Super Bowl fever returns to St. Louis as the Patriots and Rams reconnect 17 years to the day of Super Bowl 36. The Rams yearn to avenge their loyal fanbase, which…now resides in Los Angeles. Yeah. So, we have another L.A.-Boston championship. Here’s how the Student Life sports staff thinks this one will go. Hint: Title-starved Beantown (none in three months!) will host another parade.

Elise Amendola | MCTCampus

New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady gets set to pass the football during the first half of the AFC Championship game against the Kansas City Chiefs Sunday, Jan. 20 in Kansas City.

A confession: I haven’t watched a whole lot of football this year. Between the blackballing of Colin Kaepernick, brain disease crisis and overly complex rule controversies, my interest in the league has waned. I could probably count on one hand the number of games I (even partially) watched this season: Chiefs-Jaguars, Bears-Jets, Rams-Chiefs, Patriots-Chiefs, a couple Saquon Barkley runs.

Luckily, you don’t have to be very with the times to understand this Super Bowl. To quote a friend who knows nothing about football: “Who’s playing in the Super Bowl? The Patriots and someone else?” There are freshmen on campus born the year Tom Brady played his first game for New England. Since then, we’ve seen Patriots vs. Rams, Patriots vs. Panthers, Patriots vs. Eagles, Patriots vs. Giants, Patriots vs. Giants again, Patriots vs. Seahawks, Patriots vs. Falcons, Patriots vs. Eagles again and, now, Patriots vs. Rams again. Seriously, how wild is it that the New England dynasty started with this year’s opponent in a different city?

Somehow, Brady and co. have interpreted “Patriots against all these opponents” as “Patriots against the world,” meaning, apparently, that no one believes in them. This is hogwash. Maybe the man is searching for new means of motivation in his ninth trip to the Big Game. Regardless, one rule has been certain through the entirety of my NFL-watching experience: Pick the Patriots. Patriots 41, Rams 33.
—Rohan Gupta, Senior Sports Editor

The way I see it, this Super Bowl is just a World Series rematch. The Los Angeles Dodgers lost to the Boston Red Sox, and well, I think Boston fans will have more cause for celebration after the Super Bowl. Patriots 28, Rams 21.
—Ella Chochrek, Director of Special Projects

Sean McVay is a great coach, but he’s a young coach. He’s prone to making mistakes that cost his team opportunities. Because Greg Zuerlein connected on the kick that ended the NFC Championship, McVay’s abysmal play-calling in overtime was basically forgotten. He forced his kicker to make a 57-yard kick. If he had run the ball three consecutive times and gotten one yard every time, it would have been a better set up. Bill Belichick will make McVay pay for his errors. Either McVay will go for some unnecessary risk early in the game which will be stopped by the Patriots, sucking the air out of his team, or late in the game his play-calling and time management will play right into Belichick’s hands. At the end of the game, I expect the Patriots to come out on top and the weight of the loss to be on McVay’s shoulders. Patriots 34, Rams 17.
—Dorian DeBose, Senior Sports Editor

The Patriots will win, but in the context of Tom Brady and Bill Belichick professing their support for Donald Trump, who is the real winner here? Patriots 34, Rams 21.
—Anjali Vishwanath, Social Media Editor

I’ve been doing these staff lists for three years; and every single time, one of the teams involved has been the New England Patriots, and I am truly quite upset about that. I try to make predictions based on emotional logic, because it’s sports and that tends to have the same success rate as actual rational thought. But I truly don’t know who I want to win this one. Having lived in St. Louis for four years, I feel obligated to hate the Rams, but as a person who hates the Patriots, I feel obligated to hate the Patriots. As you can see, I am in a bit of bind here. Anyways, the Patriots are the Patriots, and Sean McVay is going to have to have a former lacrosse player named Kevin Hogan catching the winning touchdown burned into his robot memory. Patriots 24, Rams 17.
—Jon Lewis, Associate Editor

In thinking toward Sunday afternoon’s festivities, I’m having trouble getting past the despair on the faces of the New Orleans Saints fans as L.A. Rams cornerback Nickell Robey-Coleman came flying through the air to tackle Saints receiver Tommylee Lewis just before he was about to catch what could have been a game-winning touchdown in the NFC Championship game. A lifelong New York Jets fan, I share a hatred of the Patriots just like anyone else. I don’t want to see them win. Yet part of me feels that the Rams don’t belong in the Super Bowl, that they cheated their way in. The way Tom Brady led the Patriots down the field in overtime against the Kansas City Chiefs felt inevitable, like that was the way this season was supposed to go. The Rams will put up a fight, that’s for sure, but this year will find the Pats back on top. Patriots 31, Rams 17.
—Matthew Friedman, Contributing Reporter

Quite honestly, I found out who’ll be playing about an hour ago. But that’s not even what matters, because we all know the best part of the Super Bowl: the commercials. That Eli Manning and Odell Beckham “Dirty Dancing” spoof? Priceless. Anything with Betty White? Iconic. Plus, when you just watch for the commercials, you have tons of time to refill snacks while some people throw a ball around. Football 0, Coca-Cola Commercials 100.
—Jaden Satenstein, Senior Scene Editor