Former Atlanta Falcons’ star running back DeVonta Freeman interestingly liked a tweet which alleges Kyle Shanahan of throwing Super Bowl 51.
Shanahan was the Falcons’ offensive coordinator when they infamously blew a 28-3 second half lead to the New England Patriots in Super Bowl 51. New England scored 31 unanswered points to win 34-28 in overtime.
Shanahan was widely criticized for being overly aggressive with his play-calling which allowed New England to come back in the game. On X (formerly known as Twitter), Freeman “liked” a tweet which alleged Shanahan of throwing the big game to the Patriots so that he could acquire quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo when he went to San Francisco:
Ahead of the 2017 trade deadline, the 49ers acquired Garoppolo from the Patriots in exchange for a 2018 second-round pick. Garoppolo would stay with the 49ers until 2022, helping them to a Super Bowl 54 appearance and a trip to the 2021 NFC Championship Game.
There’s obviously no reason to believe that Shanahan would purposely throw a Super Bowl. The game was in Atlanta’s hands, and Shanahan certainly wouldn’t want to lose the big game just to land Garoppolo from the Patriots.
In the world of sports, there will always be crazy conspiracy theories. But at the end of the day, it’s as simple as this: The Patriots pulled off the greatest NFL comeback ever. The Falcons pulled off the greatest collapse ever.
