Kansas City Chiefs head coach Andy Reid and quarterback Patrick Mahomes are trying to beat the San Francisco 49ers in the Super Bowl on Sunday.
But ultimately, they are really coming for Bill Belichick and Tom Brady.
A win would give the duo in Kansas City their third title together. The Chiefs would be the first team to repeat as Super Bowl champions since Belichick and Brady’s New England Patriots in 2005.
Three championships in four years would give Reid and Mahomes a fighting chance to catch Belichick’s six rings and Brady’s seven as head coach and quarterback, respectively.
While they would probably not say so publicly, Reid and Mahomes would love to do to Belichick and Brady what the Patriots pair did to Bill Walsh and Joe Montana — replace them at the pinnacle of the sport.
Brady retired and stayed out of the league all last year, even as quarterback injuries piled up across the league and pressed the likes of Joe Flacco back into service.
Belichick was gently pushed from the helm of the Patriots after a disastrous 4-13 season and nearly a decade of questionable drafting. The latter may account for why he could not subsequently land with another team, raising the prospect that he won’t coach next year.
The two men went their separate ways after the 2019 season. Their reputations moved in opposite directions, too.
Brady strengthened his case for being the greatest of all time at his positions in the final years of his career, winning three Super Bowls after his 39th birthday, including one without Belichick. He threw more touchdown passes in his 40s than in his 20s.
Without Brady, Belichick posted only one winning season and lost in his sole playoff appearance to the new AFC East leaders, the Buffalo Bills, in a lopsided 41-17 game.
Brady closed the book on the GOAT conversation at quarterback. Belichick reopened it, at least, at head coach.
There still isn’t a convincing argument for who is better than Belichick unless you go back to the earlier years of the sport. Brady’s contemporaries were Brett Favre, Peyton Manning, Drew Brees, Aaron Rodgers, and eventually Mahomes.
Belichick’s contemporaries were Pete Carroll, Tony Dungy, Mike McCarthy, and Rex Ryan. Some Hall of Famers in that bunch, but none had a more impressive run than Belichick’s two decades with the Patriots.
But some are already trying to make the case for Reid, even though his best years are just as closely tied to Mahomes as Belichick’s are to Brady. The argument is that before his current greatness, Reid had a longer stretch of being pretty good without his transcendent quarterback.
Belichick had a losing non-Brady record, notwithstanding his successful season with Matt Cassel, Mac Jones’s rookie year, and the three wins with Jimmy Garappolo and Jacoby Brisset. All but Jones were Brady backups.
The case for Reid is a stretch. The mustachioed wonder has made more head-scratching in-game decisions than Belichick ever did. His clock management is at least as dubious as Belichick’s late-period draft picks.
Still, it will be made with increasing frequency as the Chiefs continue to compete for titles. This season was a down year, with poor wide receiver play and injuries to star tight end Travis Kelce. They are, nevertheless back in the Super Bowl.
The Chiefs have already become the new dynasty. There will be an urgency to crown them the new GOATs unless someone can stop their winning ways.
If it weren’t for Brady and Belichick in the 2018 season and Brady with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers pass rush (aided by a decimated Kansas City offensive line) in the 2020 season, the Chiefs could have two more titles already.
It’s a long way to six or seven Super Bowl victories. Neither Reid nor Mahomes are likely to replicate Belichick and Brady’s longevity, though Mahomes will surely try. So they will need to pile up wins and break records now.
In the last few years, it has become a pastime of sorts to look back on the Patriots dynasty and debate whether Belichick or Brady was more responsible for their long run of on-field dominance.
Tensions arose in Brady’s final seasons in Foxboro, which led to him concluding his career in another team’s uniform.
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Yet the challenge from Reid and Mahomes is a reminder that in football history, Belichick and Brady’s legacies will always be inextricably linked.
In the record books, Brady and Belichick have a common purpose — or at least a common enemy — once again.
