Have you heard? The Kansas City Chiefs have the opportunity to accomplish something no NFL team has ever managed - the Super Bowl three-peat - should they take down the Philadelphia Eagles in two Sundays.
Great. Wonderful for them. Now, let’s be clear: achieving one feat that evaded Tom Brady’s teams does not pass the goat-horned crown from Number 12 to Number 15. Patrick Mahomes will still have his work cut out for him to be justifiably called the greatest quarterback of all time.
Let’s start with what’s considered a rare data point when comparing greats of different eras: head-to-head competition. For example, LeBron James never got to play against Michael Jordan. Most arguments around James vs. Jordan turn out to actually revolve around preference of one era of the NBA vs.
another, and the brand of an individual professional athlete vs. the brand of an athlete who stayed with one team through his prime.
But Brady beat Mahomes both times the quarterbacks met in the playoffs, in 2018 with the Patriots, and 2020 with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. One could argue Mahomes wasn’t yet peak Mahomes in those games, to which I would say, watch a young twenty-something and a forty-something square off in most athletic competitions, and get back to me about how that isn’t another solid point for Brady.
Brady’s longevity felt unbelievable in the moment and has only grown more mythical since his retirement. His regular season as a 44-year-old yielded 5,316 passing yards and 43 touchdowns. Years later, it may have been enough to trick an entire corner of the New York market into thinking Aaron Rodgers would be an elite quarterback at 40. At 37, when most quarterbacks begin their inevitable statistical decline, Brady commenced a career stretch that accounted for four of his seven Super Bowl victories.
That actually might count towards yet another way the Patriots screwed over the Jets, (and the ways are myriad). Brady left New England in 2020, at 43, for the Bucs, and immediately won a Super Bowl. Why wouldn’t Rodgers be able to do that with New York at 40? Because he’s not Brady. He's not even close. But this isn’t a Brady vs. Rodgers column. That column would be ridiculous.
Back to the point at hand! Mahomes is getting closer. There’s no denying the pace of his victories. Ahead of Super Bowl LIX, he’s racked up 17 playoff wins through seven postseasons as a starter. Brady only got 13 wins through his first seven postseasons at his team's helm. Both quarterbacks already had/have three Super Bowl victories before their 30th birthdays and multiple Super Bowl MVP awards, (Mahomes has one more of those than Brady won in his 20s).
As previously noted, Brady’s longevity seems unconquerable. But who knows? With further exercise science advances, Mahomes could play at a very high level into his mid-40s, as well. We just haven’t seen it before, aside from Brady. His main argument right now is how quickly he’s stacking championship. Notably, Brady’s dominance in the playoffs decelerated in his early 30s. But he approached his third act like a Shakespearean masterpiece, and that packed all the more drama into his story.
There were always times New England’s quarterback was accused of being a product of a system, or simply the beneficiary of Bill Belichick’s elite coaching. Brady did everything he could to disprove those notions with the Patriots and then went and won it all with a completely different franchise in his first year away.
There are stats and accolades that favor Mahomes: he threw for more than 5,000 yards in his first season as a starter; Brady didn’t throw for more than 5,000 until he was 34 years old. The NFL has already crowned Mahomes MVP twice; Brady didn’t win his first MVP until 2007. Comparing the season-by-season production of each quarterback in their nascent years presents the challenge often faced in these debates, which is the evolution of the game. Mahomes plays in an era of football geared favorably towards both quarterback production and safety, and that clearly benefitted Brady towards the end of his career. Mahomes also plays in a regular season with more games.
But there are also the less tangible factors of Brady’s legacy to consider. Consider the unlikelihood of a sixth-round pick ascending to professional spots’ highest mantle, the magic of the 2001 Super Bowl season, and the ACL injury he overcame in his prime. Consider the absurdity of Deflategate, the four-game suspension, and the greatest single comeback in Super Bowl history. Consider working in tandem with Belichick for 20 years. Consider seven rings against the possibility of four.
Mahomes is great. A three-pete would be, as well. Brady remains the greatest.
