You’re about to hear a lot about the Kansas City Chiefs over the next few weeks.
Even though the San Francisco 49ers are slight favorites over the AFC champion Chiefs in Super Bowl LVIII in Las Vegas — 2.5 points as of Tuesday morning, according to CBS Sports — the better storylines are over on the Chiefs side.
You might have heard a word or two about the relationship between pop star Taylor Swift and future breakup song target Travis Kelce. We have the fact that the Chiefs have been in the Super Bowl four times in six years, a record.
And, of course, we have Patrick Mahomes — the next great NFL quarterback, the man whose name will join the pantheon of signal-callers who can be identified merely by uttering their last name. Namath, Bradshaw, Staubach, Montana, Favre, Unitas, Elway — that’s the crowd he’s going to be joining.
However, as fans on social media reminded Mahomes after his AFC Championship victory Sunday, there’s one guy who’ll still have it over him no matter what. And not only is he in the pantheon of the last-name quarterbacks, you don’t even have to say his name for people to know who you’re talking about.
All you need to say is four letters: GOAT.
Patrick Mahomes is 8-2 in the playoffs when down 7+ PTS
His two losses: Tom Brady pic.twitter.com/lacJNWmlvD
— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) January 22, 2024
Yes, that’s right — as great as Patrick Mahomes may be, Tom Brady’s teams owned him in their two playoff matchups. Now, what that says about the former New England Patriots and Tampa Bay Buccaneers signal-caller is up for debate, but people on social media certainly had their takes.
Is Tom Brady better than Patrick Mahomes?
Now, before we begin, let’s do a recap: Brady played 23 seasons in the NFL, from 2000 to 2022. He was a starter for 22 of those years, sitting behind Drew Bledsoe in 2000. Mahomes has played seven seasons, six as a starter, all with the Kansas City Chiefs. Like Brady, he sat behind a veteran his rookie year — in this case, Alex Smith.
One user on X noted that, in addition to Mahomes’ 0-2 record in the playoffs against Brady, Brady definitely has more hardware.
In response to one user who noted that Mahomes beat teams quarterbacked by other top talents like Josh Allen (Buffalo Bills) and Lamar Jackson (Baltimore Ravens) during this year’s playoff run — an achievement that “stands alone” — another user had this to say:
Tom Brady has 7 rings which he almost orchestrated game winning drives to win every one 😂 this gotta stop.
Ontop of beating mahomes twice in the playoffs. He’s never beating the Brady allegations https://t.co/jxvKy41YE7 pic.twitter.com/D8tSumpNUM
— Keyz H (@KeyzH13) January 29, 2024
Yes, Brady does have seven rings, several of which came during comeback victories. (One of them definitely was not a comeback — Tampa Bay’s 31-9 rout over Mahomes’ favored Chiefs in Super Bowl LV.)
The pro-Mahomes post — and similar sentiments — elicited similar reactions, as well:
Tom Brady went to New Orleans and beat Drew Brees, he then
went to Green Bay and beat 2020 NFL MVP Aaron Rodgers, he then beat Patrick Mahomes the defending Super Bowl champion. He beat three, top five quarterbacks of all time IN A ROW. Sad victims of the moment. https://t.co/lyDXqC1NCH— GraniteSTATEment (@Granite603) January 29, 2024
People talking about Tom Brady like he’s a mythical creature who played 70 years ago.
He’s 2-0 against Mahomes in the playoffs and won a Super Bowl 3 years ago.
He also went to 10 Super Bowls in 21 seasons he played.
The king has been crowned. pic.twitter.com/D6hYbLMlKi
— Savage (@SavageSports_) January 29, 2024
The face of a man who had to play Tom Brady twice in the playoffs https://t.co/SZm55QOOcn pic.twitter.com/iqEC96Jl1e
— See You Soon (@_DestinyArrives) January 29, 2024
Tom Brady is an absolute savage. Pat Mahomes the best ever my ass. pic.twitter.com/MQqdTdVW41
— JC Cornell (@CornellNFL) January 28, 2024
If Mahomes had won these games against Brady…then you’d never hear the end of it. He’d be crowned by all media, but he didn’t win. He lost both shots against Tom Brady on the big stage. That’s forever. Can’t change that.pic.twitter.com/yRWCJey9cP https://t.co/ERClFz2lZG
— Joseph Vincent (@BoredFilm) January 22, 2024
Remember when Tom Brady told Tyrann Mathieu he was coming for him, then went after him repeatedly, then reminded him who he was…
GOAT shitpic.twitter.com/zOFHG28X0n
— TB EGO ✖️ (@TomBradyEgo) January 28, 2024
Yes, that’s the kind of hot-take action you expect to hear before a Super Bowl. And when you get hot take action — like, say, any time Skip Bayless or Colin Cowherd regrettably graces your television screen — you can count on it being either wrong or misleading.
First, yes, that Super Bowl LV loss was pretty bad for Mahomes. The other loss? Not so much.
In the 2018 AFC Championship — during Mahomes’ first year as a starter, mind you, while Brady was in his 18th — Mahomes led the Chiefs on a game-tying drive after getting the ball back with just 32 seconds remaining on the clock, according to an NFL.com recap. Alas, Mahomes never had a chance to touch the ball in overtime, as New England won first possession on the coin toss and drove for a touchdown, securing the victory.
Secondly, as SportsKeeda notes, the two quarterbacks were evenly matched head-to-head when you count regular-season games — three wins apiece in their games against each other.
Furthermore, Mahomes has accomplished something that Brady never did: He’s led the Chiefs to four Super Bowls in six years as a starter. He’s already earned two First Team All-Pro nods; Tom Brady earned three in his 22 seasons as a starter. He has one Second Team All-Pro, compared to three for Brady — all over a much shorter time.
Mahomes has also made the Pro Bowl every year he’s been a starter. Brady, meanwhile, didn’t make consecutive Pro Bowls until 2009 and 2010, well into his career.
Beyond that, however, let’s not forget that when it comes to embarrassing Super Bowl losses, Tom Brady also has a few. For instance, he’s responsible for two of the greatest moments of my life a sports fan. Those were the two Super Bowls where his Patriots lost to considerably inferior New York Giants teams, who were able to consistently flush Brady out of the pocket in both games and thus reduce his efficiency.
In the first of those contests, Super Bowl XLII, Brady was playing with a team that had gone 16-0 in the regular season — and was facing a Giants team that went 10-6. In other words, he certainly had the talent around him to make it happen, and it didn’t. This repeated itself in Super Bowl XLVI, where the Patriots cruised to a 13-3 regular season record and the Giants limped into the playoffs at 9-7; the Giants still won, 21-17.
His other loss in the big game came to the Philadelphia Eagles, quarterbacked by backup Nick Foles, in Super Bowl LII. Which brings us to another point against this hot take: Is the quarterback the only player on the team? Sure, he may be the most important — but, if by some imaginary transitive property of winning the Super Bowl, you automatically usurp GOAT status, Eli Manning and Nick Foles are both better QBs than Tom Brady.
As much as I love Eli and can tolerate Foles when he’s not wearing an Eagles jersey, that’s not an argument I — or any other fan who knows anything about football, period — is going to cosign.
Another example I can give you as a stat geek and fan of Big Blue: Joe Montana was only 1-3 in his playoff starts against the Giants, losing twice to teams quarterbacked by Phil Simms and once by Jeff Hostetler. His only playoff win against the Giants came against starting QB Scott Brunner during Montana’s first Super Bowl run after the 1981 season. Ergo, Phil Simms and Jeff Hostetler are better quarterbacks than Joe Montana?
Somehow, I don’t think that works out.
But, yes — as of right now, Brady is still the GOAT, something even this good, faithful Giants fan must admit. However, pretending that his two wins over Mahomes in the playoffs are dispositive of the fact that Brady will always be the GOAT is ludicrous. Mahomes is as good of a passer and as good of a leader as TB12, and much more mobile and athletic than Brady ever was.
He just has to keep that up over a 23-year career that includes 10 Super Bowls or so — with two different teams and two different coaches.
No pressure there.
