It’s the Patrick Mahomes era; it’s pointless to argue that anymore. Year after year, he dispatched every foe in his way. Joe Burrow, Lamar Jackson, and the league’s newest MVP, Josh Allen, have all fallen at the hands of Mahomes. Even his latest opponent, Jalen Hurts and the Philadelphia Eagles, have tasted defeat at the hands of Mahomes, and that was precisely two Super Bowls ago. Now, Mahomes will face the Eagles again, but the stakes are much higher this time. Tonight’s Super Bowl will either be a grand crowning or a forever-lasting disappointment for Mahomes.
Mahomes is almost perfect in his career. In his seven years as a starter, he’s been to seven AFC championships. He’s only lost twice, once to Burrow and once to the GOAT, Tom Brady. As great as Mahomes is, the one player he was not able to beat was Brady, and unfortunately, he will never get that opportunity. This unfortunate reality could stand as the biggest blemish on Mahomes’s legacy—a lingering “what if” that fuels the debate over his place among the greatest of all time.
For Mahomes to become the GOAT, he will likely do the impossible: win seven rings. It took Tom Brady a two-decade-plus career to win that many championships, and he had one of the greatest coaches to help him lead the way. Even with Bill Belichick, Tom Brady still went a decade in between without winning anything, proving just how hard it is to capture one Super Bowl, let alone seven. Mahomes already has three, so he is at a fantastic pace, but a win tonight will not only sustain his GOAT case but might also cement it.
A win tonight will make Mahomes the GOAT in a lot of people’s eyes, and for good reason. A win tonight would complete the three-peat, making the Chiefs the first team in NFL history to do so in the Super Bowl era. Yes, that means Mahomes did something even the immortal Brady couldn’t achieve, which would now become his most potent point for the greatest football player ever.
But on the other hand, a loss will bring the same amount of consequence for Mahomes. With a loss to the Eagles, Mahomes would now drop to nearly .500 in Super Bowls, with his record being three wins and two losses. Worse of all, the chase for NFL history would end, and it would take at least another two seasons before he could be in this position again. Let alone if he gets back to this space.
Mahomes has made advancing to Super Bowls look easy, but it is anything but that. Travis Kelce is getting older, and another team will soon break through, right? Either way, nothing is guaranteed except the opportunity he has tonight, Super Bowl Sunday. If he wins, in eight years, he will have a résumé rivaled only by the greatest quarterback of all time, Brady. But if Mahomes so happens to lose, the “L” will temporarily halt the GOAT debate, and it will go down, as, even if Mahomes never publicly admits it, it is his most significant personal failure.
