Super Bowl: A matchup of greats like no other
It doesn’t get much better than Brady-Mahomes showdown
With Tom Brady and Patrick Mahomes, the past and the future will meet in a superstar showdown, writes Nancy Armour.
Fans in every sport like to imagine what would happen if the best players from different generations could somehow face each other in their primes. Babe Ruth against Hank Aaron. Bill Russell taking on Michael Jordan. The 1999 U.S. women’s soccer team going up against the 2019 version.
NFL fans don’t have to wonder. Past and future will meet – at center stage, no less – in this year’s Super Bowl between the Buccaneers and the Chiefs. It’s The GOAT against The Kid, Tom Brady trying to win one more title while Patrick Mahomes looks to further a legacy that one day might eclipse even Brady’s.
“The Super Bowl is the Super Bowl. Being able to go up against one of the greatest, if not the greatest, quarterbacks of all time, in his 150th Super Bowl, it’s going to be a great experience for me,” Mahomes said after Kansas City’s 38-24 AFC championship game win over the Bills that wasn’t nearly as close as the score indicated.
“To have the chance to repeat and do it against the best,” Mahomes added, “it’s something special, and I’m excited for the opportunity.”
Yes, Mahomes was kidding when he said this will be Brady’s 150th Super Bowl. But the hyperbole is allowed.
This will be Brady’s 10th Super Bowl appearance, and fourth in five years, and his six titles are more than any other quarterback. He has been in the NFC for all of 10 months and already has won as many conference championships as Drew Brees and Aaron Rodgers.
He’ll also be the first quarterback in Super Bowl history – which goes back more than 50 years now – to play in his home stadium.
“It puts a lot of cool things in perspective,” Brady said after the Buccaneers held off the Packers 31-26 for the NFC title. “Anytime you’re the first time doing something, it’s usually a pretty good thing.”
Making this all the more impressive is that Brady is doing it at 43, an age when most players are well into their retirement. He will be the oldest quarterback to start a Super Bowl, breaking
a mark he set two years ago. Which broke the mark he’d set the year before that.
Brady has played so long, in fact, there are guys who were drafted a year after him who are already in the Pro Football Hall of Fame!
Another way to look at it: He’s closer in age to Mahomes’ father, Pat, who is 50, than to his 25-year-old son.
Mahomes, meanwhile, has already established himself as the face of the NFL for the next decade – and then some. He won NFL MVP honors in 2018, his first season as a starter, and will be the first quarterback 25 or younger to start two Super Bowls.
He and the Chiefs are trying to become the first team to repeat as Super Bowl champions since the 2004 season when – guess who! – Brady and the Patriots did it.
“You guys are seeing him grow right in front of you,” Chiefs coach Andy Reid said. “I sit there and – I’m an old guy that’s seen a couple of pretty good quarterbacks, and I just keep going, ‘This guy seems to amaze me a little bit more every game.’
“I’m proud of the way he handles it, most of all,” Reid added. ”He’s about the team and he’s all in. He works his tail off and he does it the right way. That’s important. It’s important for the longevity for his career, for the success of the Kansas City Chiefs and, obviously now, for the Super Bowl.”
Brady can still throw absolute lasers, like his 52-yard pass to Chris Godwin. He can still rip the heart out of an opponent, as he did when he converted on 4th-and-4 with 13 seconds left in the first half and followed with a 39-yard TD pass to Scotty Miller to put the Buccaneers up 21-10.
And he can still wring effort and success out of his teammates because he’s, you know, Tom Brady.
“The belief he gave everybody in this organization that this could be done – it only took one man,” Buccaneers coach
Bruce Arians said.
But just as he did in New England, Brady is showing signs that he is, indeed, mortal. He was not particularly impressive in the wild-card game against the Washington Football Team, and it was the defense that led the way in the divisional round bulldozing of the Saints.
And after opening the lead at the half against Green Bay, Brady did his best to give it away, throwing interceptions on three consecutive possessions.
If not for Tampa Bay’s defense standing on its head, and some questionable decisions by Packers coach Matt LaFleur, Brady would be headed for the offseason.
“We’ve had a few tough games in a row,” he acknowledged. “The next one will be really tough, too. But we know what we’re playing for.”
Yes, but so do Mahomes and the Chiefs. And they are a force of nature, as prolific on offense as they are destructive on defense.
After spotting the Bills nine points in the first nine minutes, Kansas City reeled off 21 unanswered points to put the game effectively out of reach.
Four different players scored touchdowns, including Clyde Edwards-Helaire, who had missed the last month with a nasty-looking hip and ankle injury, and Mahomes showed no signs of the head injury or turf toe that had sidelined him all week.
The Chiefs’ defense, meanwhile, sacked Josh Allen four times.
Since losing to Brady and the Patriots in overtime of the 2018 AFC championship game, Mahomes is 30-4 as a starter. That includes a 23-16 win against Brady and the Patriots last season and a 27-24 win against Brady and the Buccaneers at Tampa Bay in Week 12.
“Seems like we’ve had a couple of those (Brady-Mahomes games) and every one of those is tremendous. I wouldn’t expect this to be any different,” Reid said. “They’ve got a tremendous team there. Those two have a lot of respect for each other.”
As they should. Brady is the best there’s ever been. Mahomes just might be the best there ever will be.