If Twitter has done anything for Fox Sports talking head Skip Bayless, it has given him a slew of opportunities to take a face-plant on sports predictions, and he has not disappointed. (Johnny Manziel ring a bell?)
Sunday night’s Super Bowl baited him again. Right after the Falcons took a 21-0 lead on Robert Alford’s pick-six of Tom Brady, Bayless felt comfortable enough to tweet this: "Well, that’s it. The Atlanta Falcons are Super Bowl champions."
Too soon?
Actually, yeah. The Falcons would take a 28-3 lead early in the third quarter, but the Patriots rallied to a 34-28 overtime victory. Given Bayless’ track record with famous fails, the reaction was predictable.
"If you said the sun would rise tomorrow, the world would end," tweeted Blair Farthing, a Canadian TV reporter.
Another follower, tweeted a photo up of President-elect Harry Truman holding up the infamous "Dewey defeats Truman" headline on the front page of the Chicago Tribune — appropriate for Bayless, a former Tribune columnist.
Of course, in typical Bayless fashion, there’s no acknowledgement of the previous miss when the Patriots knot the game at 28, and if fact he pivots to Patriots boosterism, as though he knew it all along. Check out this succession of tweets after Brady’s fifth championship became certain:
"TOM BRADY IS MICHAEL JORDAN."
"Take THAT, Roger Goodell."
"What a collapse by Atlanta. 28 points in the 1st half. Zero in 2nd. Matt Ryan turned back into Matt Ryan as NE D got mad and got serious."
"I cannot wait to see my man Shannon Sharpe tomorrow at 9:30 E try to explain what happened to his man Matty Ice."
Really? And then there’s this statement by Bayless, likely to be viewed as blasphemous by Bulls fans:
"Tom Brady has eclipsed Michael Jordan as the greatest clutch player ever. NOW on @undisputed."
plthompson@chicagotribune.com
Twitter @_phil_thompson
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