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Ivis AburtoESPN Digital
With four years in the NFL and a bright future, the odds of Patrick Muhammad overcoming his landslide defeat in the Super Bowl LV are high, but the Kansas City Chiefs quarterback may not have time to pull off a backlash. against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers left him.
If, as he has said several times, Tom Brady decides to play until he is 45 and finish his career with the Buccaneers and the Chiefs quarterback maintains his upward pace in the historic NFL elite, Muhammad will not give up time to take off the label of not being able to beat Brady in the big game.
Muhammad’s record against Brady is 2-3 including the Playoffs and two wins have been in the regular season, the first in 2019, Brady’s last year with the New England Patriots, and the second in the last regular season.
Muhammad has shown that he can beat Brady between September and December, but has failed to eliminate in the postseason a quarterback who, after defeating him, has won the last two Vince Lombardi Trophies in his collection.
After losing to Brady and the Patriots in the 2018 AFC Championship Game, the only scenarios in which Muhammad could really take revenge were a conference final or the Super Bowl. Any win in a previous Playoffs round or regular season would not offset the impact of the defeat in the AFC Final.
Brady then went to the NFC and immediately, Muhammad was presented with the real opportunity for revenge and in the maximum scenario that American football can offer as a framework to prove to the world that he can beat considered the best quarterback in history at the most important moment.
This is a film that Brady had already starred in in the early years of his career, after turning to stone in the shoe of another spectacular-style quarterback and powerful arm, Peyton Manning.
Brady, who became the Patriots’ starting passer in 2001, beat Manning in his first six bouts, including two AFC Championship games. It wasn’t until the 2005 campaign, when the former Indianapolis Colts passer was able to defeat Brady, but he did so in the regular season.
The only way Manning would get rid of the stigma of not being able to beat Brady was in the Playoffs, with a conference final as the stage and he got it big in the 2006 AFC Championship Game.
Manning orchestrated one of the biggest comebacks in NFL history by leading the Colts to clear an 18-point deficit in the second quarter, a feat that catapulted him to the conquest of his first Super Bowl.
Muhammad won the NFL title in his third year in the NFL and the success he enjoyed at the start of his career projected him as the future top figure in the league and that can challenge Brady’s legacy. but, perhaps the time to try- begins to run out for the Chiefs quarterback.
By rotating NFL duels, the Buccaneers and Chiefs will clash again in the regular season until 2024. If Brady decides to retire until age 45, he would do so after the 2023 campaign.
If Brady decides to end his career with Tampa Bay, the only place Muhammad would see him again would be in the Super Bowl and the odds of Chiefs and Bucs reuniting in the NFL title duel are nil. the, but are remote.
To be the best, you have to beat the best, not in regular season but in life or death duels that only feature in the Playoffs and after losing to Brady in a conference final and a Super Bowl, only in these scenarios will Muhammad be able to clear the stigma of not being able to beat Brady in the big game.