The Morning After - Chiefs win Super Bowl 58
Patrick Mahomes stacks another trophy as the Chiefs prove inevitable yet again.
The reason you hold players like Patrick Mahomes to an extremely high bar is because history matters. We cannot throw around titles like “GOAT” just because it is the latest thing in front of our face. We have memories and history books that verify that even if you weren’t alive for Joe Montana’s run, it still happened.
Not everything that has just happened is the greatest thing in history.
And yet, with Mahomes, we might consider moving our beliefs around just a bit.
He is inevitable in ways that are seldom true. This industry mocks the claim that QB’s are more responsible for wins, even when it is clear as day.
The San Francisco 49ers had an incredibly built roster that spread things across 22 players because they had the benefit of a cheaper-than-cheap QB. They had personnel advantages all over the field.
And yet, they didn’t have Patrick Mahomes. And when you have him, odds are stacked heavily in your favor that by the end of the historical day, you will also have a trophy and a parade.
That was the rationale all week. You looked at this game and analyzed it and pondered all the scenarios. And then, when you needed a prediction, it probably went a lot like mine did on Friday:
There is a simple rule that in a game like this, you take the best QB to make that play at that moment. It usually works, but given that we aren’t too removed from Nick Foles taking out Tom Brady on a day where Brady was nearly perfect, it isn’t any guarantee. That said, I am playing the odds. I will defer to the QB who seems built for this moment to win another one.
That simple rule makes analysis look pretty meaningless, but again, that is how we know greatness when we see it.
Trust me, it didn’t always make sense to simply and blindly take the team that has that one special guy. Sometimes, he has the odds stacked against him.
For instance:
Bills favored by 2.5 points in the AFC Divisional Round.
Ravens favored by 4 points in the AFC Championship Game.
49ers favored by 2 points in the Super Bowl.
I am sure the history books will not spend a lot of time on this simple point, but I think it needs to be emphasized heavily. The Kansas City Chiefs won this title in a very different way than the others.
This year, they did not appear to be a real heavyweight. They were declared dead by many on Christmas Day. They had to leave Arrowhead and prove they could win in hostile conditions and situations. And Vegas installed them as the underdog three consecutive games against teams that were 12-6, 14-4, and 14-5.
Yet, they knocked them down each time. And yes, each time, it was pretty clear that the winning difference between the two present-day titans of the league was this one guy. A special QB who is as inevitable as the sun setting at the end of a day.