National Post (National Edition)
Both Super Bowl quarterbacks are practically Montrealers.
SUPER BOWL QBs BRADY AND MAHOMES BOTH HAVE TIES TO MONTREAL'S BELOVED TEAM
Though Super Bowl LV will be played between the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the Kansas City Chiefs, the matchup that takes centre stage is Tom Brady, 43, football's bestever quarterback, versus Patrick Mahomes, 25, seemingly the only person alive that might one day challenge Brady's legacy.
It's a matchup of greatness versus greatness-in-the-making, but there's also a Canadian connection at play. More specifically, a connection to the legendary Montreal Expos.
As a 17-year-old, Brady was drafted by the Expos in the 18th round of the 1995 MLB draft — the same year Mahomes was born — out of California's Serra High School. Mahomes' father, Pat Mahomes Sr., played a stint with the Expos farm team, the Edmonton Trappers, in 2004.
It was the final season for the Trappers. The team was purchased by a group led by Nolan Ryan and moved to Round Rock, Texas, the following year. It was also the last season for the Expos.
After 36 years in Montreal, and eight seasons in Jarry Park Stadium, a small venue that had been hastily upgraded to accommodate a major league team, the `Spos moved to D.C., and began a second act as the Washington Nationals. Mahomes Sr., a right-handed pitcher, was on the back end of his career by the time he signed with the Expos affiliate. He joined the Trappers for the same reason as Edmonton-born Mike Johnson, also a righty pitcher. Both players were working toward a final callup to the big leagues.
Johnson, who played five seasons in the MLB, mostly with the Expos, started the Trappers' final home game. He remembers Mahomes, who spent 11 years in major league baseball with six different teams, as “a real down-toearth guy.”
“Maybe not what you would think of for a guy who had that amount of time in the big leagues but you could go out and have a couple of beers with him and it was like you were going out and having beers with your buddy,” Johnson says. “He was just a normal guy.”
Normal, that is, until you considered his athleticism.
“He was ridiculous,” Johnson says. “He was really talented. He was a little bit older than I was, and I was one of the older guys on the team, but he looked like he was 25 still. He was in great shape, and very, very athletic.”
For Johnson, who also played with Clay Bellinger, father of Cody Bellinger, the 2019 National League MVP and 2020 World Series champ, he says it's a special thing to see the kids of his former teammates now carving out their own path in sports.
It would have been impossible to predict that the son of the guy he shared beers with in Edmonton would grow up to become the youngest player ever to win NFL MVP and Super Bowl MVP.
After leading Kansas City to the Super Bowl last season, the team offered Mahomes a 10-year extension worth $503 million, making him the first athlete, ever, to sign a half-billion-dollar contract.
He is one of football's most electrifying players, a quarterback so gifted that he can flick a football the length of the field, while on the run, and hit a target in stride.
“Seeing his son doing what he's doing in the NFL is pretty cool,” Johnson says.
“It's pretty cool.”
And while the Expos had Mahomes in their system in the twilight of his career, they had Brady, however briefly, right at the beginning.
Kevin Malone was the Expos' general manager the year they drafted a lanky kid out of high school who already had an offer to play quarterback at the University of Michigan.
“We knew going in it was going to be a long shot, but we drafted him anyway and did everything we could to sign him, but football was in his eyes and that's what he wanted to do,” Malone says.
Brady had all the tools to be an All-Star in baseball, Malone believes. “Everything you're looking for in a catcher: size, arm strength, we thought he had the ability to call a good game with a pitching staff because of his cerebral approach to the game. He had a swing that looked like it projected to have some power. We thought he would be a great major league player.”
Oddly enough, Malone was working with the Minnesota Twins as a scouting supervisor when the team drafted Mahomes Sr. in the eighth round of the 1988 MLB draft.
“I think it's an interesting perspective, that two of the better quarterbacks, one the best young quarterback, and the other, maybe the best of all time, both have baseball in their blood,” he says.
On Sunday, Malone says he'll be “pulling for the old guy.”
He admits it is sometimes difficult, watching Brady over the last 20 years, to stop his mind from wandering, to not think about what-if.
“You always reflect back,” he says. “It would have been great to see him play baseball and pursue a career in baseball, but I think he made the right choice. We gave him our blessing to go to college and play football and the rest is history.”
Or, better yet, history still in the making.
EVERYTHING YOU'RE LOOKING FOR IN A CATCHER: SIZE, ARM STRENGTH, WE THOUGHT HE HAD THE ABILITY TO CALL A GOOD GAME BECAUSE OF HIS CEREBRAL APPROACH ... WE THOUGHT (TOM BRADY) WOULD BE A GREAT MAJOR LEAGUE PLAYER. — EX-EXPOS GENERAL MANAGER KEVIN MALONE