the Seahawks. There was no way the Seahawks kick a field goal and tie the game and move on. They had to score a touchdown.

CALLER: The Seahawks obviously, yes. They had 40 seconds and a time-out.

RUSH: So what’s the risk?

CALLER: Rush, the Packers had no time-out, and they went for it on third and one.

RUSH: Yeah.

CALLER: And, really, if you were gonna go for it on third and one in that situation, you may have had passed to the flat and hoped to get in there. That way if it was incomplete, now you kick the field goal. Lombardi chose to go for it all on that one play, even though he had another play.

RUSH: It’s because everybody was freezing their butts off and wanted to get the hell out of there!

CALLER: But, Rush, that’s not an excuse. You know, in corporate coaching today —

RUSH: But that’s what happened! Bart Starr went to the sideline. He went to the sideline and he said, “Coach, the play will work. We’re just not getting our footing down.” He said, “The play will work.” Bart Starr told Lombardi, “The play will work. QB sneak will work. We’re just having trouble getting our footing,” and Lombardi said, “Well, then run the play; let’s get the hell outta here.” Quote! Verbatim! There wasn’t any thought of passing the ball. There wasn’t any thought of kicking a field goal.

But even at that, I don’t get the analogy between that, which is already in the record books as what happened, and last night, which is in the record books as what happened. There were not contemplating a field goal. You’re equating a field goal potential with the Packers in the Ice Bowl with the Seahawks throwing last night on second down. They followed a script!

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They failed to adapt to situational football, and they followed their script. “Okay, we got goal line. We’ve got a little time left. We got second down. We have four downs. Now, one of those plays is gonna be a pass.” That’s in their protocol book: One of their plays is gonna be a pass, come hell or high water, for whatever reason. It screws up the defense, toys with ’em, it’s gonna be a pass. But (sigh) this was not a goal line play in the first quarter, second quarter, third quarter.

It’s the last offensive series they’re gonna run! The risk? This is the first I’ve heard — and I’m not criticizing you here, Will. Don’t misunderstand. My voice is raised because I’m impassioned on this, but I’m not yelling at you. You just happen to be on the phone when I’m yelling. But it’s not at you. But I never thought that what happened last night was a risk. Maybe the way you’re looking at it, it is, but it was not a gutsy, risky call. It was a stupid, unnecessary call.

Why put the ball in the air and stop the clock anyway? You’re sitting there thinking, “We’re gonna score on third or fourth down after we eat up the clock.” I don’t care whatever explanation they come up with, nothing works. “Okay, so we’re gonna pass and get an incomplete — or maybe we score on it. That’d be an added bonus. If we score, fine. We win the game. But an incomplete pass, we stop the clock.” Why stop the clock? The objective here, by your own admission, is score on third or fourth down.

Make sure the Patriots have no time left to run a play or series to get down into field goal range. So why do you even want to flirt with stopping the clock? Belichick had already decided not to call a time-out. And, I’m sorry, I don’t care what personnel the Patriots have on defense, Marshawn Lynch and his crotch grab are not gonna be stopped from the half-yard line. Well, he does that when he scores a touchdown. He gets fined for it, but he does it. I mean, the Seahawks do strange things.

After they score a touchdown, they fake taking a dump on the ball or they grab their crotch, whatever. It just didn’t matter to me what personnel the Patriots had in there. (interruption) Dawn’s looking at me like, “What?” She didn’t know this stuff. Doug Baldwin got fined, or penalized 15 yards. Probably he’ll get a fine for his actions. A guy named [Bruce] Irvin, a guy named Irvin. He claims he started a fight because actually the Patriots beat up on one of his guys a play earlier or something.

That was just frustration boiling over. That was… You know, whoever the Seahawks player hit actually looked like Pete Carroll, looked like the coaching staff. That was just frustration boiling over when the Seahawks started the scrum. But no matter. I don’t care what example or excuse or reason for throwing the ball on that down they come up with: “Belichick’s genius for luring them into it.” I guarantee you. You wait, folks. You’re gonna hear that. “Belichick, he so smart!

“He’s a genius. He suckered Pete Carroll into throwing that ball by not calling a time-out and by not changing his personnel on the goal line. He made ’em think they could score on a pass. They knew what was coming. Belichick’s a genius.” You watch. Before it’s all over, that’s gonna be the explanation for this, not that Pete Carroll blew it. And, by the way, I don’t know Pete Carroll. I have no delight here in ripping anybody. I just don’t understand it. I’m telling you when I…

Like I said in the first hour the program, “When Belichick didn’t call a time-out, I sat on the edge of my couch and I said, ‘All right, that’s the first thing that makes no sense here. Belichick is not calling a time-out.'” So I’m thinking, “He wants ’em to score and get it out of the way. He wants ’em to score now. He knows they can’t stop him. It’s Marshawn Lynch.” So you capitulate. You let ’em score.

You get the ball back, run back with another miraculous Brady drive, and get into field goal range. You tie the game, get to overtime. That’s why he didn’t call a time-out. That’s called capitulation. Not conceding, but you capitulate, letting ’em score. That’s why he didn’t call a time-out. But that’s the first thing I thought. That’s when I sat up, and I said, “This is not right,” and then when I saw the formation, the Seahawks formation, and I saw Marshawn Lynch not in the I, but split to the quarterback’s right.

I said, “What the hell is this?” Then I saw that quick, two-step drop and I saw the slant pass. “Oh, no! No!” I stood up and I started screaming. Even before the ball was intercepted, I didn’t believe it. And then I saw it was in the Patriots’ hands, and I just said, “I can’t believe it.” I was not right the rest of the night. I just… I can’t explain it. At that moment, I didn’t think I had watched the best. It didn’t seem like… I don’t know. I had better stop.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: I’m gonna tell you one more thing about this game last night. If — I know, “if” is for children, I know, but this still is a big deal. If they hadn’t thrown that pick, do you know who everybody would be talking about today? Jermaine Kearse, number 15, who made that incredible catch on his back, bobbling it three or four times. Do you know how much that play cost that guy in endorsement money and interviews? Number 15 of the Seahawks could have had the richest off season of anybody in this league this season. And instead, once again, it’s gonna be Brady.

He would have been the guy. He’d have gotten the MVP. He would have gotten everything. He’d have gotten the Chevy truck or whatever they gave away. He’s now an afterthought. It’s just the breaks of the game. At least you gotta give Pete Carroll credit. At least he didn’t say he didn’t find out about the call until after the game when he saw the reporters asking about it. If Obama had been the head coach in the press conference (imitating Obama), “I had no idea about that call. I didn’t know that was the call ’til we got back here in the locker room. I was just as mad as you are about it, and I’m gonna get to the bottom of it.”

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