Tom Brady's New England Patriots win their fifth Super Bowl title with historic comeback against the Atlanta Falcons

1/52
Richard Parry6 February 2017

The New England Patriots came back from a 23-3 half time deficit to win their fifth Super Bowl title.

The Patriots stormed back into contention to take a Super Bowl into overtime for the first time in the history of the championships.

Having lost in their only previous appearance back in 1999 – a 34-19 defeat to the Denver Broncos in Miami’s Pro Player Stadium – the Atlanta Falcons were on the verge of victory in Houston’s NRG Stadium by before a stunning capitulation in the fourth quarter.

And while Robert Alford, Austin Hooper and Devonta Freeman each scored first half touchdowns to put light between themselves and New England, the Pats had to wait until the third quarter for James White to score their first of the game.

MVP, Tom Brady Photo: Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images
Getty Images

Tom Brady, a four time winner, was unable to grasp a foothold in the game for so long, burst into life in the fourth quarter as New England completed the most memorable of comebacks.

Before Super Bowl 51, the biggest comeback in the competition's history was overcoming a ten-point deficit, and the four-time winners had it all to do with history severely against them. But they climed the mountain, and planted the flag.

Julian Edelman's stunning catch proved the catalyst as the Patriots recorded 19 fourth-quarter points to take the game to overtime before White touched-down to complete a historic 34-28 victory.

For Brady, what had seemed set to be a forgettable evening resulted in Super Bowl number five and a fifth MVP. Reacting to the win, he said: "There were a lot of plays, probably about 30 of them, and if anyone was different the outcome would have been different. It was unbelievable. I'm so proud of these guys.

"It's going to be a great celebration tonight. Thanks to everyone back in Boston, we love you, we're bringing this sucker home!"

Photo: Getty Images
Getty Images

Patriots coach Bill Belichick added: "We have great players, they competed the whole game. They were 28-3 down but they never looked back.

"They just keep competing for 60 minutes, or longer."

Patriots owner Robert Kraft concluded: "I told our fans two years ago that was the sweetest win of all, but a lot has transpired in the last two years. That doesn't need any explanation.

"This is unequivocally the sweetest. I am proud to say for the fifth time the Patriots are World

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in