Chapter 784: Advancing to the Super Bowl

"Take them down! Beat the Steelers! We're definitely going to win!"

"Victory! Victory! The Super Bowl is waiting for us!"

Down on the field, the game had entered its final moments, and the battle between the Los Angeles Raiders and the Pittsburgh Steelers had reached a fever pitch. The Raiders had put together an outstanding season after years in a slump; but despite playing well today, they still trailed the veteran powerhouse Pittsburgh Steelers.

Up on the stadium scoreboard, it read: Los Angeles Raiders vs. Pittsburgh Steelers, 14–20!

Time was almost up, and the Los Angeles Raiders had the ball on offense. To earn a trip to the Super Bowl, the team had to score a touchdown on this drive for six points to tie the score, then finish the game with the extra point.

The prerequisite for all of that was simple: the Los Angeles Raiders had to score a touchdown!

Never mind the ordinary fans—right now even Duke was a bit tense, his eyes locked on the field. He had poured a massive sum of money into the Los Angeles Raiders. While that investment was bound to pay off in the future, advancing to the Super Bowl would undoubtedly speed up the process.

Besides, as the owner of the Raiders, he would be lying if he said he didn't want to see his team win the Super Bowl.

With less than a minute left on the clock, the Raiders had driven to the Pittsburgh Steelers' 20-yard line. From that distance, the kicker had a very high chance of making a field goal, but three points were useless to them. The Raiders needed a touchdown—only those six points could tie the game.

Down on the field, no sooner had the Raiders snapped the ball than the referee threw a yellow flag onto the turf, calling a penalty on the Raiders on second down and pushing their offense back ten yards.

Having already pushed to the Pittsburgh Steelers' 20-yard line, the Raiders were forced to retreat ten yards and face third down from the thirty.

Duke frowned tightly. The ten penalty yards were naturally tacked onto the distance they needed to cover, making the remaining third and fourth downs critical. Thirty yards was practically an unbridgeable chasm.

In an ordinary game, a thirty-yard touchdown wasn't unusual, but at a decisive moment like this, pulling it off was enormously difficult.

"Do we really have to start over next year?" Leonardo shook his head.

Duke offered a calm smile. "Who knows?"

They might be the owners of the team, but at a moment like this, there was nothing they could do. Even the coach's influence was reduced to almost nothing; right now, the team needed someone on the field to step up...

The Raiders called their final timeout. Afterward, all the players huddled around quarterback Tom Brady, listening as he laid out the plays for the last two downs.

The team still had third and fourth down left. The safe approach was usually to gain as many yards as possible on third down, then throw everything into scoring a touchdown on fourth down to tie the game. Time was tight, but there was still enough on the clock to run two plays.

"The safest play..." George Clooney said suddenly, "...is to hand it to running back Marshawn Lynch on the ground for third down and push forward as far as possible."

Duke nodded slowly. He had played American football himself back in the day, and even if he had been purely an amateur—only good enough to get by on a mediocre team at the California Institute of the Arts—he still knew how to read the game. What George Clooney had described really was the safest option.

And it looked as though the Raiders were preparing to do just that.

Tom Brady lined up behind the center while Marshawn Lynch set himself nearby, poised to sprint. Across the line, the Pittsburgh Steelers' defensive linemen had their eyes locked on Marshawn Lynch as well.

"Go!"

The Raiders' center snapped the ball, sending the reddish-brown football back to Tom Brady. The offensive line formed a pocket, holding back the Pittsburgh Steelers' defensive linemen—though that wall could only hold for a few seconds. On any given play, a quarterback had precious little time to handle the ball.

Hollywood movies always portrayed quarterbacks as muscle-bound idiots with empty heads, when in truth, nobody simple-minded could ever play the position—especially on a professional team.

A pro quarterback wasn't just physically strong; he usually had the sharpest mind on the field and served as the absolute soul of the offense. For a star quarterback like Tom Brady, deciding the team's play on the fly was completely routine.

The moment Tom Brady caught the snap, Duke narrowed his eyes slightly. Running back Marshawn Lynch had already burst forward, looking for all the world as if Tom Brady was about to hand him the ball to carry out this third-down play.

Just as George Clooney had said, it was the safest option, and the play most quarterbacks would choose.

As Marshawn Lynch charged ahead, Tom Brady pivoted toward him and extended his hands in a flash, seemingly handing the ball off. Marshawn Lynch mimed taking the handoff, tucked his arms tightly against his chest, spotted a gap in the Pittsburgh Steelers' defense, and shot toward it like a bolt of black lightning.

Most of the Pittsburgh Steelers' defensive line had their eyes glued to Marshawn Lynch. Over the past two seasons, the young running back had improved at an astonishing pace, showing enough talent and potential to be recognized across the league as one of the finest running backs of the future.

Three Pittsburgh Steelers defensive linemen shed their Raiders blockers and lunged at Marshawn Lynch, while a safety slowed his pursuit of a Raiders wide receiver—guarding against the chance that Marshawn Lynch might break through the line and have an open lane straight into the end zone for a touchdown.

With nearly everyone watching Marshawn Lynch, only a handful of eyes remained on Tom Brady, who was dropping back fast and scanning the field as he retreated.

"Tom Brady!"

Not everyone had fallen for the fake. A Pittsburgh Steelers player shouted a warning, but he was a full five yards away from Tom Brady, and his teammates were even further off.

Those five yards—and the time it would take the defender to close in for a sack—were more than enough for a quarterback of Tom Brady's caliber to make multiple choices.

Tom Brady spotted the safety who had slowed up to cut off Marshawn Lynch, leaving the wide receiver he was supposed to cover wide open.

The reddish-brown leather ball traced a graceful arc, spiraling forward and to Tom Brady's left. The other Pittsburgh Steelers spotted the ball and the open space and sprinted desperately to intercept it, but they were too late.

As a wide receiver, Julian Edelman had fairly ordinary physical measurables, but he was remarkably agile, had rock-solid fundamentals, and shared effortless chemistry with Tom Brady.

The moment the ball left Tom Brady's hand, Julian Edelman turned and leaped, plucking the ball cleanly out of the air. Landing steadily on his feet, he burst across the goal line in just two strides...

Touchdown! Six points!

The Los Angeles Raiders had tied the game!

The entire stadium erupted in thunderous cheers!

Duke and Leonardo DiCaprio jumped to their feet as well, throwing both hands high into the air!

"Yes!"

Letting out a loud shout, Duke gave Leonardo a hug. "Nicely done! Super Bowl, here we come!"

After shouting a few cheers like ordinary fans, the two of them quickly regained their composure and simply clapped along with everyone else—after all, the game wasn't over yet.

Even if the game wasn't quite over, there was little suspense left. Moments later, the Raiders' kicker easily sent the extra point through the uprights, putting the Los Angeles Raiders ahead of the Pittsburgh Steelers 21–20.

With only seconds left in the game, the Pittsburgh Steelers had no way to turn the tide and could only watch helplessly as the AFC West champion Los Angeles Raiders proved that latecomers surpass the early ones, clinching their spot in the Super Bowl.

The structure of the NFL season differs somewhat from the other major sports leagues in North America.

Each year's schedule is divided into three stages: the preseason, the regular season, and the postseason. The preseason runs for four weeks as a warm-up for the regular season. The regular season kicks off the first week after Labor Day in early September, with each team playing sixteen games across seventeen weeks from September through December, usually on Thursdays, Sundays, or Mondays. Once the regular season wraps up, six teams from each conference advance to the postseason: the four division champions and the two "wild card" teams with the best records among the remaining clubs.

From there, after three rounds of single-elimination playoffs, the two conference champions meet in the Super Bowl at a predetermined stadium to battle for the championship trophy—the Vince Lombardi Trophy.

A week after the Super Bowl ends, the two conferences also select the best players of the year to compete in the Pro Bowl—an all-star game held in Hawaii.

This was the first time since 1983 that the Raiders had fought their way into the Super Bowl.

"Our team made it to the Super Bowl?"

Leonardo DiCaprio still seemed unable to believe it. He held shares in the team as well, and even though it was only a token stake, it still made him one of the team's owners in name.

Duke clapped Leonardo firmly on the arm. "I told you this investment would pay off."

The two exchanged a look and burst out laughing together. Just making it to the Super Bowl was already a huge victory for them.

Of course, actually winning the Super Bowl would be even better.

Duke and Leonardo didn't head down to the locker room. In pro sports leagues across America, most owners kept a healthy distance from the players; the owners put up the money and the players put in the work, making it a straightforward business transaction.

Neither of them had any intention of going to celebrate with the players, either. Instead, they left Pasadena City and headed for Hollywood Boulevard, the true place for a Hollywood celebration.

George Clooney didn't join them, saying his goodbyes and heading off on his own. Duke and Leonardo walked into one of the most famous nightclubs, went straight to the bar, and ordered a drink each, chatting about the game in high spirits as they drank.

They also spotted quite a few people inside whom they had seen earlier at the stadium, including Orlando Bloom.