Opinion | A chief among Chiefs: Patrick Mahomes leads Kansas City to second Super Bowl win in four years

Patrick Mahomes is a legend. Five full seasons, five AFC championship games, three Super Bowls, two Super Bowl wins, two MVP awards, two Super Bowl MVPs. In his two Super Bowl wins Mahomes has rallied the Kansas City Chiefs from down 10 points both times. Other than New England’s comeback from 28-3 in 2017, that’s the biggest deficit anyone has come back from, in this game.

But the 38-35 win Sunday, decided by Harrison Butker’s 27-yard field goal with eight seconds left, was not just about Mahomes. The Kansas City Chiefs were slight underdogs in this game because the Philadelphia was a beast. One loss with Jalen Hurts at quarterback; a mashing offensive line, an aggressive defensive line, fearless coaching. Philly was supposed to be the better team.

And at halftime, you wondered if this would be a blowout. Kansas City had missed a field goal off the upright. The Eagles’ offensive line gave Hurts time to throw a moonball that receiver A.J. Brown ran under for a touchdown as Chiefs defenders scanned the sky for spy balloons. Hurts fumbled and the Chiefs recovered it for a touchdown to tie the game, but Philly kept running Hurts, including on fourth-and-5 from the Chiefs’ 44, and he scored again to make it 21-14. Mahomes had sat for 23 minutes of real time.

Then Mahomes re-sprained the ankle he sprained last week, and the Eagles added a field goal to make it 24-14 at halftime. Mahomes ran off the field with a limp, and you wondered what the Chiefs had left.

But the second half brought a comeback fuelled by coaching adjustments, cool-headed play, the Chiefs’ offensive line, a defence that held, painkillers, and a call. In Mahomes’ Super Bowl loss, 31-9 to Tampa Bay and Tom Brady two years ago, Mahomes was struggling with turf toe and harried behind a patchwork offensive line. Mahomes has said he has tried to do too much in his losses, but it was hard to avoid the idea in this game.

He was only a part of the comeback, though. Coach Andy Reid was not considered a genius when he was in Philadelphia; his legacy was defined by Super Bowl losses and trouble managing the clock. In Kansas City, though, with Mahomes, he is a giant. Mahomes was presumably sweating Toradol when he led a quick touchdown drive after halftime and, after a Philly field goal, the Chiefs took their first lead three minutes into the fourth, on a pass to Kadarius Toney in which he faked a jet sweep and reversed into wide open field. 28-27.

The Kansas City defence got a stop and Toney returned a shaky Eagles punt to the five-yard line, weaving patiently behind a wall of blockers, and Mahomes hit Skyy Moore for a touchdown on the same play as Toney’s, but on the other side. Reid and offensive co-ordinator Eric Bieniemy had found a weakness.

Philly drove back, Hurts went over 300 passing yards and ran in his third touchdown and the two-point conversion. It was 35-35 with 5:15 left.

But Mahomes had the ball last, and started to eat yards. And on first-and-10 from the Philly 43 he took off running, filled with chemicals and adrenalin: 26 yards. The Eagles stopped the Chiefs on third down but were flagged for a holding penalty, a shaky call. No Super Bowl should be decided on that call.

It was, though. Kansas City killed some clock and kicked the winning field goal. The Chiefs outscored the Eagles 24-11 after halftime. Mahomes only threw for 172 yards but three passes were for touchdowns and he was named MVP. Kansas City needed the defence to hold in the second half, the offensive line to push, the special teams to show up, the coaching to adjust, the medical staff to make Mahomes feel like he was flying, and a soft-as-hell call at the end. But the Chiefs earned this, all of them.

“You can’t make it all by yourself,” Mahomes told the NFL Network after the game.

That’s the thing. Football often gets reduced to quarterbacks, and you can understand why. Rule changes have made it easier than ever to light up a field. The NFL doesn’t let defences try to murder the quarterback nearly as often as they used to. We have lived through the greatest QB era, which is just ending. Quarterbacks run the game, and are the stars.

And with Brady, Drew Brees, Peyton Manning, Ben Roethlisberger and Philip Rivers all retired — and Aaron Rodgers sitting in the dark for four days to find inspiration before signing with, like, the Jets or something — Mahomes is the new king. Reid was asked by the NFL Network whether Mahomes was one of the five greatest QBs in history already. He said, “If you don’t do it, I’m gonna do it. I’m all in on that.” Mahomes, Brady and Joe Montana are the only players with two MVP awards and two Super Bowl MVPs.

But all needed more around them. Hell, Montana wasn’t the best player on those 49ers teams, not with Jerry Rice around. Brady worked with the best head coach of all time for all but one of his Super Bowls, and often he had killer defences.

Mahomes had a team in this game. But the legend is growing, and we’re five years in.

This NFL year was full of ugliness. Bills safety Damar Hamlin’s heart attack on the field was turned into a triumphal story, even as it’s not clear he ever plays football again, and wouldn’t qualify for a pension if he doesn’t. Tua Tagovailoa’s three concussions were handled so incredibly poorly that it almost seemed like he was a traveller from a different time.

Meanwhile, some former players are suing the league’s benefits plan, alleging they are rigged toward denying claims; The Washington Post revealed that Cowboys owner Jerry Jones was one of the hard-faced white boys in the crowd as they tried to block Black student from desegregating his school in Little Rock, Arkansas in 1957; and the investigation into the Washington Commanders found a franchise full of truly awful behaviour.

But it’s the NFL. Rihanna said in 2019 she turned down the halftime show in solidarity with Colin Kaepernick, who was more or less blackballed for kneeling in the name of racial equality. This year, apparently, that objection was outdated.

And then came the game, and you saw why it sweeps away all the mess, year after year, even when it’s messy at the end. It’s not just the quarterbacks. It’s the whole damned show.

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