BATTLE OF THE BEST
AT 25, PATRICK MAHOMES IS WIDELY REGARDED AS THE NFL'S BEST QB. BUT IF HE LOSES TO 43-YEAR-OLD TOM BRADY, CAN HE EVER BE THE GOAT?
If Mahomes wants to eventually be the GOAT, he has to beat Brady in today’s Super Bowl.
At age 25, Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes presumably has years to play and miles to throw before he leaves football.
But as he prepares for his second Super Bowl start Sunday against the Buccaneers and Tom Brady, he faces a quest that former Cowboys quarterback and current CBS Sports analyst Tony Romo describes in the broadest, most florid of phrases — a chance, someday, to be considered the greatest quarterback in the game.
Win, in Romo’s scorebook, and the door to Valhalla remains ajar for Mahomes. Lose, and at 25, Romo says, the best for which Mahomes can hope is second-best behind Brady.
“This game is bigger than people realize,” Romo said during a conference call to discuss CBS’ game coverage. “Twenty, 30, 40, 50 years from now, this is the game people are going to go back to.”
If Tampa Bay beats the Chiefs, Romo said, Brady shuts the door on the Greatest of All Time argument with 10 Super Bowl appearances and seven wins. With a win by Mahomes — the former Texas Tech player from Whitehouse in East Texas — the kid stays in the picture, Romo said.
“If Tom Brady at 43 turns back Father Time, beating Patrick Mahomes, who is the face of the NFL and rightfully so, who is the only guy who possibly could climb the ladder … if Tom Brady closes that, I just don’t see some human being competing in 10 Super Bowls, winning seven, and being able to say you’re better than Tom Brady.
“This game is a legacy game. If Patrick Mahomes wins, he keeps that door open. If he loses, I don’t know how you climb it.”
Romo’s glee about the impending showdown is almost visceral. It’s the second Super Bowl he will call with Jim Nantz, who’s in his sixth championship game in the play-by-play chair.
But it’s intellectual as well. Romo went so far as to compare the quarterbacks to chess grandmasters in setting the stage for the Brady-Mahomes matchup, with Brady as Bobby Fischer, who in 1972 became the first U.S. grandmaster to win the world chess title, and Mahomes as Magnus Carlsen, the 30-year-old Norwegian who now holds the title.
Just as Carlsen — based on accumulated match data — would take the measure of Fischer if they were able to play (Fischer died in 2008), Romo said he can argue that Mahomes “checks more boxes” than Brady as an alltime quarterback in terms of overall talent.
But unlike title events in most sports, including chess, Super Bowl LV is one game, winner take all, now and, perhaps, forever.
“This is the biggest game Patrick Mahomes will ever play in for the rest of his career,” Romo said. “The only way he can catch Brady, in my opinion, is if he (wins) this game.
“Brady is Bobby Fischer, and you’ve got a chance to play Bobby Fischer for the world championship. It would be like LeBron James vs. Michael Jordan.
“With a perfect career, and Patrick is the guy who could do it, but if he loses to Tom when Tom was older, he would have to go to 12 Super Bowls and win nine. I think this is the biggest game of Patrick Mahomes’ career.”