Patrick Mahomes is chasing Tom Brady‘s ghost.
Many believe the 29-year-old is on a trajectory to become the greatest quarterback in NFL history.
With a Kansas City Chiefs victory in Super Bowl LIX on Sunday in New Orleans, Mahomes has a chance to do something Brady never did — win three consecutive championships. But the GOAT conversation is not one he’s currently thinking about.
“I’m just trying to be the greatest Patrick Mahomes that I can be,” Mahomes said Monday during Super Bowl Opening Night. “I mean, that’s obviously a goal of anyone’s is to be the greatest at their profession, but in order to do that, you have to be the greatest that you can be every single day.
“That’s on the field and the work ethic I put in or off the field in the father and husband that I am. I’m going to try to be the greatest in that way, and whenever I’m done with football, if I leave everything out there the way that I feel like I have so far, as far as effort and mentality, I’ll be happy with the results and I’ll let others talk about who the greatest is of whatever profession that is.”
A win Sunday over the Philadelphia Eagles would give Mahomes his fourth Lombardi Trophy, seven months shy of his 30th birthday. And a three-peat would put him in rarefied company. No team has won three championships in a row during the Super Bowl era. The Packers are the only NFL team to win three straight titles, doing it twice (1929-31 and 1965-67).
No matter what happens against the Eagles, Mahomes is already in the conversation for the greatest quarterback ever. He is set to play in his fifth Super Bowl, joining Brady — who played in 10, winning seven — and former Denver Broncos quarterback John Elway.
Mahomes’ individual accomplishments are just as significant as his team’s. Along with his three Super Bowl MVP awards, Mahomes has two NFL MVP awards, three All-Pro selections, six Pro Bowl selections and 245 touchdown passes in eight seasons.
The hot-button debate right now is whether Mahomes eventually can surpass Brady. No matter how many more Super Bowls he wins, the Chiefs’ loss to Brady and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in Super Bowl LV always will be a black mark against them.
Brady’s seven Super Bowl wins, the most of any player in league history, include six with the New England Patriots (2001, 2003, 2004, 2014, 2016 and 2018 seasons) and the one with the Bucs after the 2020 season.
However, one aspect working in Mahomes’ favor is he still has a lot of football ahead of him. As long as Mahomes and coach Andy Reid remain with the Chiefs, they will continue to be perennial Super Bowl favorites year after year.
Still, Mahomes appears more concerned with team success than his accolades.
“As I’ve watched the greats, I think more than anything, it is just being able to win,” Mahomes said. “I know that sounds easy, but being able to win with the team that’s around you, that’s something that’s special and that the greatest do. I think I learned that the most from Tom Brady. He would do whatever it took to win the football game.
“I care more about the legacy of our team. You know, we’ve put in so much work and worked so hard that I want to be remembered for the team that we are and the team that we built here in Kansas City. I never really think about my legacy.”
One might think fans would want to see the Chiefs make history. But as the late Kobe Bryant once said: “Nobody hates the good ones. They hate the great ones.”
Most NFL fans likely will root against the Chiefs on Sunday. They have become the biggest villains in sports. Mahomes and the Chiefs were once an inspiring story after they made the AFC championship game in 2018 for the first time since 1994.
Since then, the Chiefs have played in seven consecutive AFC championship games and made five trips to the Super Bowl. They’ve won 90 games since 2018, including 17 in the postseason, the most by any team.
But success breeds envy, and many fans have turned on the Chiefs. There’s a narrative that game officials favor the Chiefs and give them the benefit of the doubt regarding penalties, spots on the field, etc.
Like the Patriots teams with Brady before them, the Chiefs have embraced the haters.
“You almost have to laugh at it,” Chiefs owner Clark Hunt said on NFL Network. “You know how everyone in the NFL wants to compete to win. And that’s true of our guys as well. The referees are doing the best job that they can. If you look at the stats, there are a lot of stats that show we’ve been on the wrong side of calls as often as we’ve been on the right side. So there’s definitely no conspiracy.
“I think it’s natural, and we certainly saw it with the Patriots when they went on almost a two-decade run as the best team in the National Football League. It was fun looking back five or six years ago when we made Super Bowl LIV, we felt like we had a lot of the country behind us and that maybe shifted.”
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