Chiefs taught others a few lessons
Quarterback Patrick Mahomes hugged the NFL commissioner, accepted the Super Bowl Most Valuable Player trophy, shook Mickey Mouse’s hand and worked without sleep as Sunday night became Monday morning.
Andy Reid told of celebrating with rapper Pitbull, the joy in finally winning and, when asked, said that, no, he didn’t sleep with the Super Bowl trophy now before him.
“I slept with my trophy wife,” the Kansas City Chiefs coach said.
Everyone looks for simple lessons on every morning after a Super Bowl, especially for franchises like the Miami Dolphins trying to come in from the wilderness. Here’s the easy lesson from Kansas City’s Super Bowl win:
You need both of them.
You need a great quarterback and great coach. You need a Patrick Mahomes and an Andy Reid. Throw in a great personnel man to supply them, too. This three-cornered partnership is the blueprint for sustained greatness.
The trite football debate for two decades of New England’s dynasty is who is more important: Bill Belichick or Tom Brady? Go ahead. Pick one. That’s how we talk in today’s circles.
The truth is Belichick needed Brady and Brady needed Belichick to win six Super Bowls. Go down the Hall of Fame quarterbacks. Most are linked to a Hall of Fame coach. Jimmy Johnson is joining Troy Aikman in the Hall of Fame for their Dallas run. San Francisco had Bill Walsh and Joe Montana. Pittsburgh had Chuck Noll and Terry Bradshaw.
The Dolphins had Don Shula and Bob Griese in the 1970s. Shula and Dan Marino won plenty of games — but never won it all? That unfortunately proves the case again. Shula the general manager struggled to keep up with Shula the coach by the end.
Which piece is harder to find — the quarterback or the coach?
Andy Reid has been a head coach 21 years, ranks sixth on the all-time wins list, has a coaching tree of success and had only been to one Super Bowl — and lost with Philadelphia — before Sunday.
His quarterback then was Donovan McNabb, a good, but not great talent. Similar to Alex Smith, a Pro Bowl talent a forever step away from generational greatness who Reid started with in Kansas City.
“We, as an organization, had a decision to make,” said Brett Veach, who as Kansas City’s co-director of player personnel pushed hard for Mahomes.
Reid, with years of scars, didn’t settle with Smith. He didn’t hope the planets aligned for one great year — like Baltimore’s Super Bowl wins with Trent Dilfer and Joe Flacco. Reid took a chance on sustained greatness by trading up for Mahomes in the 2017 draft. To the bold goes the trophy.
Mahomes defined what a franchise quarterback looks like during this improbable postseason run. He rallied Kansas City back from double-digit deficits in all three games. That included the Super Bowl, when he drove the Chiefs down the field twice in the final minutes to rally from a 20-10 deficit.
On the other side, San Francisco had a good quarterback in Jimmy Garoppolo. Maybe Garoppolo develops into something more. But on Sunday, as Mahomes was scoring touchdowns, in the end Garoppolo couldn’t get a first down. He kept giving the ball back to Mahomes.
One was a franchise quarterback that few teams have.
The other was the hope of a franchise quarterback that most teams have.
That, more than anything, was the difference in Sunday’s game. It looks so obvious, so easy, what Kansas City did. But look at it in the moment. It hired Reid after 10 good-not-great years in Philadelphia. That was met with shrugs.
It drafted Mahomes when it already had a Pro Bowl quarterback. That was met with questions why it gave up two first-round picks to sit a quarterback for a year when it had a pretty good one.
In two years of Mahomes starting under Reid, the Chiefs lost in the AFC Championship Game and won a Super Bowl. They’ll contend as long as they’re together.
The Dolphins, like a lot of franchises, have been looking for that partnership. You need both. That’s the story of this Super Bowl — just as it has been for years.