Donald Trump picks Patriots to win Super Bowl 2017

President Donald Trump picked the New England Patriots to beat the Atlanta Falcons in Super Bowl LI during an interview with Bill O’Reilly of Fox News. He joins the mere 27 percent of the nation hoping for the same outcome.

His prediction was expected given the widespread news coverage of his relationships with Patriots quarterback Tom Brady, coach Bill Belichick, and owner Bob Kraft. Some may even say that the Patriots have a Trump problem.

“I hate to do it. I don’t even know what are the odds. I guess it’s pretty even, two great teams, pretty even, so I’ll say the Patriots will win,” Trump said. “By eight points.”

Trump did pick a Super Bowl winner last year, but flip-flopped to the losing side. In an interview with Face the Nation, Trump picked the Denver Broncos over the Carolina Panthers.

“I very much have always liked Peyton Manning,” said Trump. “He is a very good guy. I know him. And he is a very, very good guy. So, I have to go with the person I know and I like. I like the other team. I think the other team looks fantastic. Probably, they would be favored by something. But I will stick with Peyton, because he is a very good guy.”

That choice would have been correct! But six days later he changed his mind during the primaries.

Staying away from Super Bowl predictions might be the safer move. It’s what President Barack Obama did during most of his eight years in the White House.

Obama had a perfect Super Bowl prediction record for seven of his eight years. He picked the Pittsburgh Steelers over the Arizona Cardinals in Super Bowl XLIII and was exactly right. Then he spent six more years dodging reporters’ questions.

But in his final year he — but mostly CBS — made a mistake. Obama was asked instead of publicly making a prediction to make a private one. He was handed a piece of paper and asked to circle either the Panthers or Broncos. The cameraperson didn’t get the memo that this whole thing was supposed to be private. So CBS accidentally released video of the classified document, thus ending his 1-0 undefeated streak as the Panthers fell to Peyton Manning and the Broncos.

We’ll have to wait and see if Trump can match Obama’s 1-0 Super Bowl prediction start.