The championship did not fail to disappoint at all, with very entertaining games across both divisions. But let’s say the Super Bowl that America wanted did not come true.

Let’s start first in the AFC; the Ravens had the opportunity to make America happy and not let the Chiefs and Taylor Swift make it to another Super Bowl. But the Ravens did the most Raven thing possible: they choked. Zay Flowers’s fumble on the one-yard line and Lamar Jakcosn’s triple coverage interception were the two major mistakes.

The number of penalties that were taken needs to be discussed. It did seem like anything the Ravens did was a flag and that even if they breathed on Mr. Patrick Mahomes, there would be a flag; there were two roughing-the-passer calls that, yes, they ended up in hard hits on Mahomes. Especially the Clowney one where he is running full speed at Mahomes, and Mahomes throws it away about a half second before Cowney gets there. It’s so hard to slow the momentum when you’re running full speed that I think the NFL needs to cut the edge rushers some slack when they follow through with their hits. However, since it’s Mahomes—the league’s treasure, of course—they’re going to give him the calls.

Also, there was the taunting flag on Zay Flower’s after his monster catch. Yes, he taunted, but it’s not like Travis Kelce doesn’t do it every other play. After he catches the ball, he’s always in their face, yelling and talking trash, and he gets no penalties. It’s obviously because he’s dating Taylor Swift and is on the team with Mahomes that the NFL will always overlook a taunting penalty by Kelce because they always side with the Chiefs. After this game is all said and done, I do think the Ravens could have won if they hadn’t had the interception or fumble. At the end of the day, though, they lost 17-10. I do think the Chiefs got all the calls in the world and that they are the NFL’s treasure. I’m not saying it’s rigged for them, but I’m saying it also may be a little rigged for them.

The NFC championship was an absolute heartbreaker; we saw the American team go down in the blink of an eye, and not only that, we got the Super Bowl matchup nobody wanted. The Lions had the entirety of America backing them in this, and they came out hot and fantastic in the first half. It looked great from all over the board with all of their star players. It looked like the Lions had it wrapped up going into half-time up 24-7.

But wow, the absolute curve ball of the century hit us in the face. As soon as the second half started, it all went downhill very fast for the Lions. It all started when Purdy heaved up a pass, and it bounced off of Brian Branch’s face mask, and Brandon Ayuik caught it; the 49ers scored the very next play, and it was now 24-17.

Then the Lions got the callback, and on the first play, Gibbs fumbled it, and boom, the 49ers had the ball in the red zone already. A couple of plays later, it already tied up 24-24 eight minutes into the second half.  From then on forward, the Lions could not stop the bleeding.

The Lions went 0-2 on 4th down conversions in the second, passing up on six points, which proved to be pivotal. But after the first 4th down miss, the 49ers scored a field goal to go up by three. Then the Lions missed another 4th down conversion, and the 49ers scored again, putting them up 10 and sucking all of the life out of the Lions and their fans. However, the Lions kept fighting and got down to the goal line with less than a minute, and instead of no huddling and trying to score, they called a time, which now means if the Lions scored, they would need the onside kick or it’s basically over with two timeouts. So the Lions scored to make it 34-31, but they missed the onside kick, and it was over.

The 49ers ran the clock out, and just like the Lions’ run came to an end, the whole country was depressed.  The Lions, the only team that could save us from Mahomes winning a Super Bowl, lost, so now we have to deal with the god squad Niners and the Taylor Swift Chiefs.

After the end of the championship weekend, America had definitely lost. The last two teams anyone wanted in the Super Bowl made it in. But nonetheless, it should be a pretty entertaining Super Bowl; it’s just not the two teams I hoped for.