The 2021 Super Bowl — better known as Super Bowl LV — will provide us with a delicious matchup between quarterbacks. The QB position has never been so important in the NFL, and there’s no denying the importance of these two to their teams. Although they’ll never step foot on the field together, their duel will dominate headlines. Super Bowl 55 pits youth against experience, the prince versus the longstanding king: Patrick Mahomes versus Tom Brady.
2021 Super Bowl quarterbacks — a tale of success
When they take to the Raymond James Stadium field on Sunday night, the two quarterbacks of the 2021 Super Bowl will make NFL history. Their names will be forever inextricably linked by this unique transition between one period of dominance to another.
The 2021 Super Bowl will be the first between quarterbacks who won the two most recent Super Bowls. Patrick Mahomes won Super Bowl LIV for the Kansas City Chiefs last year. Meanwhile, Tom Brady won the last of his Super Bowls with the New England Patriots the previous year, beating the Los Angeles Rams in Super Bowl LIII.
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Although football is the ultimate team sport, their individual accomplishments can’t be ignored. The 2021 Super Bowl will be the first where both quarterbacks have previously won the Associated Press Most Valuable Player Award and the Super Bowl MVP. Mahomes won the league MVP award in 2018 and the Super Bowl MVP in 2019. Brady has three NFL MVP awards and four Super Bowl MVP awards to his name.
Finally, the 2021 Super Bowl will be fought out by the quarterbacks with the highest and third-highest career win percentages since 1950. Since starting for the Patriots in 2001, Brady has won 76.7 percent of his games. Remarkably, it is Mahomes who has the highest career win percentage. Having won 44 of his 52 games, the Kansas City quarterback has won nearly 83 percent of his NFL appearances.
Patrick Mahomes hoping to add to the history books
When the Kansas City Chiefs traded up to select Patrick Mahomes with the 10th overall pick of the 2017 NFL Draft, it raised some eyebrows. Although the Chiefs already had Alex Smith as their starting quarterback, they selected Mahomes ahead of the more highly regarded Deshaun Watson. Thankfully, the former Texas Tech quarterback has been validating their decision ever since.
In his three seasons as the starting quarterback, Mahomes has ripped up the record book. With his big arm and innovative play style, he became the fastest player to hit 10,000 career passing yards. Additionally, he became the fastest player to throw 100 touchdown passes. In total, Mahomes currently holds six NFL records. Furthermore, he holds three Chiefs passing records. They include most yards (5,097) and touchdowns (50) in a single season.
When he suits up as one of the 2021 Super Bowl quarterbacks, Mahomes has the opportunity to make even more NFL history. In fact, just starting the game on Sunday makes him the youngest quarterback to start multiple Super Bowls. Seattle Seahawks signal-caller Russell Wilson currently holds that record. Additionally, winning on Sunday would make him the youngest quarterback to win multiple Super Bowls.
The current holder of that record? The other of the two Super Bowl 2021 quarterbacks.
Will Super Bowl LV be the end of a record-breaking career for Tom Brady?
When Tom Brady set the record for the youngest quarterback to win multiple Super Bowls, he was a fresh-faced 26-year-old. Even at the young point in his career, Brady had already far outstripped the wildest expectations of his post-college football career. A sixth-round selection in the 2000 NFL Draft out of Michigan, no one could have forecast his career in the NFL — except maybe Brady himself.
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When the 2021 Super Bowl kicks off, it will be the largest age differential between starting quarterbacks in NFL history. In those 18 years that separates Tom Brady and Patrick Mahomes, the former has forged an NFL Hall of Fame-worthy career. His name sits astride the most prestigious passing records in the game. Brady has the most career passing yards (regular season and playoffs), touchdowns, and wins by a quarterback.
Tom Brady’s love affair with the Vince Lombardi Trophy
Additionally, he’s formed a unique relationship with the biggest game in all of sports. In what will be his 10th Super Bowl appearance, Brady holds almost every conceivable Super Bowl quarterback record. The appearances themselves are a record, no other player has even come close to reaching the Super Bowl that many times. However, it is just the tip of the iceberg where Brady’s Super Bowl records are concerned.
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback holds the records for Super Bowl wins (six), passing yards (2,838), and passing touchdowns (18). Furthermore, he set the Super Bowl single-game passing record during Super Bowl LII throwing for 505 yards. Ultimately, that would be a championship ring that would escape him.
With a win in the 2021 Super Bowl, Brady would join Peyton Manning as one of only two quarterbacks to have won the Super Bowl with multiple teams.
Patrick Mahomes one day may break all of these Tom Brady records. The 2021 Super Bowl gives us the unique opportunity to see the passing of the baton between two great quarterbacks. Sit back and enjoy on Sunday because you’re watching NFL history in the making.
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Oliver Hodgkinson is a Pro Football Network staff writer. You can follow him on Twitter at @ojhodgkinson.
