He spoke with what appeared to be supreme confidence when he told the NFL’s website that the Falcons would beat the Patriots on Sunday.

I have to admit the prediction stopped me, at least briefly, seeing how it came from reliable Johnny Hekker, who was more accurate with his leg this season than either of the Rams’ quarterbacks were with their arms.

Hekker, because of his precision, punted his way into the Pro Bowl played Sunday in central Florida. A fitting conclusion since most adults are, in fact, dragged to Orlando kicking and screaming.

It was during this trip that the NFL asked several players to appear on camera and pick the winner of Super Bowl LI, Hekker among a surprisingly large group that supported Atlanta.

I say “surprisingly large” because these players presumably know more about football than the rest of us do, the rest of us including the types of people willing to wager on Lady Gaga’s halftime-show hair color.

(Blonde/Yellow is the huge favorite; bald, shockingly, isn’t on the board.)

I don’t know your feelings on the matter. But I, for one, will absolutely, undeniably and most emphatically not pick against New England. Are you kidding? This is exactly the game Bill Belichick and Tom Brady always win.

Always, like as certain as the rising sun or the unending surf, a fact of life that can’t be hidden under even the bulkiest of hoodies.

I have the Patriots winning 35-31, but only because when they play in these Super Bowls the final margin never is more than a few points.

Honestly, though, dismissing that history, I could envision New England triumphing Sunday by the sort of lopsided score that helped make Hekker the Rams’ most employed weapon.

On top of the four NFL championships already won by Belichick and Brady, this year they have the added incentive of cramming it up Roger Goodell’s nose sideways.

Quite famously, most of the residents of the greater Boston-area think of Goodell as being the devil - the Yankee cap-wearing, Kurt Rambis-loving devil.

The NFL commissioner, among other acts over the years, suspended Brady for the first four games this season because of his role in the deflation of footballs, a crime Patriots fans still consider no less alleged than Bigfoot.

New England owner Robert Kraft cryptically referenced the ban in accepting the AFC title trophy two weeks ago, making interesting a postgame presentation generally as tedious as trigonometry.

If you don’t believe in cosmic forces working in favor of the Patriots this time of year, remember their most recent Super Bowl victory?

That one came only after Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson threw the longest 1-yard pass in league history, the ball traveling all the way from Glendale, Ariz., to the pit of Seattle’s sporting soul.

I can see a lot of things happening before I can see New England losing this game. Like, just as one example, Belichick coaching in the outfit of a Hooter’s waitress.

Beyond all of this, the Patriots also have an enormous advantage in that their opponents represent the city of Atlanta, an otherwise fine municipality that, generally speaking, stinks at sports.

Professional teams flying Atlanta’s banner have won one league championship - the 1995 Braves. One. That’s it. Ever!

In our four major sports, Atlanta’s teams have completed 168 seasons, 167 of which ended somewhere other than in the ultimate celebration.

Now, if you want to pick against that sort of history, be my guest. Hey, Atlanta’s due, right? Not unlike a woman 18 months pregnant is due.

Still, I’m going to go with the math that tells me the Falcons have to overcome the fate that has claimed 99.4 percent of the city’s previous teams.

How desperate is Atlanta to embrace a champion? Twice, the town has hosted victory parades for teams that didn’t actually win.

The ’91 Braves, Game 7 losers in the World Series, and the ’98 Falcons, 34-19 losers in Super Bowl XXXIII, were triumphantly paraded through the streets despite having nothing to suggest they had been triumphant.

Musical artist Lil Jon, an Atlanta native, was asked this week by nfl.com what would happen should the Falcons beat the Patriots.

“If we win this Super Bowl, I think the parade is gonna be the most turnt, the most crunkest, the littest parade you have ever seen,” he was quoted as saying. “They gonna probably shut the city down for like a week… Ain’t no party like an ATL party, baby.”

I couldn’t have said it better myself. Or said it at all myself, since I’m not 100-percent sure what turnt, crunkest and littest mean. But I suspect Lil Jon believes the parade would be pretty neat-o.

But, sorry Atlanta, it’s not going to happen. Not Sunday. Not against these Patriots. Not with New England having so much on its side.

And sorry to you, Johnny Hekker. But when the NFL asked for your prediction, you should have done what you do best. You should have punted.

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