Without Tom Brady, Mahomes plays final to be the new king of the NFL

The throne is vacant. And Patrick Mahomes, 27 years old, US$ 45 million (R$ 235 million) salary per year, is the main candidate to occupy it.

With the retirement of Tom Brady, the title of the greatest player in the NFL, the professional American football league, the most popular sport in the United States, is vacant. Mahomes will be able to reinforce his heir candidacy if he wins the Super Bowl, the final of the tournament, this Sunday (12). His team, the Kansas City Chiefs, will face the Philadelphia Eagles.

The match will start at 8:30 pm (Brasília time) with transmission by ESPN/Star+ and Rede TV.

Last week, Brady announced for the second time that he no longer plays. He had done the same last year, but decided to return for another season with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. He swears that this is for real now and is ready to sign a commentator contract with Fox for US$ 37 million (R$ 193 million) per season starting in 2024.

Preventing Mahomes from winning the second Super Bowl of his career is the plan of Jalen Hurts, leader of the Philadelphia Eagles offense, a team that started as underdogs, quoted at 30/1 by bookmakers, and became favorites for the title.

Both are quarterbacks. It is the launcher position. None is as important as American football. Next to the pitcher in baseball, it is the most glamorous of American sports.

It will be the first time that the Super Bowl, now in its 57th edition, will feature two black quarterbacks.

“Brady is the greatest of all time. He is unique”, praised Mahomes, to the announcement of the retirement of the quarterback who, for the New England Patriots and Buccaneers, is the biggest winner in the history of the NFL: seven titles.

Mahomes, like Brady, has the talent to wrest victory from the jaws of defeat. That’s what happened in this year’s conference finals against the Cincinnati Bengals and in 2021 against the Buffalo Bills. In the current playoffs, he has played well despite an ankle injury. He was voted MVP, the best player of the regular season, after making 67% of passes and throwing for 41 touchdowns, the highest score in the sport.

Hurts, in addition to the accuracy and growth he has shown, has the advantage of having an almost impregnable offensive line. It is the players who block rival defenders. They give the quarterback time and freedom to throw. And the freer it is, the greater the chance that the throw will be accurate.

Mahomes and Brady faced off in the Super Bowl two years ago, and the now-retired Brady got the upper hand. As Mahomes was not brilliant even in the final he won, in 2020, a new defeat can now raise criticism against the Chiefs pitcher that he cannot perform so well when the title is at stake.

It was an accusation often leveled at LeBron James early in his career, until the NBA star started winning. He has won the North American Basketball League title four times.

There are other criticisms made by Patrick. One of them spills over to Brady himself and comes from names from the NFL’s past.

“What they did doesn’t impress me at all,” said commentator Trent Dilfer, who won the 2000 Super Bowl quarterback for the Baltimore Ravens.

The complaint is that the rules have changed so much in the NFL and favored offenses in such a way that it has become “super easy”, according to Dilfer, to play the position today. The concern of the managers is to avoid as much as possible that the quarterbacks suffer stronger physical impacts. Brady acted until he was 45.

“He could play to 50. Nobody can touch him!” said Lawrence Taylor, historic star defensive back for the New York Giants, champions of the league in 1987 and 1991.

The concern is with the health of the players, but also financially. The more the attacks score, the more the quarterbacks pitch, the more the matches become attractive to the average fan. Plus the NFL bills.

Already touted as Brady’s future heir a few years ago, Mahomes has heard complaints about being overprotected by referees. The promise has always existed in its history. He was the 10th pick in the first round of the 2017 draft, the event in which teams select players coming out of college.

For the Eagles, Hurts was the 53rd selection, already in the second round.

Anyone who remembers that Brady passed through the teams unscathed and was drafted by the Patriots only in the sixth round will realize that NFL evaluators are not always right: 198 names were named ahead of what would be the greatest in the history of American football.

Mahomes may, who knows, be a candidate for that seat. Even if he is subject to being pranked for it. In an interview before the Super Bowl, former player Brandon Marshall asked if the Chiefs star knew that singer Rihanna had called him the greatest quarterback in history.

“It’s great that she thinks that of me,” Mahomes replied.

“I’m kidding you. She didn’t say that”, denied Marshall himself.

Rihanna recorded a video hours later.

“I think you’re great”, clarified the artist, who will perform at halftime.