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Patrick Mahomes gets candid when asked about Tom Brady comparisons
"If you ask me that question in like 15 years, then I'll see if I can get close to seven."
The extended time off between conference championship games and the Super Bowl often allows for some onerous narratives to sprout up across NFL circles.
This year has been no different, especially with Patrick Mahomes leading the Chiefs back to the Super Bowl for the fourth time in six full seasons as Kansas City’s starting quarterback.
And while the 28-year-old superstar has established himself as one of the greatest quarterbacks to ever play the game, several ex-NFLers and media pundits are already ready to crown Mahomes as the best to ever do it, period.
Of course, such a declaration implies Mahomes has surpassed Tom Brady as the greatest QB in league history — a take that doesn’t hold up after scanning Brady’s unequaled resume.
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And when asked on Monday about his chances of equaling (or surpassing) Brady’s seven titles, Mahomes opted to keep things in perspective.
“I mean, I’m not even close to halfway,” Mahomes said Monday at Super Bowl LVIII Opening Night in Las Vegas. “I haven’t put a lot of thought into it. Your goal is to be the best player that you can be, and I know I’m blessed to be with a lot of great players around me.
“So right now, it’s doing whatever I can to beat a great 49ers team and trying to get that third ring. And then, if you ask me that question in like 15 years, then I’ll see if I can get close to seven. But seven seems like a long ways away still.”
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It’s a fair and measured take from Mahomes, who has more on his plate this week than fretting over how he stacks up next to Brady.
But that hasn’t stopped others from tabbing the Chiefs’ signal-caller as the better option over Brady.
Just a few days after sports radio personality Chris Russo said Mahomes was a better QB than a “game manager” like Brady, NFL Hall of Famer Shannon Sharpe added that he’d take Mahomes over Brady in a hypothetical showdown on the field.
“I’m taking Mahomes because he can do everything Brady can do and more,” Sharpe said on ESPN’s “First Take” last month. “Because of his legs [and] his ability. We’ve seen it time and time again. We saw him do great runs against the Texans when they were down 24-0 [in the 2019 playoffs]. We saw him against the Tennessee Titans go down. We saw him take off in the Super Bowl last year on a bum ankle against the Philadelphia Eagles and pick up a key first down… We saw it again yesterday.
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“We saw him time and time again get himself out of harm’s way. The way he can change arm angles. The way he can throw the ball, roll left, roll right, throw the ball with accuracy and throw the ball over the top of your head. We’re talking in the first seven seasons, the guy is 70 touchdowns ahead of Brady.”
For those keeping track, Brady defeated Mahomes in both of their postseason showdowns — beating the Chiefs in the AFC Championship Game in Jan. 2019 before taking down Kansas City in Super Bowl LV, 31-9, while playing for the Buccaneers two years later.
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