Tremendous Bowl LV at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Florida, options 43-year-old quarterback Tom Brady, in his first season with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, towards final yr’s champions, the Kansas Metropolis Chiefs, and the reigning Tremendous Bowl MVP, 25-year-old quarterback Patrick Mahomes.
Brady has performed in and received extra Tremendous Bowls than any participant in NFL historical past. This might be his 10th Tremendous Bowl look, and he is received six. Ought to the Chiefs win Sunday, Mahomes can be the youngest beginning quarterback to win a number of Tremendous Bowls. That present file is held by Brady, who was 26 on the time.
The final time an NFL workforce received two consecutive Tremendous Bowls? After all it entails Brady, as he and the New England Patriots received Tremendous Bowls XXXVIII and XXXIX within the 2003 and 2004 seasons, respectively.
With an age hole of 18 years and 45 days between Brady and Mahomes, it is going to be the biggest age differential between the 2 beginning quarterbacks in Tremendous Bowl historical past.
However whereas these names could also be acquainted, the vibe seemingly will really feel fairly totally different. Due to the pandemic, Raymond James Stadium will not be full. As an alternative, there might be round 25,000 followers allowed to attend the sport — together with 7,500 vaccinated well being care staff who got free tickets by the NFL.
Other than the pandemic, an enormous query heading into the 2020 NFL season was how Brady — who in March signed with Tampa Bay after 20 seasons with the Patriots — would fare with out head coach Invoice Belichick.
Initially, outcomes have been blended, as Tampa Bay started the season 7-5 whereas Brady discovered a brand new offense. Since dropping to the Chiefs 27-24 in Week 12, nonetheless, the Buccaneers have received seven consecutive video games. That features three wins on the street — and scoring a minimum of 30 factors every time — in the course of the NFC playoffs.
After the loss to the Chiefs, CBS analyst Tony Romo predicted the 2 groups would meet once more.
Now they are going to. And never solely did Brady attain the Tremendous Bowl in his first season with Tampa Bay, he is additionally a part of extra historical past: The Buccaneers are the primary workforce that can play within the Tremendous Bowl in its house stadium.
“A house Tremendous Bowl for the primary time in NFL historical past, I believe, places lots of cool issues in perspective,” Brady stated. “Any time you are the primary time doing one thing, it is often a reasonably good factor.”
That is Tampa Bay’s second look within the title recreation, profitable Tremendous Bowl XXXVII towards the then-Oakland Raiders in San Diego, California, to finish the 2002 season.
The Chiefs, in the meantime, search their third Tremendous Bowl title total, having along with final yr additionally received Tremendous Bowl IV again in 1970.
The highest workforce within the AFC, Kansas Metropolis had one of the best file within the NFL within the common season, at 14-2, incomes a first-round bye within the playoffs. The Chiefs went on to defeat the Cleveland Browns and Buffalo Payments at house to earn the journey to Tampa. Kansas Metropolis enters Tremendous Bowl LV having received 12 straight video games began by Mahomes, together with the postseason.
“As an alternative of simply soaking in all of the glory and profitable the Tremendous Bowl final yr, we went again to work, and we went to work each single day to make ourselves higher, to arrange ourselves for each single scenario that might come up, and it is put us on this recreation,” Mahomes stated. “However now we have to maintain going as a result of we’re taking part in an amazing soccer workforce and we wish to attempt to discover a approach to full that run-it-back tour.”