With Super Bowl LV fast approaching, Sunday’s clash truly symbolises the meeting of two eras.
Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes is aiming to become the first quarterback to win the Super Bowl twice by the age of 25, while Tampa Bay’s Tom Brady could become the first to win the Lombardi Trophy for two different franchises after turning 40.
Mahomes was just six years old when Brady won Super Bowl XXXVI in 2002, and the 25-year-old has watched the man dubbed ‘The Greatest of All Time’ play in the NFL’s flagship match another eight times since.
In fact, Brady is the only quarterback to win the Super Bowl twice in the first four seasons of his career – an accomplishment Mahomes could match on Sunday.
Brady’s achievements – six Super Bowl wins and ten appearances – appear to be unattainable, except perhaps by the young superstar.
Mahomes is aiming to help the Chiefs to a second straight Super Bowl win, which would make him the first quarterback to win back-to-back titles since Brady himself back in the 2003 and 2004 seasons.
Mahomes himself has already made history by signing the largest contract in sports history, as back in July he put pen to paper on a deal worth up to $503million over the next ten years.
The pair’s careers appear to be intertwined, as Mahomes is 6-1 in the playoffs, with his only defeat coming in overtime at the hands of Brady in the 2019 AFC Championship Game.
They have met four times overall, including a narrow Kansas City win earlier this season, and their record is hanging perfectly in the balance at two wins apiece. The stage is set.
There is yet more history being made by this matchup, as Super Bowl LV will be the first edition of the event that pits the two previous champions against one another.
Mahomes and the Chiefs defeated the San Francisco 49ers a year ago, while Brady and the New England Patriots topped the Los Angeles Rams in 2019.
It will also be the first time that the two quarterbacks facing each other in the big game have each won both the NFL and Super Bowl MVP award.
There may be an element of ‘passing the torch’ on Sunday as a serial winner in Brady takes on a generational talent in Mahomes that may, someday, challenge him for the title of greatest ever.
After a torrid 2020, this is the Super Bowl matchup we deserve: the GOAT versus the young GOAT.
It doesn’t get any bigger or better than this.
You can read our What You Need To Know for Super Bowl LV here.
Featured image: All-Pro Reels from District of Columbia, USA, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons (Tom Brady) / Jeffrey Beall, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons (Patrick Mahomes)
