It is among the greatest traces from “The Wire,” probably the greatest reveals in tv historical past, the one from Omar about the way it you’re coming for the king, you greatest not miss. Josh Allen and the Payments have come for the kings of professional soccer, the Chiefs, earlier than in January. And have missed, you’ll have observed. However they hold coming, in opposition to Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelce and Andy Reid and Chris Jones and an all-time nice defensive coordinator named Steve Spagnuolo. Now right here they arrive once more, in Kansas Metropolis this time, with a Tremendous Bowl on the road.
It’s a well-established undeniable fact that the Payments can beat the Chiefs. Simply not within the playoffs. They had been up three factors as soon as with simply 13 seconds left, and even that was an excessive amount of time to present to Mahomes after Sean McDermott, the Payments coach, made the boneheaded resolution to kick ball deep as a substitute of squib it to kill possibly half of that point.
A yr in the past, after all, they lastly had the Chiefs in Buffalo. Nonetheless couldn’t take them out. The Chiefs beat Lamar Jackson and the Ravens in Baltimore the week after that, after which received their third Tremendous Bowl in 4 years. So Allen and the Payments had been nonetheless searching for the primary Payments journey to the Tremendous Bowl because the ’90s once they misplaced 4 huge video games in a row.
Now Allen, one of many star quarterbacks of his time, as soon as once more tries to get by the one man — Mahomes — that he hasn’t been in a position to get by, and Lamar Jackson hasn’t been in a position to get by. There may be all of this superb younger expertise on the place in professional soccer; all this superb quarterback expertise on show in these two convention championships. Allen goes to win the MVP or Jackson goes to win one other MVP and if we held one other vote at present for that award, and also you see the place the Commanders are and the place they had been earlier than Jayden Daniels bought to Washington, and surprise how anyone may very well be extra worthwhile, for this one season, than Daniels has been.
However it’s Patrick Mahomes who stays the headliner. He’s nonetheless king till any person knocks him off. We heard all yr about how the Chiefs had been simply scraping by and he was scraping by and there was a lot noise about all that, you nearly began to overlook that Mahomes and the Chiefs misplaced precisely one recreation this season — to the Payments, don’t you understand — once they had all their gamers on the sphere.
Now they attempt to give themselves an opportunity to be the one staff in historical past to win three Tremendous Bowls in a row. The Steelers of the ’70s didn’t do it and the 49ers didn’t do it after them and neither did the Cowboys. Tom Brady and the Patriots by no means did. However listed below are Mahomes and the Chiefs, two wins away now, up in opposition to the Payments staff that beat them in November. That is January. This time the cash is on the desk. Everyone knows what has occurred with Mahomes and these Chiefs when the cash has been on the desk prior to now.
And as nice a coach as Andy Reid is, and he is among the best of all occasions within the NFL, and even with Kelce being probably the greatest tight ends to ever play and with the way in which Spagnuolo’s hungry-dogs protection has stepped it up in championship video games and in Tremendous Bowl video games, what has finally set this staff aside is Mahomes, who might sometime find yourself being known as the best quarterback of all of them.
Once more: We speak a lot about how expertise wealthy the NFL is true now with younger quarterbacks. It certain is. And but: There may be precisely one lively quarterback beneath the age of 35 who has received the Tremendous Bowl. That will be Mahomes who, if he will get one other one this season, could have received 4 earlier than he turns 30. Brady didn’t win his fourth — on his option to seven in all due to a outstanding ending kick with the Patriots after which the Bucs — till he was 37 years outdated.
Brady was once the gold normal. Now Mahomes is. He doesn’t have the numbers this season that Allen had, nor the video-game numbers that Jackson had. He didn’t come near being the dazzling presence on a soccer discipline that Daniels was for the Commanders. All he did through the common season is what he has accomplished many times within the playoffs:
When he needed to take his staff down the sphere to win the sport, that’s precisely what he did, at the same time as individuals stored wringing their palms and clutching their pearls over how shut so lots of these victories had been.
There’s an expression from golf that covers what the Chiefs did on their option to 15-2:
Not how, however what number of.
The magic man at the moment of yr, for the previous a number of years, has been him. The Payments go up in opposition to him — and that — in Kansas Metropolis. They knocked off Jackson and the Ravens final Sunday and now attempt to do the identical to Mahomes and Reid and them, simply on the highway this time. Allen will get one other probability to lastly get his staff previous Mahomes’ staff, one which isn’t all that terribly removed from having made it to seven Tremendous Bowls in a row. Oh, certain. They had been that near beating Joe Burrow and the Bengals in a single AFC championship recreation and Brady and the Patriots in one other, solely dropping that one to the Patriots as a result of Dee Ford lined up simply barely offsides earlier than a play on which Brady threw the interception that may have clinched the victory for the Chiefs.
If the Payments can win this recreation, it would really feel the way in which it could have again within the ’90s if the Knicks of that point had been lastly in a position to get previous Michael Jordan. And would stop Mahomes’ Chiefs from getting their shot at doing one thing that Michael’s Bulls did twice, their shot at profitable three titles in a row.
Allen is a star, with out query. Lamar Jackson is a big star. Jayden Daniels has been a capturing star all season lengthy, after which once more within the playoffs in opposition to first the Bucs, after which the Lions. However the greatest star of this sport remains to be Patrick Mahomes. Others hold hanging numbers. He retains hanging with the Lombardi Trophy.
Nonetheless the king. Right here come the Payments once more. Making an attempt to not miss this time, in what has so usually been Patrick Mahomes’ time of yr in professional soccer.
