By Chris Baldwin
Staff Writer
The past NFL season has been an emotional roller coaster for teams and fans across the country. With a limited number of fans in the stadiums and teams struggling to keep Covid-19 cases to a minimum, this season has been anything but normal. However, the competition has not suffered and the NFL has continued to put a great product on the field into the playoffs.
After the past weekend’s conference championship games, only two NFL teams remain. Tom Brady and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers will face off against Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs in Super Bowl LV. The matchup between these two quarterbacks is highly anticipated and one of the most talked about sporting events of the year.
“I’m looking forward to the Super Bowl this year with this matchup,” said Joshua Eget, a freshman accounting major. “It’s going to be a close game.”
Tom Brady, 43, is considered to be the best quarterback of his generation and perhaps the greatest to ever play the position, but Patrick Mahomes, 25, need not fear as many are calling him the “next Tom Brady,” according to CCN.
Let’s take a look at what each quarterback has done thus far:
Tom Brady
According to CBS, in his 21 seasons in the NFL Brady’s team has made the playoffs 18 times, made the Super Bowl 10 times, and have come out with a Super Bowl Championship 6 times. This year, he is looking for his 7th Super Bowl Championship, a number that is unheard of and unlikely to surpass.
Patrick Mahomes
Only in his third season as an NFL, Mahomes is already shaping up to have a dominant career similar to, if not better than, Brady’s. He has already had two Super Bowl appearances and one Super Bowl win, which is more than most quarterbacks can hope to achieve in a full career.
With another Super Bowl appearance this year, Mahomes is setting the bar high for his generation of players.
The Matchup
It’s not all about the quarterbacks, though. Brady and Mahomes are playing alongside great defensive units and offensive stars such as Chris Godwin (WR) and Rob Gronkowski (TE) with the Buccaneers, and Tyreek Hill (WR) and Travis Kelce (TE) with the Chiefs.
With two well-rounded teams led by star quarterbacks, this game could go either way. However, sports fans everywhere have already begun making their picks on who will come out on top this Sunday.
The overall consensus is that the Chiefs will have a slight edge over the Buccaneers in this year’s Super Bowl. However, some students think otherwise.
Freshman health and exercise science major and die-hard Giants fan Yousuf Cheema said that he “would love to see Tom Brady go down,” but predicts a 38-30 Buccaneers win. Eget also predicted a Buccaneers Championship, and said that they “will come out on top by a field goal.”
This is mainly because of how consistently dominant Mahomes and his offense have been playing throughout the season. According to Bleacher Report, many sports publications and authors have given the Chiefs their pick as the future Super Bowl LV champions. The casinos and sports books across the country are also predicting a back-to-back championship reign for Kansas City.
Popular sports book FanDuel gave the Chiefs (-174) a slight edge over the Buccaneers (+146), as well as many other sports books such as DraftKings and William Hill. In terms of sport betting, this means that a $100 bet for the Buccaneers would result in a $146 profit, whereas it would take a $174 bet for the Chiefs to win a $100 profit.
According to the American Gaming Association, over $6 billion in the U.S. is bet on the Super Bowl each year. Sports fans and bettors across the country will be paying close attention to these odds approaching Super Bowl Sunday.
While many try to predict the winner of the big game, many fans are just hoping that the game is exciting, entertaining and close in score. Cheema is “honestly rooting for a great game.”
It's shaping up to be a great game and hopefully will be a great ending to a somewhat odd, but entertaining NFL season.
