TAMPA, Florida (AP) – Tom Brady made the Buccaneers, their fans and their city believe from the moment he arrived in Tampa Bay.
With the help of old friend Rob Gronkowski and a fierce defense, Brady and the Buccaneers are Super Bowl champions.
Brady threw two touchdown passes to Gronkowski and one to good friend Antonio Brown, and the Buccaneers defeated Patrick Mahomes and Kansas City 31-9 at home in Super Bowl 55 on Sunday.
“You get here and you want to get the job done and we did it,” Brady said. “It simply came to our notice then. I’m very proud of the boys. “
Despite moving south to a new team and lecturing during a pandemic, Brady did not slow down at 43 years old.
GOAT won his fifth Super Bowl MVP award and extended the Super Bowl title record in its tenth appearance, again with New England. Brady broke his own record as the biggest player to win a Super Bowl and joined Peyton Manning Hall of Fame as the only quarterbacks to win one with multiple franchises.
“I think they’re special,” Brady said. “I am not making any comparisons. Experiencing it with this group of guys is amazing. “
Surprisingly, it was easier than any of his previous Super Bowl victories, which averaged a five-point margin. Muhammad lost by double digits for the first time in his four-year career.
The Buccaneers (15-5) won their second NFL title and the first in 18 years as the first team to play the big game at home, culminating in an unusual and challenging season played through the new coronavirus. They won three road games as a wild card to reach the Super Bowl and joined NHL Lightning as the 2020 season champion. The Rays also went to the World Series, but lost to the Dodgers.
Mahomes and the Chiefs (16-3) failed to become the first repeat champion since the Brady Patriots in 2003-04.
“I didn’t see anything coming,” head coach Andy Reid said. “I thought we would play these guys just like we had been playing in teams, and it didn’t happen. I give them credit for that. ”
The NFL completed its season of 269 games on time without cancellations, a remarkable success that required nearly a million COVID-19 tests for players and team personnel.
Because of the virus, only 25,000 masked fans attended, including 7,500 vaccinated health workers who received free tickets to the NFL. About 30,000 scraps of cardboard made the stadium look full.
A scratcher wearing a hot pink shirt dodged security and slipped into the end zone in the absence of 5:03 of the match. Kansas City’s great power offense never got that far against Tampa’s fierce defense.
“Obviously, I didn’t play the way I wanted to play,” Muhammad said. “What more can you say? All you can do is leave everything you have in the field. I think the guys did that. … They beat us pretty well, the worst I’ve been hit in a long time. “
Bruce Arians he became the oldest coach at the age of 68 to win the Super Bowl. His mother, Kay Arians, 95, witnessed it in person. Brady, Gronk and defensive coordinator Todd Bowles helped the Aryans get the Vince Lombardi Trophy.
“It really belongs to the coaching staff and our players. I didn’t do anything damn good, ”Arians said after being handed the trophy.
Bowles devised a masterful plan to frustrate Muhammad and shut out the Chiefs, quite the opposite of Kansas City’s 27-24 victory in Tampa in Week 12, when the Chiefs advanced 17-0 in the first quarter. Tyreek Hill had 269 receiving yards and three TDs in that. He was arrested at 73 yards on seven catches Sunday.
“Coach Bowles is a brain,” Bucs cornerback Sean Murphy-Bunting said.
After the Chiefs took a 3-0 lead, it was all Brady and Bucs.
Brady got the first run with an 8-yard TD pass to Gronkowski for a 7-3 lead with 37 seconds left for the first quarter. Brady’s nine Super Bowl teams in New England scored just three points in total in the first quarter. Gronkowski, who came out of retirement to play with his friend, grabbed his 13th and 14th Brady season TDs. They had been tied at 12 with Jerry Rice and Joe Montana.
“Coming here and being Super Bowl champion, it’s surreal, man,” said Gronkowski, who came out of retirement to play with Brady. “We have so many superstars on this team, but no one’s head was too big. Whoever got the ball got the ball. That’s what was so great about being part of this team. There was no one who was selfish on this team. No one is selfish in the organization. This time it was me this time that I received the touchdown steps “.
Despite playing at home, the Buccaneers were not allowed to fire the cannons of their famous pirate ship after touchdowns and big plays. They did so shortly after the clock expired, while the red, black, and black confetti fell into the field.
The fans still enjoyed Gronk’s trembling climb after his first score.
Tampa missed the opportunity to extend the lead when Brady’s 2-yard pass to offensive Joe Haeg was eliminated from the hands in the end zone. Ronald Jones stood still in consecutive races, while Arians held on to his “No Risk, No Cookies” philosophy and finished fourth down.
But the bosses didn’t gain any momentum at the stop. Instead, they made one costly mistake after another.
First, the tight end of the All-Pro, Travis Kelce, dropped a pass that would have been a big gain in the third downhill. Then, point guard Tommy Townsend pushed for a 29-yard touchdown after a penalty forced him to kick again. The Ships started at 38 in Kansas City instead of 27.
A call to corner Charvarius Ward denied an interception by security All-Pro Tyrann Mathieu. The Kansas City defense kept an offside penalty but the success of Ryan Succop’s field goal gave the Buccaneers a first down. Sarah Thomas, the first official woman in a Super Bowl, threw this flag.
Brady launched a strike on Gronkowski for a 17-yard TD and a 14-3 lead. Gronk hesitated before throwing the ball waiting to make sure another flag of the play was against the sloppy heads.
Muhammad provoked the attack with a 34-yard field goal from Harrison Butker that reduced it to 14-6, but the Kansas City defense collapsed in the final minute of the first half, allowing 42 yards with two passing interference penalties. A counter Mathieu in the end zone set up Brady’s pass to Brown by a 21-6 lead at halftime.
It was Brady who convinced his new team to give Brown a chance after the troubled former All-Pro retired from suspension. His TD pitch to Brown was the fiftieth of the season, including 10 in the postseason.
Mathieu made an unsportsmanlike penalty after TD’s pass to get in with Brady as he ran to the side.
Leonard Fournette, like Brown in the season, ran 27 untouched yards to extend Tampa’s lead to 28-9. Arians punched after that score and pointed to offensive coordinator Byron Leftwich, who made the call.
Succop’s 52-yard field goal increased the lead to 31-9.
Last year, Muhammad reached the Chiefs with a 10-point deficit in the fourth quarter against San Francisco and earned the MVP honors by leading Kansas City to its first NFL championship in half a century. But Tampa’s pass didn’t give him any chance.
Shaq Barrett he had one of three sacks in Muhammad, who spent most of the game trying to escape Jason Pierre-Paul, William Gholston and a relentless group.
“There was nothing stopping us from winning this game,” Barrett said. “I knew we were going to keep up the pressure. Coach Bowles had a great game plan. We had the boys up there for them to work and we made it work, girl. ”
After 20 seasons in New England, Brady signed a $ 2 million contract with Tampa in March. The Buccaneers had not reached the playoffs since 2007 and had not won a postseason game since the 2002 title season.
There were a lot of Reds fans dressed in red as part of the first half until the Bucs made a thrashing. Then it was the hometown fans who sang “Let’s Go Bucs.”
Prior to the launch, award-winning poet Amanda Gorman, 22, recited a poem in honor of three people chosen as honorary captains of the game and all teachers, military veterans and front-line health workers.
Brady avenged his loss against Chiefs defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo, who held the same position for the Giants when New York drowned the Patriots in the 2008 Super Bowl, preventing New England from a perfect season.
The warmer climate suited Brady perfectly. He overtook Michael Jordan in championships and doesn’t look like he’s ready to slow down. He already said he could play for more than 45 years.
“I’ll be back,” Brady said with a smile.
There was never any doubt that he will go for number 8 next season.
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