TAMPA, Fla. Tom Brady is not passing the torch yet.
Brady, the 43-year-old quarterback who went to Tampa Bay for the final chapter in a Hall of Fame career on the first ballot, proved he is still the most dominant quarterback in the league by running for 201 yards and three touchdowns. toss and earn his fifth. Super Bowl MVP award and seventh ring when the Buccaneers defeated the Kansas City Chiefs 31-9 for their first Super Bowl win since 2003.
With the win, Brady has more Super Bowl titles (7) than any franchise in NFL history, over six won by the Steelers and Patriots. Brady also made history with his fifth MVP award, becoming the only player with five. Joe Montana is second with three.
“This team is world champions forever, you can’t take it from us,” said Brady after the game.
When asked if he would return next season, he added, “We will be back.”
Brady joked with Chiefs wide receiver Tyreek Hill in July that he would go for his seventh ring after Hill promised a Chiefs dynasty with seven himself. With the win, Brady is 3-2 against Patrick Mahomes. His first two wins came in games in which he built a double-digit lead by half and fended off furious comebacks from Chiefs.
This time, however, there would be no comeback.
There would only be Brady and the talented teammates he lured to Tampa Bay when he went south to prove he was more than a piece in a Bill Belichick dynasty. The victory shows that he is the kind of transcendent player who doesn’t need one particular organization to build a dynasty. He can do it anytime, anywhere, and in any uniform.
He did it on Sunday with tight-sided Rob Gronkowski – a longtime Patriots teammate he convinced to come out of retirement with promises of sunshine and one more Super Bowl ring – and Leonard Fournette, whom he convinced to sign in Tampa Bay after the former first-rounder was cut by the Jacksonville Jaguars.
And he did it with Antonio Brown, the troubled wide receiver who wanted one more shot in the NFL and resorted to a quarterback who wanted one more talent on an attack that had almost everything.
Gronkowski followed his friend to Florida and was awarded the first two touchdowns of the evening. His pair of scores, one on an option that plays 8 yards from the goal line and the other at 17 yards from the goal line, pushed the Buccaneers so far ahead of the Chiefs that Kansas City’s field goals weren’t enough.
“It’s great to see great players making big games,” said Brady. “I just love what they did, what they added to the team. Gronk is an incredible player, teammate, talent, work ethic, dedication. And AB is just, ever since he’s here he’s done everything the right way. So impressed with him … Proud of him.
“It takes a lot of people to get to this point, and we all have great support systems, and I think everyone should celebrate them tonight.”
In a game billed as the Changing of the Guard between Brady, the original GOAT, and Mahomes, the future GOAT, the veteran quarterback was lethal for efficiently tearing apart the Chiefs’ defenses. He completed 10 of 13 passes for 90 yards with three touchdowns in the first half, two for Gronkowski and one for Brown with less than a minute left to rest.
In the third quarter, Brady completed just 4 of 6 tries for 55 yards, but his 25-yard completion to Gronkowski in the third quarter, a 27-yard Fournette touchdown set up a play later.
While the young and tenacious Tampa Bay defense battered Mahomes, the Buccaneers’ line of attack kept Brady in the pocket almost unscathed. The defensive end of the chief, Frank Clark, took up the only sack of Brady, which came in the first quarter.
Although the superstar’s younger quarterbacks are on the verge of taking over the league, Brady defied the trend during the regular season and didn’t stop before capturing his seventh Super Bowl ring in his new home stadium, surrounded by fans who became the quarterback embraced as their own.