Feb 5, 2021
By the Numbers: Super Bowl LV
Tom Brady and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers will take on Patrick Mahomes in Super Bowl LV on Sunday, Feb. 7, in a game that pits two of the game’s best quarterbacks against each other. Brady will appear in his tenth Super Bowl game, breaking a tie with Don Chandler and Lou Groza for most for NFL championship game appearances all-time.
TSN.ca Staff
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Tom Brady and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers will take on Patrick Mahomes in Super Bowl LV on Sunday, Feb. 7, in a game that pits two of the game’s best quarterbacks against each other.
Mahomes and his Chiefs enter this game looking to defend their Super Bowl LIV title, while Brady looks to claim his seventh league crown.
TEN
Brady will appear in his tenth Super Bowl game, breaking a tie with Don Chandler and Lou Groza for most for NFL championship game appearances all-time.
He already holds the record for most Super Bowls won by any player with six, and will look to widen that gap with another win.
At the age of 43, Brady will become the oldest player at any position to play in a Super Bowl. We will also be suiting up in his third Super Bowl since turning 40; no other QB has ever started a Super Bowl at 40 or older.
Brady will become just the fourth quarterback in NFL history to start in a Super Bowl with multiple franchises, joining Peyton Manning, Kurt Warner and Craig Morton.
He will look to join Manning as the only QBs in NFL history to win a Super Bowl with two different teams as the starter.
EXCLUSIVE COMPANY
Brady will become just the third player in NFL/MLB/NBA/NHL history to play in three championship series/games after turning 40, joining Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Enos Slaughter.
His four championship round MVPs put him on a list with only Michael Jordan (six), and LeBron James (four).
This will be the tenth-straight year that one of LeBron/Brady play in a title game/series. The last year without one of them in a final was 2010.
This could be the second time LeBron/Brady win a championship in the same season (2015-16 NBA season and 2016 NFL season)
They’ve both played in the finals in three different decades.
HISTORIC DEFENCE
The Buccaneers have already beaten Drew Brees and Aaron Rodgers this postseason, and now face Mahomes.
Tampa Bay will be the ninth team to face three Super Bowl-winning quarterbacks in a single postseason.
The 2009 Saints are the only team to beat three Super Bowl-winning quarterbacks in a single postseason: Kurt Warner (Divisional), Brett Favre (NFC Championship), Peyton Manning (Super Bowl).
According to Elias, they are the third team to beat Super Bowl MVP QBs in back-to-back playoff games, along with the 2010 Jets and 2012 Ravens, who both beat Peyton Manning and Brady.
BRADY VS. MAHOMES
For the first time ever the Super Bowl will feature the last two Super Bowl-winning quarterbacks.
And it’s just the seventh time in NFL history that the game will be between two QBs who had previously won one.
2020 Tom Brady Patrick Mahomes
2014 Tom Brady Russell Wilson
2011 Tom Brady Eli Manning
2008 Ben Roethlisberger Kurt Warner
1983 Jim Plunkett Joe Theismann
1978 Terry Bradshaw Roger Staubach
1975 Terry Bradshaw Roger Staubach
Brady and Mahomes have met four times in the NFL, with the meetings being very tight and each QB winning twice.
Mahomes, however, has had the edge on Brady in the stats department, leading in QBR (78 vs 63), TD-Int ratio (11-3 vs 6-5) and yards per attempt (8.9 vs 7.6).
According to Elias sports, the age difference of Brady and Mahomes on Super Bowl Sunday will be 18 years, 45 days. That will break the record for the largest age difference between starting QB in Super Bowl history, a mark set by Brady and Jared Goff when their age difference was 17 years, 72 days in Super Bowl LIII.
If the Chiefs win, Mahomes can join Drew Brees (5-3) and Eli Manning (3-2) as the only QBs with a winning record vs Brady (minimum five matchups).
Additionally, he’d be the fifth QB to win three consecutive starts vs Brady (including playoffs).
Peyton Manning, Eli Manning, Brees and Jake Plummer all won exactly three straight.
THREE-YEAR RUN
Including playoffs, the Chiefs are 44-11 over the past three seasons.
Kansas City can join the Patriots, 49ers and Broncos as the only franchises in the Super Bowl era to win at least 45 games over a three-year span when including playoffs.
The Chiefs are on the verge of finishing a 17-2 season with a second straight Super Bowl title. It would match the best record by a defending Super Bowl champion, including playoffs.
Kansas City is looking to become the first team to repeat as Super Bowl champion since the 2003-04 Patriots.
The 17-year drought between back-to-back Super Bowl winners is the longest in league history.
The Chiefs are the seventeenth team to lead the NFL in total offence and make the Super Bowl. However, in the last 20 seasons, the top-ranked total offence has lost five of the six times it’s reached the Super Bowl.
Only the 2009 Saints led the league in total offence and won the Super Bowl in the past 20 years.
KELCE AND HILL
Travis Kelce and Tyreek Hill have been as unstoppable as any receiving duo this postseason, combining for 509 receiving yards. They’re the third duo to combine for 500 receiving yards in a two-game span within a single postseason.
With the two just 91-yards short of combing for 600 receiving yards, they could become just the third duo to reach that mark in postseason history.
They would join Chris Hogan and Julian Edelman on the 2016 Patriots and Steve Smith and Muhsin Muhammad on the 2003 Panthers.
THE ODDS
Brady and his Bucs opened as a three-point underdog for this matchup, after winning its last two games as underdogs.
Brady is a perfect 2-0 in Super Bowls as an underdog, and a win for would be his seventh as an underdog in the playoffs, which would tie Eli Manning for the most by a starting QB in the Super Bowl era.
Assuming they remain underdogs, Tampa Bay could become the sixth Super Bowl champ to go 3-0 or better as underdogs in a single postseason.
The Chiefs beat the Buccaneers in Week 12 by a score of 27-24.
This will be the fourteenth time teams met in the Super Bowl after already playing that same season, with the regular-season winner taking the Super Bowl seven of the first 13 times. Brady was involved in each of the previous three instances.