The New England Patriots are going back to the Super Bowl. Things were closer there for a moment, as Patrick Mahomes led the Chiefs on a spirited comeback effort in the second half of the AFC championship, but Tom Brady and the Pats hung on to win in overtime.
There was some early talk about how this game could’ve represented a ‘passing of the torch’ from Brady to Mahomes, but not so soon, says Brady.
We’re getting used to this: Tom Brady and the Patriots in the playoffs. The man’s an institution. It grows exhausting for some fans to see the Patriots play the big game year after year after year, but you can hardly blame them. Death, taxes and the Patriots in the Super Bowl. This will be the Patriots’ fourth Super Bowl in the past five years.
Impressively, this also marks Brady’s ninth Super Bowl appearance. There isn’t a single NFL franchise that has had that many appearances ever, outside of his own Patriots — and even then, the Pats had only played in two Super Bowl games before Brady’s first in 2001.
Brady will have a chance to win his sixth Super Bowl, which would make him the only player in NFL history to do so; he’s currently tied with Charles Haley for the most Super Bowl wins by a player at five.
He’ll have to go against Jared Goff and the Los Angeles Rams to do so, after a key missed PI call by the referees contributed to the Saints loss in the NFC championship. However, Goff and the Rams can’t be dismissed, either — like Mahomes, Goff is one of the game’s rising stars at quarterback. Maybe this will wind up being the passing of the torch that some fans thought they were getting in the AFC final.
