| And now, the Super Bowl. There were times when this National Football League season felt like a race against the clock, a battle to squeeze in all those weeks of action before the turmoil we’ve learned to live with delivered an obstacle too great to surmount. Yet here it is, the grandest of all games now primed and ready, complete with a blockbuster storyline to top it all off. The NFL knows how to market itself and does so expertly. But, no disrespect intended, it has an extraordinarily simple task this time around. Anyone who can’t figure out how to promote the Kansas City Chiefs against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Patrick Mahomes vs. Tom Brady, should give it up and try something else. Or give me a call. It is a head-to-head that’s as juicy as it gets in both star power and in context. For while it is rife with tired old cliches – yes, this is a heavyweight battle and the passing of the torch and a matchup made in ratings heaven – it is made better by the specifics.  Namely, that two future Hall of Famers will lead their respective teams at Raymond James Stadium a week from Sunday, and somehow, the guy who has won six Super Bowls already feels like a massive underdog. Brady doesn’t just feel like the outsider, he is one, according to the oddsmakers. FOX Bet lists the Chiefs at -162, with Mahomes and co. a 3.5-point favorite. “The Super Bowl is the Super Bowl,” Mahomes told reporters. “Being able to go up against one of the greatest, if not the greatest QB of all time … it is going to be a great experience for me. To go out there to have a chance to repeat and get to do it against the best is something special.” It is a clash set up to build the mystique of one man in the same way it gives maximum force to the story. Mahomes, in rapid time, has established himself and his Chiefs as a juggernaut. Unstoppable? No one is unstoppable. Or are they?  If you don’t score against the Chiefs, they’ll score on you. Score against them and get a lead, they’ll score on you even more. Ask the Buffalo Bills defense if Mahomes’ unit feels unstoppable after their repeated downfield marches, including three in a row for touchdowns in the second quarter. Ask the San Francisco 49ers, who thought they had it all wrapped up a year ago, when the world was different but Mahomes was already imperious. For Brady, a seventh title would add to his already ridiculous numbers, but it would also do it in the most fairytale of ways. A Super Bowl is the most cherished item in the sport for a reason – it is really difficult to win. Yet if he does it this way, it will be its own special chapter and the finest of the lot. He’ll have done it without the vibrancy of youth, despite all that sleep and all those vegetables cooked in coconut oil. And without Bill Belichick and the New England Patriots machine and most of all, he’ll have done it when he wasn’t supposed to, when so many doubted he could, without so many of the inherent advantages of the past. “Step back and try to behold what just happened,” FS1’s Skip Bayless said on Undisputed. “Comprehend what just got pulled off. Tom Brady, at age 43, the GOAT, just went to Lambeau Field and outplayed (Aaron Rodgers) on his own frozen tundra. He said: ‘Okay, coach Belichick, watch this, I am going to take a team that went 7-9 last year and … we are going to go on a run.’”  Topping Mahomes and overcoming the Chiefs juggernaut would not only show Brady as truly timeless, with triumphs in three decades, but perhaps bookend things perfectly. In his first Super Bowl there was an offensive behemoth on the other side, Kurt Warner’s St. Louis Rams. Here comes another. Meanwhile, besting Brady to win a second title would add a special sheen to Mahomes’ career – and who knows how far it can go from here? It is the best matchup because for all the differences, there are a lot of similarities too. A Chiefs triumph would put Mahomes and Kansas City on a track trending toward the kind of dynasty that only Brady’s Patriots have managed in modern times. We are talking about two guys able to live at a level of dominance that leaves no place for others and in which sharing the love among other greats of the era doesn’t come into it.  It is the sort of thing that leaves even some of the best of all-time, such as Rodgers, effectively shut out. And up-and-comers like Josh Allen, backed by an excellent unit and coming off an outstanding season, effectively backed into a corner. The Bills were “just” one game away from a Super Bowl. Yeah, “just.” Mahomes and Brady are who they are, in part, because there’s a certain sense of inevitability that feels like they are magnetized to winning. Sometimes it is inexplicable, like at times during the Bucs’ three road wins, where they have somehow found a way. Yet ultimately, when it all boils down to it, you expect to see Mahomes and Brady win, because we’ve seen it so often before and because they never, ever, expect anything less. Two Sundays from now, one of them won’t be able to make good on that eternal promise. Which will only add to the aura, and, for each of them, increase the urgency.  Here’s what others have said … Jason Reid, The Undefeated: “Superstar athletes absolutely abhor talk of their “passing the torch.” Eventually, though, every reign ends. Which brings us to Super Bowl LV. In two weeks at Tampa Bay’s Raymond James Stadium, Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes will finally get what he has craved for more than two years: another opportunity to face Tom Brady in the postseason and potentially add the only missing piece to the historic start of his nascent career.” Terez Paylor, Yahoo Sports: “When it’s all said and done, Patrick Mahomes may go down as the greatest football player of all time. Yes, the shadow of Tom Brady and his six rings still looms large, especially since the two will meet in the Super Bowl in two weeks. But Mahomes may one day get there, and that isn’t a reckless or controversial statement.” Danny Heifetz, The Ringer: “This is football’s version of Michael Jordan playing LeBron James in the NBA Finals. Brady is the greatest quarterback ever. Mahomes is the only quarterback who could potentially vie for that distinction. At 25, he has had the best start to his career of any American athlete in a team sport since Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. But no matter what Mahomes accomplishes for the rest of his career—even if he wins five straight Super Bowls—he’ll likely never be considered the GOAT if he loses to Brady in this game. A seventh ring would put Brady one ahead of MJ, and would likely end Mahomes’ quest to be the GOAT before it ever begins.” |
 “If you don’t believe in yourself, why is anyone else going to believe in you?” — Tom Brady |
