Tom Brady versus Patrick Mahomes. It will be impossible to divert our gaze on Sunday from arguably the most significant individual matchup in the history of the Super Bowl. The big four pro sports have successfully drawn more eyes to their games by highlighting individual matchups over the teams themselves. The NBA no longer says in a commercial for its game “the LA Lakers take on the Houston Rockets at 2:00 pm today!”. Instead it is “LeBron James faces off against John Wall today as LA takes on Houston!”. I have never been a fan of highlighting the individuals over the teams in team sports, but the primary spectacle of Sunday’s game will be the Greatest of All Time (GOAT) versus the kid.
Recency bias may be clouding our anticipation of this game. Some are calling this the greatest single matchup of individuals in a championship ever. Not so fast my friend (thanks Lee Corso), a quick look at other matchups indicates otherwise. Ali versus Frazier, MJ versus LeBron, Magic versus Bird, I’m sure there are several others… If Mahomes adds to his resume, we can at least call this the best Super Bowl individual matchup ever.
The Super Bowl has highlighted some great individual matchups in the past; Roger Staubach versus Terry Bradshaw, John Elway versus Joe Montana, and Montana versus Dan Marino rate amongst the best. Unfortunately Marino doesn’t have a Super Bowl victory, otherwise his matchup would probably rate higher. (On an aside, I think of Matt Stafford as the modern day Dan Marino. Stafford passes the eye test and the statistics test deserving enshrinement in the Hall of Fame just like Marino. But as of now even if Matt is enshrined in the Hall of Fame, he will be panned for never winning the big one.) The best Super Bowl matchup of all time is going to happen on Sunday, February 7, 2021.
Tom Brady has already earned his GOAT status. With six Super Bowl championships in nine trips to the Super Bowl already, Terrific Tom has led great teams and even just very good teams (check out some of the rosters that he has directed in Super Bowls) to the big game. Sunday marks Brady’s tenth trip to the Super Bowl; he will have been the starting quarterback in a whopping 18% of the 55 Super Bowls ever played. A Super Bowl win tomorrow may convince Rob Gronkowski, and upstart Leonard Fournette to re-up their contracts with Tampa after their contracts expire at the end of the season. Mike Evans is locked up through 2024, so with all of these weapons making a possible return in the fall of 2021, Brady’s Super Bowl visit this weekend still may not be his last.
Patrick Mahomes has already cemented himself in the mix as the heir apparent for football super stardom. A fantastic blend of gunslinger meets strategist meets running threat. If Mahomes’ offensive line can provide reasonable protection for him, look out for a scoring field day from Kansas City tomorrow. The problem lies in the KC o-line; with two injuries to this key support squad, Mahomes may not be provided with enough time in the backfield to dish to some fantastic weapons in Travis Kelce, and Tyreek Hill. With both defenses playing well but not great, there is still little doubt that this game will have a high score.
So the only other problem with this matchup – Brady and Mahomes will never be on the field at the same time. Unlike the boxing and NBA examples earlier, these two won’t ever throw a single punch at each other, or look each other eye to eye on defense/offense. So the Brady v. Mahomes matchup is not apples to apples. How would Brady fare against his own Buccaneers’ defense? Mahomes against KC’s D? We will never know. For Mahomes to move one step closer to being in the conversation for best ever (his one Super Bowl ring to Brady’s six means that right now he is not in that conversation), he must lead his Chiefs to victory tomorrow. The kid must outscore the GOAT.
I cannot wait for this barn burner of a game. My prediction – Brady walks off with another championship and puts six Super Bowl victories between himself and Mahomes. KC won’t be able to protect Mahomes enough to position themselves for a last minute drive. Tampa Bay 35, Kansas City 31.
Paul MacDonald - Sports Broadcaster 