The Greatest of All-Time against The Greatest At This Time.
Super Bowl 2021 offers a classic quarterback matchup pitting Tom Brady’s Tampa Bay Buccaneers against Patrick Mahomes’ Kansas City Chiefs. It’s the football equivalent of an NBA Finals pitting Michael Jordan against LeBron James.
Here are five storylines to study over the next two weeks:
1. Brady’s new bunch
Brady is back at the Super Bowl without Bill Belichick or the Patriots. His 10th trip — at age 43, with a new coach and new teammates except for Rob Gronkowski — should be enough to squash anyone else’s claim as the G.O.A.T.
If Belichick has regrets about letting Brady leave town — and he should — he has plenty of company. Brady’s suitors in free agency boiled down to the Buccaneers and Chargers. Leaving room for a couple unknowns, where were the other 25ish teams? Any excuse about developing a young quarterback or saving cap space sounds like a foolish reason to pass on a Super Bowl run.
2. Andy Reid’s place
One year after breaking his curse as a big-game choker, Reid can become the 13th head coach to win more than one ring.
Reid is sixth with 221 career regular-season wins. If he starts piling up Super Bowl rings — and there’s no reason to think anything will slow down a budding dynasty — where will Reid, 62, finish in the conversation of greatest coaches of all-time? Top three — as former Eagles quarterback Donovan McNabb suggested this week — is not out of the question.
3. Home at last
It took 55 years, but the Buccaneers will become the first team to play the Super Bowl on its home turf. The 49ers and Rams played Super Bowls close to home — at Stanford Stadium and the Rose Bowl, respectively — but not in their own digs. The 2017 Vikings were the only team to come within one win of playing in a home Super Bowl.
This will be Raymond James Stadium’s third Super Bowl (2001, 2008), so the timing lined up just right for Brady’s arrival. The NFC winner (regardless of team) was predetermined as the home team.
4. Repeat
The last repeat champion was the Patriots in 2003-04, when Brady beat Reid’s Eagles to finish the journey. The Patriots later went to three straight Super Bowls from 2016-18, but the Eagles broke up history with an upset in the middle.
If not for a meaningless loss in the regular-season finale with most starters on the bench, the Chiefs could’ve been fighting to join the 1984 49ers and 1985 Bears as the only one-loss champions, nipping at the heels of the undefeated 1972 Dolphins in terms of dominance. No easy feat when every opponent saves its best shot for the defending champions.
5. Rematch
The visiting Chiefs beat the Buccaneers, 27-24, on Nov. 29.
Mahomes is 2-2 all-time against Brady, but Brady won their only postseason matchup in the epic 2018 AFC Championship game. Brady drove the Patriots to a touchdown on the first possession of overtime, keeping the ball out of Mahomes’ hands.