Although the Super Bowl is usually a time for friendly sports competition between friends, family, and co-workers, there was a greater tension connected to Super Bowl 51 that had people flooding to twitter to express their political heartbreak after the Falcons lost in a choke-out to the Patriots. Riding on the back of President Trump’s roll out of multiple life-altering executive orders that pushed anti-Trumpers into further frustration and continued anger over Trump’s own assumed cheating with Russia, political tensions were highly associated with the Super Bowl. The Patriots cheating scandal, Tom Brady and Bill Belichick’s support of Trump, and Trumps overall support of the Patriots had many people simply viewing the game to watch Trump’s favorite Patriots fail. Many people who had been upset by his presidency and offended by his executive orders felt that the Falcons winning the Super Bowl would be a show of defiance against Trump and his non-inclusive policies.

Halfway through the game, things were looking up for the Falcons as they had a pretty large lead over the Patriots. On Twitter, those who oppose Trump along with Falcons fans, rejoiced as they saw Tom Brady with his head in his hands on the brink of losing. Tom Brady’s misery was gaining internet meme power, until the Patriots started to turn it around and the Falcons seemed to become lethargic on the field. Since Tom Brady had been embroiled in a cheating scandal with the Patriots widely known as “deflate gate”—the accusation against the Patriots that they purposely under-inflated footballs used during the American Football Conference in 2015 against the Indianapolis Cults—people were excited to see him lose. Despite the fact that Tom Brady was accused of what could be considered a heinous crime in the sports world and was punished for the allegations, he had come to Super Bowl 51 hoping to make a statement to those who thought he was a cheater that he would win and prove them wrong.

But, for people who had considered Tom Brady a cheater and linked him directly to the Trump administration, who were also considered cheaters since they lost by over a million in popular votes due to his unashamed support, the Patriots win in the last few moments was a slap in the face to many in the anti-Trump movement. Hours after the Patriots came up from under the Falcons and stole Super Bowl 51, people trended hashtags on Twitter such as #NotMySuperbowlChamps (compared to the anti-Trump movements #NotMyPresident) and tweets about how the loss felt like “election night all over again.” People were even more upset when they realized that President Trump, legitimately, was supporting the Patriots and said in an interview that he predicted the Patriots would win over the Falcons. Donald Trump Jr. even poked fun at Wall Street Journal’s analytics which predicted that Falcons had a 91.6% chance of winning by tweeting “where have I seen stats like this before?” referring to how analytic experts said Hillary Clinton would beat Trump into office.

Since other avenues of protest are currently being threatened by Trump and the House (they are hoping to make peaceful protesting an illegal act) Super Bowl 51 became a brand venue for political argument for fans and advertisers alike. There were an endless amount of commercials for the anti-Trump movement to revel in that opposed President Trump’s policies including a commercial by building supplies company, like 84 Lumber which intended to show Trump’s envisioned border wall, but was re-edited as instructed by the NFL for being too political. There were no restrictions towards the actual company’s release of the full commercial on their website and their website was assumed to have crashed when millions went to the internet to watch the rest of the controversial portrayal of immigration. Other commercials that pleased pro-immigration individuals seemed to be the very well received commercial by Budweiser, even though it led to a short lived and mocked hashtag “#BoycottBudwiser.” Not only did anti-immigration supporters fail to spell Budweiser inaccurately, they also failed to realize that Budweiser wouldn’t exist if it weren’t for that young German immigrant coming to America to try and live out his own American dream. Of course, Budweiser’s commercial wasn’t just the story of a young immigrant’s success as a brewer, it was in clear opposition to President Trump’s recent anti-immigration executive orders that sparked them to tell their founder’s story.

The commercials combined with the Patriots unbridled support of Donald Trump and his administration made support of the Falcons a political statement for people who were not even fans of the sport. For those who held felt a huge loss in their freedoms and their hopes for a better America that would move forward on immigration and equality, watching the Falcons win stolen by the Patriots was a huge reminder of what had happened to Hillary Clinton during the election and what happened to many Americans who felt betrayed by the electoral college. Even though people who are against Trump and his policies won when it came to Super Bowl advertisements that highlighted heavily on opposition to the immigration ban and supported pay equality for women, it wasn’t

enough to curb the anger of watching someone assumed a cheater by many continue win the Super Bowl. Whether or not the Patriots of the Falcons deserved to win at the end of the night, there millions of broken hearts when the Patriots won Super Bowl 51, and many of those splintered hearts had nothing to do with the actual game of football.