A BEAUTIFUL FRIENDSHIP
It’ll be hard to match Bill & Brady, but Andy & Mahomes have the right stuff
There was more than just magic to the Chiefs’ Super Bowl comeback that could spawn a dynasty.
The Chiefs became champions Sunday night for the first time in a half-century because they have the bedrock for sustainable greatness: A superstar quarterback and creative head coach.
Patrick Mahomes and Andy Reid are separated by 37 years, a dynamic young player and grand-dad of nine, but they share a football brilliance that could make them the NFL’s next dynasty.
It’s obviously premature to anoint Kansas City as the new Patriots, but the future is tantalizing.
“We know we’ll be a target,” Reid said Monday, after his team rallied from a 10-point fourth-quarter deficit to beat the 49ers, 31-20, to win Super
Bowl LIV. “We got plenty of things that we’ll look forward to install… We’ll keep growing as an offense and defense.”
The possibilities are boundless with Mahomes, who became the youngest player in history to win an NFL MVP and Super Bowl MVP. He’s accomplished more by age 24 than most players dream about in a lifetime. He is Picasso in shoulder pads, turning blank canvasses into masterpieces with regularity. He might have physical gifts sent from above, but none of that matters without his drive, passion and willingness to grow.
He is special in a way that few are in his profession. He is an amalgam of Brady, Montana, Manning and Rodgers, a unique blend of everything that makes the greats great. While his future touches the sky, his present is pretty damn good, too.
“That is the golden child,” said Chiefs wide receiver Sammy Watkins.
Maybe Mahomes is the Chosen One.
But know this: He is the face of the NFL now, the embodiment of a sport filled with freakish athletes and stars. Nobody — or nothing — is bigger than Showtime.
Reid saw it on tape three years ago when then-player personnel director Brett Veach waxed poetic about some athletic Texas Tech quarterback.
“He kept laying the tape on my desk and I’m going, ‘This is like the greatest player I’ve ever seen,’” Reid said Monday. “Then you go, ‘Well, let’s see how he does this in the NFL. I mean, he can’t do all that stuff and do it so well.’ And then he came to us and he started doing all that stuff.”
Mahomes has a gift reserved for the truly great ones, a quality that makes you believe he’ll always overcome, no matter the deficit. So, when the Chiefs trailed by 10 points midway through the fourth quarter Sunday night, did you actually think they were done? Did you really believe Super Bowl LIV was over?
Not with Mahomes. Not Sunday. Probably not ever.
Mahomes became the first quarterback to lead three double-digit comebacks in the same playoffs in the 100-year
history of the NFL. It was the latest accomplishment in a young career littered with them.
Mahomes has done so much in so little time. He is 28-8 in his two years as a starter. He has an outrageous 89-20 touchdown-to-interception ratio with the best playoff passer rating in NFL history (106.6).
He erased three-and-a-half forgettable quarters on the biggest stage before helping his team score 21 straight points in the final seven minutes to become a champion.
“Obviously, I’ve had a good start to my career,” Mahomes said. “I’ve been blessed to be in a great organization with a lot of great players around me that make my job easier. But I know it’s going take a long time of consistency if I want to be where I want to be in the end.”
Mahomes and Reid are still eight trips to the Super Bowl and five Lombardi Trophies away from knocking Tom Brady and Bill Belichick off the top of the historical mountaintop. But the Chiefs have the best chance to become the next version of the Patriots.
“It’s pretty amazing, the dynasty… the Patriots have had these last 15 to 20 years,” Mahomes said. “For me, it’s about taking it one year at a time. We came up short last year. We understood how hard of a challenge was to get to this position again, and we found a way to do it.”
“We enjoy this and when we come back next year,” Mahomes continued, “It’s going be the same heart, the same amount of tenacity and dedication every single day if we want to be here.”
Mahomes and Reid are rock-solid foundations, but the Chiefs will have to adapt and adjust to rule the landscape. Mahomes is expected to get a landmark contract extension this offseason. The Kansas City brain trust will have the challenge of building a championship roster while making a historic investment in one player.
Reid is no spring chicken — he has nine grandkids — but Mahomes has reinvigorated him.
“I still enjoy doing what I’m doing,” Reid said the morning after winning his first Lombardi Trophy. “I got this young quarterback over here that makes life easy every day.”
“This guy’s unbelievable,” Reid added. “He challenges you as a coach to give you more. So, his aptitude is ridiculous. As a coach, you love that. You’re able to feed him new plays and he gobbles those things up and makes them good, even better than they (looked) on paper. Then he’s a great leader. So, he’s got an innate ability to make everybody around him better. And you saw that last night.”
You’ll likely see it many more nights. Mahomes and Reid have the best chance to become the NFL’s next dynasty.