What are the three most important takeaways from Super Bowl XLIX? Two are obvious: The Seattle Seahawks being deflated after losing to the New England Patriots and the National Football League’s reputation once again being deflated. But the most important one is that much of the free media sponsors anticipate to justify their multi-million dollar sponsorships was not available because of “Deflategate” coverage.

For football fans, the game also provided the silly quarterback fodder about who is the “greatest,” that will fill sports talk radio until the 2016 Super Bowl and probably after.

Now that New England defeated Seattle in the Super Bowl, let’s try to have a serious discussion with football fans. Tom Brady, the Patriots quarterback, is now being praised as an all-time great, when just a few days ago talk radio call-ins were questioning Brady’s greatness because he hadn’t won a Super Bowl in years.

But what if Seattle had won the game? Would Russell Wilson be considered a better quarterback than Brady? Could be, according to call-ins to sports radio shows.

Payton Manning’s playoff record has been wanting. Does that mean he isn’t an all-time great based on his over-all play? In 1990, Jeff Hostetler filled in when Phil Simms was injured late in the regular 1990 season and quarterbacked the New York Giants to a Super Bowl victory over the Buffalo Bills.

Who is the better QB, Manning or Hostetler? The answer is obvious.

As are many discussions surrounding the Super Bowl the questioning of the greatness of a player based on one game is ridiculous. And so is the effectiveness of multi-million dollars promotions campaigns based on one game.

Everyone in our business knows that the mystique surrounding the Super Bowl is PR firm and ad agency- created, aided greatly by the sports and advertising media, which should be rewarded by the NFL for their complicity in hyping what is in reality a football game encased in a zany Marx Brothers business-like related party atmosphere.

The insanity surrounding the Super Bowl is evident by marketers spending a reported $4.5 million for a :30 commercial, despite there being so many that some advertising executives admit that viewers can only remember a few (and remembering doesn’t necessarily translate to purchases). The same is also true of the Olympic Games, also is a hyped commercial–cluttered TV event.

It’s no secret that TV commercials on sporting events and other programs are not as effective as they once were. That’s why so many marketers have taken to social media to extend the reach of their commercials. But as promotions on social media by sponsors of the Sochi Olympics showed these can easily be foiled and countered by special interest groups.

Soon to come from the Super Bowl advertisers are statements like, “We couldn’t have wanted more;” “We’re absolutely happy with the results,” even though there is no proof of a sales bump. What they really think will never be made public.

Now that the game in the Arizona desert is history, marketers will turn their attention to next year’s most hyped football game since the current one, and the craziness of the Super Bowl sell will soon be planned by PR and advertising firms.

But despite the efforts of the best PR minds in and out of our business, Super Bowl XLIX will be remembered for “Deflategate,” which history will list as another black mark against the NFL, joining its disgraceful past of indifference to the serious life-altering brain injuries to its players and spousal abuse by players.

Unexpectedly, “Deflategate” produced acting performances by Belichick and Tom Brady worthy of an Oscar. The response to their pressers reminded me of Nixon’s, “I am not a crook,” act, which also did not satisfy the blood thirsty, meat-eating media wolf pack.

For people in our business, tapes of Brady’s and Belichick’s press conferences should be shown in every media training class to demonstrate how a client in crisis should deflect hostile questions and remain on script while not being antagonistic to reporters, unlike Commissioner Roger Goodell’s condescending reply to CNN's Rachel Nichols question about conflicts of interests during NFL investigations, which she asked during the leagues version of the State of the Union speech.

In addition to being the best quarterback in the room, Brady also proved that he was probably the smartest person there, when after giving the same answer multiple times to the same questions he said, “This isn't ISIS. No one's dying,” a comment that might have left some reporters and fans who live and die between the goal lines scratching their heads.

Ironically, the Seattle-New England game generated what the NFL always hoped for, gaining wall-to-wall media coverage that interested even people who wouldn’t normally care if the league went poof tomorrow. And now the NFL has a template to repeat that feat every year – make certain there is a scandal before a big game.

The most intelligent comment about the hullabaloo surrounding all Super Bowls was issued not by an NFL exec, an advertising or a PR practitioner but from a football player, when prior to Super Bowl V1, Duane Thomas, the terrific Dallas Cowboy’s running back, was asked about playing in “the ultimate game.” His response was, "If it's the ultimate game, how come they're playing it again next year?"

Sports marketers should consider Thomas’ remarks when deciding how to divvy up their budgets. If the NFL has its way, there’ll always be another ultimate game and some marketers will forget that more targeted advertising might produce better sales. Maybe Super ones.

The truth of the matter is that “Deflategate,” was largely media created. But the lame responses by the Patriots and NFL helped keep it in the news. And once again, clients in trouble couldn’t be helped by self-anointed media crisis experts.

* * *

Arthur Solomon, a former senior VP at Burson-Marsteller, contributes to PR/sports publications, consults on PR projects and sits on the Seoul Peace Prize nominating committee. He can be reached at [email protected]