A year ago, the Kansas City Chiefs washed away a 50-year drought between Super Bowl titles. On Sunday evening, against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, they have a chance to win back-to-back NFL championships. However, that accomplishment, might not be the top priority for KC. Instead, this game will likely decide the ultimate championship score between Patrick Mahomes and Tom Brady, as to which player will eventually become the NFL’s greatest quarterback of all-time.
To be real, I am a die-hard Chiefs fan and I believe my team is special. Further, I’ve been around this team my entire life. I’ve earned the right, and have the battle scars to prove it, to anoint my team the game’s best in the NFL today. I cried when the Chiefs won Super Bowl LIV, heck I even cried when they won the AFC title game a year ago against the Tennessee Titans.
On Sunday, I might be crying for another reason, as the Buccaneers will attempt to dethrone the Chiefs from becoming back-to-back Super Bowl Champions. It’s not happened since the New England Patriots won two straight titles in 2003 and 2004. It was one of Tom Brady’s most impressive feats in his first-ballot Hall of Fame career.
What to Watch for
In Super Bowl LV, Tom Brady is the underdog quarterback in the battle between his Bucs team and the Chiefs. For the moment, Patrick Mahomes is the game’s best quarterback. He’s the face of the NFL for his talents on the field, and his impeccable work off the field to bring change to social injustice.
The talk the last two weeks has centered on Brady and his remarkable run in steering the Bucs into becoming NFC Champions. On the other side, Mahomes has played in three straight AFC title games and is appearing in his second consecutive Super Bowl. If not for an offsides penalty against Brady’s 2018 Patriots team in the AFC title game two years ago, he’d be playing in his third straight Super Bowl.
Every NFL fan understands and respects the pure brilliance of Tom Brady’s two-decade career. He is the greatest to ever play the quarterback position, and that sentiment is likely going to remain the same in the eyes of the public win or lose Sunday against Mahomes.
Over the last two weeks, Sunday’s Super Bowl matchup has been dissected, scrutinized, and predicted based on a variety of things.
Will the Bucs defense stop Mahomes? Can the Chiefs’ defense stop Brady? Will anyone catch Chiefs wide receiver, Tyreek Hill. Can Rob Gronkowski channel his inner youth, and play the type of game that has burned the Chiefs in the past? Will the Bucs front seven blitz Mahomes mercilessly? Can KC’s front four collapse the pocket around Brady? Will an unknown player do something extraordinary that will define his career forever?
All of those questions will be answered on Sunday.
Becoming the Leader
For me though, I walk a different path as to the importance of this football game for the Chiefs to become the next, and not the last, NFL dynasty. You see, even though Mahomes defeated Brady this past November in Tampa, he left at least 14 points on the field, if not more. That might not be the case on Sunday. But the importance of this game goes back to the AFC title game two years ago between the Chiefs and Patriots.
As fans, we can blame the offsides penalty on former Chiefs linebacker, Dee Ford, but Mahomes missed an easy touchdown pass early in that game to Damien Williams. On that drive, the Chiefs didn’t get any points as the Patriots’ defense forced the Chiefs to punt. If you add the seven points missed on that play, or even three points with a field goal later that drive, Kansas City wins.
After that demoralizing loss and feverish comeback by Mahomes, the legend of his postgame rant went something like this. Before being consoled by Brady in the Chiefs’ locker room, Mahomes was visibly upset, and he made it known to all his teammates, they would never lose another AFC title game at home. Since those remarks, he’s 2-0 in the AFC Championship game. Still, one could argue today, Mahomes meant his team would never lose another playoff game. Since that ugly defeat to the Patriots, Mahomes has a perfect postseason mark winning five straight games.
What is Really at Stake in Super Bowl LV?
For the Bucs, it’s a franchise re-birth led by the ageless Tom Brady, who can secure his place in NFL history with a victory against the Chiefs, as the game’s greatest of all time with seven Super Bowl rings. It’s an astonishing mark no quarterback, not even Mahomes, will ever catch.
Thus, we can analyze this game until kickoff, but the winner of this Super Bowl will be decided by Brady vs. Mahomes.
For Tom Brady, he understands the moment and the importance of a win over the Chiefs for himself and the Bucs franchise. It will also send a clear message to the Patriots, who the team’s leader was for the last two decades.
For Mahomes, he has a good chance, considering, he’s defeated Brady head to head in each of the last two regular seasons, to avenge the loss that could wash away the final demon in Chiefs football history – avenging that playoff loss to Tom Brady at Arrowhead.
A Legacy is Born
On Mahomes’ watch, he’s already removed the postseason stain of bitter playoff losses by defeating the Indianapolis Colts, Tennessee Titans, and Buffalo Bills in consecutive playoff appearances. In winning the Super Bowl a year ago over the San Francisco 49ers, Mahomes took the load of five decades of postseason futility and flicked them of his back as if he was shooting a Head and Shoulders commercial.
Now he can avenge the final remnants of the Chiefs’ most bitter playoff loss orchestrated by Brady in the 2018 AFC title game. Thus, I contend, this Super Bowl LV matchup will be the biggest game Patrick Mahomes will ever play in his NFL career.
With a Super Bowl win Sunday, Mahomes’ legacy and the Chiefs’ dynasty truly begins, and the G.O.A.T. discussion puts Mahomes atop the conversation for the next decade.
Prediction: Kansas City Chiefs 41, Tampa Bay Buccaneers 27
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Main Image Credit: Embed from Getty Images
