Super Bowl 59 did not go according to plan for the Kansas City Chiefs, as they were trailing 24-0 by halftime and ended up losing 40-22 to the Philadelphia Eagles, who dominated the game from start to finish. It was an ugly game for the Chiefs and all of the "Will Patrick Mahomes already be the G.O.A.T. if he wins Super Bowl 59?" talk that happened before the Super Bowl doesn't even matter anymore.
Now, this isn't to say that Mahomes isn't still a legendary quarterback and that he can't eventually get to that point. He's been absolutely incredible during his seven years as the starting quarterback for the Chiefs but we're not here to talk about that part of his legacy. Let's focus on the whole Mahomes/Brady G.O.A.T. conversation that was constantly being brought up ahead of Super Bowl 59.
The argument for some was that if Mahomes had won Super Bowl 59 and the Chiefs had completed the three-peat that he'd be able to surpass Tom Brady as the greatest quarterback of all-time. That argument had some obvious holes in it but I understood that there was at least an argument for it.
Now that the latest Super Bowl is in the rearview mirror, however, we need to pause this debate for the foreseeable future. That's not going to be a popular sentiment in Chiefs Kingdom but the fact of the matter is that while, yes, Mahomes has won three Super Bowls and was on the verge of doing something no quarterback had done before, he's also already done something twice that Brady never did and that's getting blown out in a Super Bowl.
Patrick Mahomes' G.O.A.T. status put on hold after Super Bowl 59 loss
While Chiefs fans certainly won't want to give Brady his dues, especially when it comes at the expense of Mahomes, the reality is that while Brady lost three Super Bowls during his 23-year career, none of those losses were blowouts. His first Super Bowl loss was to the Giants in 2008 and that was a 17-14 final, his second loss (also against the Giants) in 2012 was a 21-17 defeat, and the Eagles loss in 2018 was a 41-33 final sore.
Meanwhile, Mahomes' two Super Bowl losses have not been close. The Chiefs got blasted by the Bucs in 2021 by a final score of 31-9 and then, of course, we have the recent 40-22 drubbing they got from the Eagles. While Mahomes is still in rare quarterback company with his three Super Bowl rings, those blowout losses are going to hurt his G.O.A.T. argument for the foreseeable future.
Again, this isn't to say that Mahomes can't still work his way into that conversation but the journey just got a lot more difficult.