Romo: Bucs-Chiefs ‘one of great matchups in history’
Jim Nantz and Tony Romo will be calling their second Super Bowl for CBS Sports, and well, this year’s big game can’t be worse than the first they worked.
Super Bowl 53 featured 14 punts and just 16 points as the Patriots beat the Rams 13-3 in a snoozefest. As Nantz noted during a conference call Thursday, the teams combined to run one play in the red zone.
The Chiefs are facing the Buccaneers in Super Bowl 55 and Nantz said, “Well, I look at this matchup, that’s impossible. That won’t happen here. That can’t happen here. It will not happen here. This game is hold your breath. And there’s going to be a big highlight coming at you every couple of minutes.”
He added: “We almost couldn’t write a better script for us going into this game. I feel like in some respects, we’re due.”
Romo called the ChiefsBuccaneers “really special,” and the best matchup he could have hoped for.
As he touched on at the end of the AFC Championship Game, Romo sees the Patrick Mahomes-Tom Brady meeting along the lines of LeBron James facing Michael Jordan.
On the conference call, Romo took a deeper dive on that thought, saying sports fans may never see a game on this level again.
“I think it’s a legacy game. I really do,” Romo said. “This can be one of the great matchups in sports history because it
doesn’t happen very often. This matchup right here is what you talk about with your friends.
“Could you imagine if Michael Jordan got his team to the finals in ’98 or
when he was older, against the young LeBron James who’s really, you know, the face of the league? It would be the greatest thing in the history of sports, and I’m like, I think we actually might have that game. It just has never happened.”
Romo said he’s tried to find an instance of another meeting between players in discussion for the greatest of all-time. Brady can make that case as he already has six Super Bowl championships and this will be his 10th Super Bowl appearance.
Mahomes is 25 and in his second Super Bowl, having already won one. He’s the only player in NFL history to win an NFL MVP and Super Bowl MVP before turning 25. So the early trajectory of his career has him on pace to (possibly) be the greatest.
Romo expounded on the James-Jordan comparison.
“Jordan set the bar. LeBron has to be so amazing to get in the discussion — and he is. Somehow he’s put himself in the discussion,” Romo said. ”The fact that Patrick Mahomes is somehow even remotely in this discussion shows you how amazing this guy is. And when it’s all said and done, there’s a chance for Patrick Mahomes, if you’re playing in this game, this could be the thing if you get close to like climbing that ladder, this game could push you over to the top when it’s all said and done.”
Super Bowl 55 may be one remembered for generations.
“Twenty, 30, 40, 50 years from now,” Romo said, “this is the game people are going to go back to.”