Super Bowl LI promises to deliver the classic we've been waiting for

When it was eventually decided that the Atlanta Falcons and New England Patriots would be the two teams competing in Super Bowl LI, my immediate thought was, “Great, another Patriots Super Bowl.” Outside of New Englanders, many football fans probably had the same reaction, but just because the Pats are playing in their seventh Super Bowl since 2002 and shooting for a fifth Lombardi Trophy doesn't mean the game will be a ho-hum affair.

Quite the contrary, in fact. Super Bowl LI is one you can't afford to miss. Why? Because there couldn't be two more opposite franchises going at it, and as we know, opposites attract. By proxy, if opposites attract, then opposites are attractive, and that's exactly what this big game provides.

Let's take a look at what I mean:

Super Bowl experience

The Patriots have nine conference championships and four Super Bowl wins. The Falcons have two conferences championships and zero Super Bowl wins.

It's the classic David and Goliath scenario. Here we have the big, bad Patriots, a franchise that has run roughshod over the NFL since Bill Belichick and Tom Brady teamed up. Nothing seems capable of slowing the New England machine down, whether it be injury, personnel turnover, or suspension and fines.

On the other side, we have a Falcons franchise that can't seem to catch a break. Since Atlanta's last Super Bowl appearance, its NFC South counterparts have all been to at least one Super Bowl, with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and New Orleans Saints winning one apiece and the Carolina Panthers making the big game twice — losing one of those, coincidentally, to the Patriots. Taking it a step further, the city of Atlanta has not seen a single team that resides there win a championship since the 1995 Atlanta Braves, while the Celtics, Bruins, Red Sox and, of course, Pats have all won at least one championship since 2008, with three of the four winning at least twice.

Quarterbacks

Tom Brady’s four Super Bowl rings currently tie him with Terry Bradshaw and Joe Montana for the most all time. He also has three Super Bowl MVP awards, which also places him in a tie with Montana for first. A win on Sunday would put him all alone at the top in both categories. Brady also already owns a half-dozen other Super Bowl records.

Matt Ryan has never appeared in a Super Bowl, and Brady has more Super Bowl experience than all of the Falcons players combined. And until this season, many questioned whether Ryan, who has put up tremendous numbers but has never gotten over the playoff hump until this year, was really a true franchise quarterback.

Looking at how each quarterback has played against his Super Bowl counterpart franchise, Brady has faced Atlanta four times and completed 88 of 131 (67.2 percent) passes for 1,193 yards, nine touchdowns and four wins. Ryan has two starts against the Pats, going 51 of 82 (62.2 percent) on passes for 620 yards and two touchdowns but lost both games.