The problem with there being an extra week off before the biggest game of the year for the most popular sport in America lies not in the fact that the team with the coaching staff who is able to game plan more effectively has an inherent advantage (see the College Football Playoffs), but rather in the fact that the coverage of the Super Bowl becomes unbearable. Every take, opinion, or fact has been recycled and regurgitated a thousand different ways, until eventually we need to come up with new material to talk about. 

This leads us to John Cena comparing himself to Tom Brady, people actually discussing what Tom Brady’s dad has said, and generally people talking about Tom Brady any way they can. Sorry Atlanta, for as an exciting football team as you are, you just aren’t as interesting off the field. So I understand that you’re not reading this to analyze Atlanta versus New England from a football standpoint, but rather you’re here to analyze the entirely relevant comparison of Atlanta versus New England from a destination standpoint.

So what is the most distinguishable feature about the northeast region that we will define as greater Boston, given that Foxborough will be ill equipped to go up against a city such as Atlanta. Well, aside from the city’s obvious historical implications, some people will be quick to point out its rich sports history, including the Celtics, Bruins, Red Sox, and the Patriots. Some might be impressed by Cambridge, holding within its boundaries universities as prestigious as Harvard and MIT. And I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the cultural impact a large amount of Irish immigrants imparted on the city. 

Conveniently, you can become a Boston expert in less than a day, given that all of the above are condensed into one film, ‘Good Will Hunting’, led by Boston’s own, Matt Damon and Ben Affleck. Now I’m not saying that Boston is perfectly described by a two and a half hour movie, but I’m also not saying that it isn’t.

On the other end of the spectrum is Atlanta, and off the top of my head Atlanta hosted the Olympics one year. Other than that I have nothing. For such a large city Atlanta seems kind of boring. As it turns out, I was correct, Atlanta actually hosted the summer Olympics in ’96 and annually brings in over 35 million people a year, presumably most of whom are going to visit the worlds largest aquarium, the Georgia Aquarium. Still, I find that number surprising, because you don’t hear of many people visiting smack dab in the middle of Georgia. On the contrary, you hear people visiting Alabama, plenty of people visiting Florida, and many people visiting South Carolina. All of them skipping right over Georgia. But what Atlanta has in spades is musicians, more precisely rappers. Any city who touts Outkast, TI, Jeezy, Migos, and Gucci (I snubbed no one intentionally) clearly has my attention, along with the rest of the country. It seems that whatever music is coming out of the A, works its way to the rest of map.

Again, the question of whether or not the dirty birds will be kicking for three can be, and has been discussed elsewhere, but the debate over which city reigns supreme is to be solved right now. Both sides put up a fair fight, and after long deliberation, it has been determined that Boston wins out. Although I could listen to Outkast all day, yes, Outkast has a catalog of music that spans further than Speakerboxxx, Atlanta just didn’t have enough to offer me otherwise. And even though Boston could not hold its brightest star, Will Hunting, the combination of the history and the culture make it a fine destination for a simple man such as myself.