All of Brady’s other championships have come after the score was tied, or the Patriots were trailing, in the fourth quarter. In those situations, Brady was 45 for 59 with 503 yards and three touchdowns and no interceptions. Taking over at his 31-yard line with 9:49 left, Brady connected on four straight passes for 67 yards, including a 29-yard beauty to Rob Gronkowski down the left side that preceded Michel’s touchdown, his sixth of the playoffs.

“I’ll tell you this,” Gronkowski said, “it was the most satisfying year I’ve ever been a part of. How we came together, the obstacles we had to overcome, the grind from the beginning of training camp to now, it’s just surreal.”

Brady, at age 41, finished 21 of 35 for 262 yards, with more than half of that total — 141 — going to Julian Edelman. A year after missing the Patriots’ Super Bowl loss to Philadelphia with a knee injury and being suspended for the first four games of this season for violating the N.F.L.’s policy on performance-enhancing drugs, Edelman was selected as the game’s most valuable player.

“He just played the best game he has all year,” Brady said.

In a league designed for parity, Brady and Belichick have destroyed it. Together, they have made nine Super Bowls, including the last three. The Miami Dolphins, from 1972-74, and Buffalo Bills, from 1991-94, accomplished that feat before the Patriots, but neither had New England’s staying power.

Only one other franchise has won six Super Bowls, and it took the Pittsburgh Steelers 34 years to collect their Lombardi Trophies. The Patriots needed half as long.