Patrick Mahomes: Tom Brady's 7 Super Bowls seem like 'long way away'
Patrick Mahomes is only 28, yet this Sunday he has a chance to win his third Super Bowl. Seems like a really cool achievement, until you place it against Tom Brady‘s NFL resume.
No active player is close to the Chiefs quarterback when it comes to such early career success. After all, Mahomes never has failed to reach the AFC title game. To think, this was the first postseason that Mahomes and his Chiefs had to play somewhere besides Arrowhead Stadium.
But when you add Tom Brady to the equation, what Mahomes is accomplishing doesn’t seem as impressive. Brady, who retired this time a year ago, won seven Super Bowl rings. He enjoyed seven parades. The last one even was a boat parade in balmy Tampa Bay where Brady needed to make sure not to drop the Lombardi Trophy into the salt water.
A reporter asked Patrick Mahomes about the goal of seven rings.
Forgive Mahomes if just hearing the question, the very idea of winning seven Super Bowl rings, added extra pressure, even if he is four away.
“I mean, your goal is to be the best player,” Mahomes said. “I’m not even close to halfway so I haven’t put a lot of thought into it. I mean, your goal is to be the best player that you can be. I know I’m blessed to have a lot of great players around me. And 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. I’ll see if I can get close to seven, but seven seems like a long ways away still.”
Yes it does. Seven seems unobtainable. But then again, Tom Brady did it, although his career lasted 22 years.
Let’s give everyone some context. In 57 Super Bowls, there were 34 starting quarterbacks who guided the winning teams. That is a damn exclusive club. Thirty of them are still living amongst us. RIP to Bart Starr, the Packers legend who won the first two Super Bowls, Chiefs great Len Dawson, Kenny Stabler and Johnny Unitas.
Of the 34, 13 earned multiple rings. Joe Montana and Terry Bradshaw each have four rings in a jewelry box tucked away somewhere. Troy Aikman won three with the Dallas Cowboys. And like Mahomes, these quarterbacks have a pair = Starr, Ben Roethlisberger, Bob Griese, Peyton Manning, Eli Manning, John Elway, Jim Plunkett and Roger Staubach.
Jim Kelly and Dan Marino are two Pro Football Hall of Famers who do not own a gaudy Super Bowl ring.
Peyton Manning, like his little brother, Eli, won two Super Bowls. He donated his cleats from those games to the University of Tennessee, his alma mater.
‘”They are regular cleats, I guess, and you kind of say, `How do you really know those are the cleats that you wore in the Super Bowl?’” Manning told Sam Farmer of the Los Angeles Times. “What’s cool and unique about them is they have confetti on the bottom. I think that’s just cool. The confetti is kind of stuck into the bottom of the cleats.”
So if Mahomes is lucky enough to collect confetti on his cleats at Allegiant Stadium, then he will tie Aikman with three Super Bowl rings each. Then possibly as soon as next season, Mahomes may answer questions about tying Montana and Bradshaw. Then you can talk about Brady.