By Brendan Lunga
Medill Reports
NEW ORLEANS – To all-time greats Jeff Saturday and Warren Moon, the implications of Super Bowl LIX are clear.
Patrick Mahomes has the opportunity to do something no other NFL QB has ever done — win three consecutive Super Bowls.
And in their eyes, a win Sunday would cement his place among the greatest players in NFL history.
“They get three in a row, you got to put this as the greatest dynasty in the sport,” said Saturday, who won his lone ring in Super Bowl XLI as a center for Hall of Fame quarterback Peyton Manning.
“You’d (have) to say that there’s no other quarterback who has ever had this great a start for the first seven years of his career,” said Moon, a Hall of Fame quarterback who never hoisted the Lombardi Trophy during his 17-year NFL career.
After winning Super Bowl LVIII last season, Mahomes became just the eighth quarterback in NFL history to win back-to-back Super Bowls. With each new feat he achieves in his career, the quarterbacks Mahomes once trailed on the all-time list move closer within his reach.
And they’re taking notice.
“It’s tough to get to where they are,” former 49ers and Chiefs quarterback Joe Montana said. “And he’s obviously having a great career.”
A win Sunday would tie Mahomes with Montana and Terry Bradshaw for the second-most Super Bowl wins of all time among quarterbacks with four. Montana won back-to-back in Super Bowls XXIII and XXIV. Bradshaw did it twice, in Super Bowls IX and X as well as XIII and XIV.
Neither was able to complete the three-peat.
“I found it hard because I was tired — emotionally and mentally,” Bradshaw said. “It’s so hard to win a Super Bowl. And then you win one back-to-back, and you’re just like, ‘Oh man, I got to do it again?’”
Bradshaw said as a player, he would go into a deep depression after the Super Bowl. It would take him a couple of weeks, if not longer, to get out of it.
Slowly, he said he would overcome his emotional and physical exhaustion. He wouldn’t pick up a football until June. The pressure of winning another Super Bowl would wear him down.
“In the parade, you go downtown and they’re not hollering, ‘Good luck, hope you win it next year,’” Bradshaw said. “It’s, ‘You better win it next year.’”
Of the eight quarterbacks to win back-to-back Super Bowls, none has been able to even reach the big game in the following season. Mahomes became the first to do so when the Chiefs beat the Bills, 32-29, in this year’s AFC championship.
Appearing in Super Bowl LIX will also make Mahomes the first quarterback to play in five Super Bowls before his 30th birthday. Should he win, he’ll become the first to win four of them by age 29.
The start of Mahomes’ career has been nothing short of historic. And for Montana, that won’t change whether Mahomes secures the NFL’s first three-peat or not.
“I don’t think he needs any more for his legacy,” Montana said. “But it’d never hurt.”
What was once expectations for Mahomes have now become reality. He has already earned his place among the all-time great quarterbacks, and a win Sunday would only vault him closer to the top.
But in Bradshaw’s estimation, no matter what happens in Super Bowl LIX, Mahomes would continue to be behind Tom Brady as the greatest of all time. Seven rings will still be a long way to go.
“Best ever?” Bradshaw said. “No way am I going to say that.”
Even so, Mahomes is only 29 years old. As he was sure to point out during media availability Thursday, he won’t even be in his 40s a decade from now.
A GOAT debate between Mahomes and Brady may certainly be on the horizon. But Mahomes has his eyes focused on Sunday, when a Super Bowl — and history — await.
“When I look back at my career, I’ll look back and think it’s all the more amazing to be mentioned with some of these names I’ve been mentioned with,” Mahomes said. “But more than anything, I just want to maximize the opportunity that I have here.”
Brendan Lunga is a graduate student at Medill, specializing in sports media. You can follow him on Twitter/X at @brendan_lunga18.
