Patrick Mahomes’ quest to overtake Tom Brady as the GOAT has been put on hold — The Undefeated

TAMPA, Fla. — Patrick Mahomes has been right here earlier than, on the fallacious finish of a remaining rating within the postseason in opposition to Tom Brady and eagerly awaiting his subsequent alternative to do battle with the NFL’s biggest quarterback of all time. On Sunday evening in Tremendous Bowl LV, Brady added one other main accomplishment to his mind-boggling legacy, main the Tampa Bay Buccaneers to a 31-9 victory over the Kansas Metropolis Chiefs.

Make no mistake: Tremendous Bowl LV was a battle between the Chiefs and Buccaneers to find out supremacy within the 2020-21 NFL season, however it was as a lot a couple of conflict of eras and whether or not the undisputed king may maintain off the fast-rising challenger whereas making one other regal run in his tenth Tremendous Bowl look. Brady accomplished 21 of 29 passes for 201 yards and three touchdowns. Mahomes, in the meantime, accomplished 26 of 49 passes for 270 yards, zero touchdowns and two interceptions.

As this season has proven, the king, even at 43, nonetheless has quite a bit left.

“They had been the higher staff at this time,” Mahomes mentioned after the sport. “They beat us fairly good, the worst I feel I’ve been overwhelmed in a very long time.”

Broadly acknowledged at present as the sport’s greatest signal-caller, Mahomes, 25, is the face of the league, the highest-paid participant in NFL historical past and an outspoken proponent of social justice as properly. Mahomes’ incomparable playoff success for a younger quarterback is an enormous a part of his story: He has a powerful 6-2 postseason document. Each losses, nonetheless, have come by the hands of Brady.

On Brady’s dwelling turf right here at Raymond James Stadium — remarkably, in his first season with the Buccaneers after 20 years with the New England Patriots, Brady helped Tampa grow to be the primary staff to play within the Tremendous Bowl on its dwelling subject — Mahomes had hoped to avenge a 37-31 loss in time beyond regulation within the 2019 AFC title sport to the Brady-led Patriots. The Chiefs, as they had been fond of claiming, spent your entire season centered on attempting to “run it again” after capping final season with their first Tremendous Bowl title in 50 years. Once more, Brady helped to damage the best-laid plans of one other NFL staff. ESPN analyst Randy Moss has watched Brady do it for a protracted, very long time.

“You hear the phrase, ‘The altering of the guard,’ ” mentioned the Professional Soccer Corridor of Fame member and Brady’s onetime teammate with the Patriots. “[But] whenever you sit up right here and take a look at Tom Brady, he’s proven in his play that he’s probably not prepared to surrender his crown but.”

Now, Mahomes has a number of postseason losses in opposition to Brady to additional stoke his aggressive hearth. And for the second, with Brady having prolonged his document variety of Tremendous Bowl titles to seven, Mahomes’ quest to ultimately overtake Brady as the best of all time has been placed on maintain.

However that doesn’t imply it received’t occur ultimately. And even in shedding, Mahomes was a part of a basic matchup sports activities followers are hardly ever handled to, which is one thing he could view otherwise than he does within the second, Corridor of Famer Warren Moon mentioned.

“That is like LeBron [James] beating [Michael] Jordan within the [NBA] Finals proper earlier than Jordan retired and LeBron was arising,” mentioned Moon, the one Black quarterback enshrined within the Professional Soccer Corridor of Fame. “That’s what individuals all the time do: They pair these two. However they don’t actually have the comparability on the courtroom as a result of LeBron and Jordan by no means performed in opposition to one another. Mahomes [got] that likelihood in opposition to Brady.”

As quick as Mahomes is scaling the mountain, even with a Tremendous Bowl loss to Brady on his ledger, there’s no telling how excessive Mahomes will climb. Don’t overlook: Brady has three Tremendous Bowl losses. Mike Shanahan isn’t one to doubt Mahomes.

Thought of among the many biggest offensive playcallers in NFL historical past, Shanahan, whereas serving because the San Francisco 49ers’ offensive coordinator within the early Nineteen Nineties, helped Steve Younger develop right into a Tremendous Bowl-winning quarterback and a future Corridor of Famer. Then because the Denver Broncos head coach within the late ’90s, Shanahan partnered with one other future Corridor of Famer on the sport’s most essential place, teaming with John Elway to assist the Broncos win back-to-back Tremendous Bowl titles. With regards to the artwork of taking part in quarterback, Shanahan’s bona fides are past reproach.

Merely put, Mahomes does issues on the soccer subject that Shanahan by no means deemed attainable.

“What separates him is his potential to increase performs. He extends performs higher than any quarterback I’ve ever seen,” mentioned Shanahan, who started teaching within the NFL in 1984. “And to have the accuracy that he has [on the move] is simply … I’ve by no means seen something prefer it. He’s additionally simply received an important really feel for the sport. Not many individuals I’ve ever seen, particularly this early in his profession, can do the issues he’s achieved. No approach.”

So the discuss Mahomes doubtlessly chasing down Brady isn’t untimely?

“Nicely, individuals will do it,” Shanahan mentioned. “And there’s a purpose for it. You possibly can see it.”

The numbers inform the story as clearly as Mahomes’ expertise jumps off the display screen whereas watching sport video of the Chiefs. All the listing isn’t even wanted. A mere sampling will do.

Earlier than Sunday, Mahomes already held the excellence of being the youngest passer to have a Tremendous Bowl title, a Tremendous Bowl MVP award – having achieved each of these feats at age 24 – and a league MVP award. He was chosen the 2018 winner by the Related Press.

Mahomes is the youngest signal-caller to begin in three consecutive convention title video games. He’s the youngest quarterback to begin in a number of Tremendous Bowls.

Over the previous three seasons, together with the playoffs, Mahomes ranks first amongst NFL quarterbacks in victories, passing touchdowns, passing yards, 300-yard passing video games, yards per try and Whole QBR.

Mahomes’ historic begin has prompted many NFL legends to reimagine what’s attainable from the quarterback place. Former Washington Soccer Crew head coach Joe Gibbs led the franchise to 4 Tremendous Bowls, profitable three with three totally different quarterbacks. Gibbs marvels at Mahomes’ repertoire.

“Everybody has received a thought of Patrick Mahomes,” the Corridor of Famer mentioned. “This man is so gifted and he could make so many performs for ya in so many various methods. With Mahomes, what’s so uncommon is that he … he can simply do all the things. He can get out of the pocket and make a play, and he’s proven he can throw on the run and make issues occur. He additionally does it from the pocket. He’s only a gifted man.”

Mahomes can also be a Black man. And as Mahomes’ ascent continues, his race turns into much more related.

The son of a Black father (longtime Main League Baseball pitcher Pat Mahomes) and a white mom, Mahomes has made it clear the place he stands — emphatically.

Again in June, Mahomes was amongst a bunch of greater than a dozen Black NFL stars who shook up the league in a powerful video supporting the social justice motion. Furthermore, it wasn’t simply that Mahomes joined within the effort. He performed a key function, trying into the digital camera and declaring publicly for the primary time within the video, “Black Lives Matter.”

He has continued to stroll the discuss. Alongside along with his pal Deshaun Watson, the Houston Texans’ celebrity quarterback, Mahomes organized a show of unity between the Chiefs and Texans earlier than the league’s curtain raiser in September. By means of his basis, Mahomes break up the associated fee with the Chiefs to make use of Arrowhead as an Election Day polling place.

Different Black passers have led groups to the Tremendous Bowl. Others have received the AP MVP award. One — Moon — is within the Corridor of Fame. By no means, nonetheless, in league historical past has a basic dropback African American passer been the consensus No. 1 participant at his place in any period, not to mention for a protracted stretch.

The lengthy, onerous street traveled by Black quarterbacks within the NFL makes what Mahomes is doing, and the place he could ultimately wind up, so particular for the trailblazers who got here earlier than him. Doug Williams revels in each new step Mahomes takes.

The primary Black quarterback to each begin in a Tremendous Bowl and in addition be chosen a Tremendous Bowl MVP, Williams, who achieved the feats underneath Gibbs with Washington, took a sledgehammer to the racist delusion that African American passers lacked the smarts, coronary heart and expertise to thrive in skilled sports activities’ most profitable league.

Mahomes, the chief of a cadre of at this time’s celebrity Black passers, has taken the lead in serving to to maneuver a onetime marginalized group to the highest of the NFL, Williams mentioned.

“There’s little doubt he has achieved a lot for African American quarterbacks,” Williams mentioned. “We’ve received so lots of them within the league now, and extra coming in, and so they’re all taking part in properly. However with what he’s doing, and what he can do, he has the chance to place that delusion approach behind us. … We have to utterly bury it so we by no means should take care of it once more. And one other Tremendous Bowl on his resume does that for all of us.”

For Mahomes, all of the discuss his potential legacy is greatest left for others to debate. He’s dwelling within the second, nonetheless initially of the street and has no real interest in considering the place it could finish.

“That’s extra of a long-term factor than a short-term factor,” mentioned Mahomes, who’s 25-2 in his final 27 begins. “When the top of your profession is completed, then you possibly can sort of look and see the place these moments had been in your profession the place you might’ve had one thing or that you just executed and you probably did go on the market and obtain your desires.”

At yet one more Tremendous Bowl, the day belonged to Brady, who has owned the sport’s greatest stage greater than some other participant in NFL historical past. Mahomes, although, nonetheless clearly seems on monitor to be subsequent — every time Brady lastly decides he’s had sufficient enjoyable blocking the quarterback pack.