Patriots

Patrick Mahomes pushes back against Tom Brady comparisons, again

"It’s always going to be tough because Brady beat me in the Super Bowl."

Patrick Mahomes has won three Super Bowls in his six full seasons as KC's QB1. (AP Photo/Adam Hunger)

February 12, 2024

Patrick Mahomes’ resume speaks for itself.

In just six full seasons as the Chiefs’ QB1, the 28-year-old signal-caller has already won three Super Bowls, three Super Bowl MVPs, two regular-season MVPs, and has taken Kansas City to six straight AFC championship games.

He added to his already Hall-of-Fame career in Super Bowl LVIII on Sunday, elevating a 2023 Chiefs roster largely devoid of proven playmakers outside of Travis Kelce and securing KC’s third title in five years.

Just five years after the Patriots’ two-decade dynasty came to an end, Mahomes and the Chiefs have established their own reign atop the NFL.

But as many media pundits traded barbs on Monday about Mahomes and his standing next to Tom Brady as the greatest quarterback in NFL history, Mahomes deflected those lofty comparisons shortly after defeating the 49ers at Allegiant Stadium.

“Yeah, I hear it. To me, it’s always going to be tough because Brady beat me in the Super Bowl. He will always have that on my head,” Mahomes said of those Brady comparisons on NFL Network. “But it gives me something to strive for every single day — chasing greatness. If I’m ever tired, if I don’t want to work, I know I have to do it in order to be in moments like this.”

This marks the second time in under a week that Mahomes has offered up a take regarding how his achievements stack up against Brady’s.

“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.”

Even with Mahomes’ three rings, he still has four more to go to equal the championships that Brady won during his time with the Patriots and Buccaneers. And as Mahomes noted, Brady himself denied the KC quarterback of (potentially) two titles.

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 Tampa Bay two years later.

For what it’s worth, Brady doesn’t seem to be all that bothered by the comparisons, either.

“I think there’s nothing that Patrick can do, in my opinion, that takes away from what I tried to accomplish in my career,” Brady said on “The Pat McAfee Show” last month. “And there’s nothing that I did that can take away from what he’s trying to accomplish. … All I tried to be was the best I can be.

“Even though I had sporting idols, I could never be Steve Young, I could never be Joe Montana. I could never be Dan Marino or John Elway. Those were my childhood idols and they had incredible careers. And they put as much as they could into their careers, and I really respected them for that. I just tried to do the same thing.”