It’s been all of 50 years since the Kansas City Chiefs last won the Super Bowl. But that wait is finally over – thanks largely to the heroic stick-to-itiveness of Patrick Mahomes.
Nobody played a greater role in the Chiefs 31-20 win over the San Francisco 49ers in Miami on Sunday than he did.
Mahomes, this last season’s league MVP, is now the 54th Super Bowl MVP. He has joined Ben Roethlisberger and Tom Brady as the only quarterbacks to hoist a Lombardi Trophy before their 25th birthday.
“We kept on believing,” Mahomes said. “That’s what we did all postseason. We were down (on Sunday) by 10 and we weren’t playing our best football. But then the guys really stepped up. They believed in me. I was making a lot of mistakes out there early. We found a way to win it in the end.”
One of Mahomes biggest mistakes came when there were only 5.23 left of the third quarter.
Mahomes interception takes 49ers into 20-10 lead
The 23-year-old Chiefs quarterback threw his first career post season interception after being sacked four times. The resultant touchdown sent the San Francisco 49ers into 20-10 lead.
49ers fans and punters alike stood on their feet and cheered wildly, especially the punter who had wagered $2.1 million on San Francisco.
The Chiefs supporters, on other hand, groaned as the San Francisco underdogs began to look as if their 2020 dream would become a reality. For them a record-matching 6th Super Bowl was getting closer and closer.
Mahomes threw his next pass behind wide receiver Tyreek Hill and saw it snaffled by Tarvarius Moore. The million dollar punter smiled some more and was still doing so with only seven minutes to go.
You could certainly have said the same for the Niners other millions of backers who had seen the Chiefs open as 1-point favorites, but close as the 1.5-point favorites at kick-off
Big punter wagers $2.1 million on San Francisco
Jeff Stoneback of MGM Resorts, it was reported by Sports Yahoo.com, confirmed through a spokesman that the big Niners backer had placed $500,000 of his $2.1 million on a first half over bet of 26.5 points.
That bet lost when the halftime score finished at 10-10, but the luckless bettor could still have recovered much of his money if the 49ers had won. And yes, this looked like a distinct possibility when the score remained at 20-10 with just seven minutes left.
But that’s when Mahomes stepped up with his magic and turned disaster into a triumph for the Chiefs with three straight touchdown drives in just over five minutes.
With 6:13 left, Mahomes found Travis Kelce in the end zone to cut the Niners lead to 3. Then with 2:44 remaining, Mahomes found Damien Williams with a 5-yard pass and the touchdown that finally put them ahead.
It was a play that was reviewed. It appeared Williams may have stepped out of bounds before the ball crossed the plane, but the call stood. On that specific drive, Mahomes went 5-for-5 for 60 yards. For the night, he completed 26 of his 42 passes for 286 yards.
Williams breakaway TD puts cherry on top
Finally a breakaway touchdown run of 38 yards by Williams put the cherry on top foe Chiefs with just 1:12 left.
In his final words, Mahomes said: “I think those guys, the leaders that we have on this team, have that mindset. That we never give up and we fight until the end. Thank you, Kansas City. We did it, baby!”
One of the leaders Mahomes was talking about is Andy Reid, 61, who up until Sunday had been called the best head coach never to have won a Super Bowl. This was his second Super Bowl appearance in his 21-years as a head coach.
Now, with career win No. 222, Reid is a champion. He broke the record for the most wins (including in playoffs) by any NFL head coach even before winning the Super Bowl. He bettered 2020 Pro Football Hall of Famer Bill Cowher’s 152 wins.
“Nobody deserves this trophy more than Andy Reid,” Chiefs chairman Clark Hunt said while celebrating after the game.
In going down in the dying minutes, the 49ers became only the third team to reach the Super Bowl after winning four games or less in the previous season. The 1999 St. Louis Rams and the 1988 Cincinnati Bengals were the other two.
Garappolo tore ACL in 2018
The 2018/2019 49ers limped to their 4-12 finish after their starting quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo tore his ACL in the third game of that season
Sunday’s Super Bowl was Kyle Shanahan’s first as head coach for San Francisco. The 40-year-old is the son of two-time Super Bowl-winning coach Mike Shanahan. They are the NFL’s only father-son duo to make it into a Super Bowl as a head coach.
“It was a tough loss, and it hurts everybody in the (locker) room to lose the Super Bowl,” Shanahan said.
“We had opportunities to win that and came up short. Win or lose, it doesn’t change how I feel about our team. I’m proud of all of the guys for what they did all year, and I’m proud of what they did today.
“Kansas City played a good game. They were better than us today. We can deal with that, but we’re obviously disappointed.”