Maybe the lack of competitiveness in the Super Bowl was a good sign for the NFL.

Tom Brady wasn't the only one making history in Super Bowl LV. Three women made significant contributions, two blending into the Tampa Bay Buccaneers' sideline workings and another more visibly, her long blonde ponytail a jaunty reminder of the increasing presence of women in NFL games.

The Kansas City Chiefs were so confident in their Super Bowl-winning roster from the 2019 season that they did everything they could to bring it back intact, signing quarterback Patrick Mahomes and defensive tackle Chris Jones to huge deals and reworking other contracts to make the numbers fit in the salary cap. It almost worked, too.

Tom Brady’s coming back. So is Bruce Arians. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers are already thinking about what it’ll take to repeat as Super Bowl champions. The challenge begins with trying to keep some key components together for next season.

TAMPA, Fla. — Tampa Bay’s defense finished its redemption tour with a Super Bowl championship.

TAMPA, Fla. — Seconds after linebacker Devin White intercepted a pass in the end zone, Tampa Bay coach Bruce Arians started doling out hugs. Players, assistants, staffers, they all got in line.

Kansas City Chiefs coach Andy Reid said Sunday night that his “heart bleeds” for those injured in a car crash involving his son, assistant coach Britt Reid, that left two children with injuries and one of them hospitalized in critical condition.

The stadium was full of cardboard cutouts and people in masks. A poet – yes, a poet – introduced us to some real heroes, and one of them handled the opening coin flip like she had done it 100 times before.

Patrick Mahomes has always seemed to save his best work for the most important down.

NEW YORK — During this year's Super Bowl, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers reigned supreme on the field. During advertising's biggest night, there were hits and misses as well. Overall, this year's crop of Super Bowl ads focused on light humor that strove to entertain and connect. But that made the few ads that took a different approach stand out even more. Amazon's Michael B. Jordan ad and Cadillac's Edward Scissorhands updates were hits, while overcomplicated ads like Michelob Ultra Organic Seltzer missed the mark.

What made the Chiefs' Patrick Mahomes one of the best quarterbacks in the NFL over the past three years had been his uncanny ability to quickly read the defense, settle on the right read and allow his otherworldly arm do the rest.

TAMPA, Fla. – Tom Brady took one final snap, went down on his knee, popped up and hugged his Tampa Bay Buccaneers teammates.

The long-downtrodden Tampa Bay Buccaneers are kings of the NFL again thanks to Tom Brady and the championship pedigree he brought over from New England — along with two former Patriots teammates who starred with him in Super Bowl 55.

Offsides. Unnecessary roughness. Unsportsmanlike conduct. Pass interference. And holding. Lots of holding.The Kansas City Chiefs put on a textbook display of how to stop the Kansas City Chiefs in the Super Bowl on Sunday. They did it to themselves.By halftime, the defending champs had amassed more penalties (8) than points (6) — and more frustration than hope. It was an undisciplined, uncharacteristic and somewhat unbelievable loss of composure that set the stage for a 31-9 drubbing at the hands of Tom Brady and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.Their 95 penalty yards in the first half were the most by any team in the first half of any of the 269 regular-season and playoff games this season. They were one more yard than Kansas City had racked up in any single game all year. The Chiefs only committed three penalties in the second half to finish the game with 11 for 120 yards. It hardly counted as progress.“It was uncharacteristic, and it was too bad it happened today,” coach Andy Reid said.The team that ran like a classy, unstoppable machine through one championship season, and over 16 more wins en route to their second straight title game, imploded on itself. The Chiefs got too handsy in a vain attempt to cover Tampa Bay's receivers, too jumpy on the line of scrimmage, too chippy when things didn't go their way.Each one of the eight first-half penalties hurt in its own way, none more than the two pass interference calls over the span of three plays that led to a touchdown and a 21-6 Bucs lead right before halftime. The drive started at the Tampa 29 with 1:01 left. Reid burned two timeouts, after two short Bucs gains, thinking the Chiefs might get the ball back.They didn't.The face of all this Kansas City frustration: It was defensive back Tyrann Mathieu, who, one play after a 34-yard pass interference call that put the Bucs in business, got hit with an interference call of his own that gave Tampa Bay the ball at the KC 1. After the touchdown on the next play, Mathieu got an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty for wagging a finger in Brady's face.No wonder he was frustrated. A few minutes earlier, Mathieu also sparred with Brady after his interception off a deflected ball was nullified by — what else — a defensive holding call. It was a marginal call that went against Charvarius Ward — lots of jockeying, and the sort of hand-to-hand combat that went unflagged through much of the playoffs.It was only 7-3 at the time. And so, Mathieu said something to Brady. Brady didn't back down. Brady came into the game with six Super Bowls titles, in part because he wins most of those mind games.Now, he has seven.“I'd never really seen that side of Tom Brady, but whatever. No comment. It's over with,” Mathieu said.Patrick Mahomes stayed stuck on one title. Flustered all day and hurried by a Bucs defense that apparently didn't get the message about KC, he completed 26 of 49 passes, virtually all of them hurried, for 270 yards and two interceptions. It didn't help that both starting tackles who had protected him all season were out with injuries.“A bad day to have a bad day,” Reid said. “But I'm not going to lay it on the offensive line. It took all of us."At least a half-dozen of Mahomes' passes hit receivers in the hands but got dropped.They weren't the only ones with butterfingers.With the Chiefs trailing 7-3 in the second quarter, lightly used punter Tommy Townsend dropped a perfect snap and had to scoop up the ball and rush the kick. It was a beauty that pinned Tampa back on its 30. But it was nullified by a holding call — a protector had to yank down an oncoming rusher to keep the late-off-the-foot kick from being blocked.On the replay of fourth down, Townsend shanked a 29-yard kick and the Bucs took over on Kansas City's 38. A penalty worth 10 years really cost the Chiefs 32.Then, the flags started flying.The first one on the ensuing drive nullified Mathieu's interception.The next was a five-yard penalty on 4th-and-5 — flag thrown by Sarah Thomas, the first female official to work a Super Bowl — that gave Tampa Bay a first down instead of settling for a field goal.On the next play, Brady hit Rob Gronkowski for what looked like the second touchdown connection between the old Patriots teammates, who never looked better in the pewter-and-red that the Bucs wear. But there was a flag on the ground.“Holding. Defense, number 34,” referee Carl Cheffers called out on the mic. That penalty was declined. It was 14-6 Bucs. Amid that sea of yellow, the Chiefs were seeing red.“Only referees can call the penalties, and penalties affect the game 1000 percent," defensive lineman Chris Jones said. “So, what can I say? We got a lot of penalties called on us today.”

TAMPA, Fla. – Tom Brady made his seventh Super Bowl title look familiar – despite moving south to a new team and conference during a pandemic.

The mood on the field was tense during the Super Bowl as the Tampa Bay Buccaneers trounced the Kansas City Chiefs 31-9. Off the field, brands sought to relieve the tension of the game – and the year – with lighthearted commercials stuffed with celebrities and nostalgic characters.

NEW YORK – His name is The Weeknd, but his Super Bowl performance felt more like a dreary Monday morning.

The Super Bowl Halftime Show is just as memorable as the Big Game – if not more memorable in some years. Janet Jackson’s wardrobe malfunction alongside Justin Timberlake? The legendary Prince? Shirtless and heavily tattooed Maroon 5 frontman Adam Levine?

More than the youth of Patrick Mahomes or the agelessness of Tom Brady, the most compelling story surrounding this year’s Super Bowl was that it was happening at all.