After a long grueling season it all comes down to one final game, the Super Bowl. In the 55th installment of one of the biggest days of the year across the United States the Tampa Bay Buccaneers lead by Tom Brady faced off against Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs. This year the Chiefs had one of the best offenses in the league having Mahomes, Travis Kelce, Tyreek Hill, and Clyde Edwards Helaire. On the other hand, the Buccaneers were loaded with talent on both sides of the ball. They imposed their will on NFL offenses with a top 10 defense in the league spearheaded by Ndamukong Suh, Jason Pierre-Paul, Devin White, Lavonte David, and Shaq Barret. The Buccaneers offense was led by Brady, Chris Godwin, Mike Evans, Ronald Jones, Leonard Fournette, and Rob Gronkowski. Both of these teams were very skilled but Tampa Bay won in the end.

This season isn’t Brady and Gronk’s first experience in the Super Bowl. They both played with each other on the Patriots and went to 4 Super Bowls winning three not to mention the other 5 Brady went to without Gronk winning three of those as well. After a season off Gronkowski reunited with Brady in Tampa Bay after playing for New England under Coach Belichik for so many years. After the Buccaneers signed both of them in the offseason many people immediately were picking them to be in the Super Bowl. Although after a rough start in the early parts of the season due to not being able to get the team acclimated with their new quarterback they started the season 7-5 and people already started to write them off. Nearing the final parts of the season the Buccaneers started to put things together and finished 11-5 just behind the 12-4 Saints in the NFC South division. Tampa Bay played in the Wild Card game against the Washington Football Team and won narrowly against their 3rd string Quarterback. In the next game of the playoffs, they beat the Saints 30-20 after losing to them in both of the regular-season meetings between the two teams. The last step in the road to the Super Bowl was to go into the Frozen Tundra of Lambeau Field to face Aaron Rodgers and the Packers in the NFC Championship Game. This year Tom Brady had one of the most impressive Super Bowl runs taking out teams led by Drew Brees, Aaron Rodgers, and Patrick Mahomes who are all future Hall of  Fame players. 

The Kansas City Chiefs’ path to the Super Bowl was much different than Tampa Bay’s. Coming into this season they were a clear cut favorite to be in the Super Bowl. They were coming off of an impressive win against the San Francisco 49ers in the Super Bowl the year before. The Chiefs also returned almost their whole team from last year and even added more talent with the addition of rookie running back Clyde Edwards Helaire. For the Chiefs, there weren’t as many question marks as there were for Tampa Bay. The season was pretty much smooth sailing for Kansas City. They boasted an astounding 14-2 record with an early-season loss to the newly relocated Las Vegas Raiders and another loss in a meaningless week 17 game against the Los Angeles Chargers. The Chiefs earned themselves a first-round bye and then in the divisional round matched up with the Cleveland Browns. They defeated Cleveland by just 5 points in a game where Mahomes left in the third quarter with an injury. The next week the Chiefs would go against the Bills in the AFC Championship game. The Bills took an advantage of Tom Brady leaving for Tampa this season. For the past two decades, Brady and the Patriots ruled the AFC East and terrorized the Buffalo Bills. Now with the Patriots dynasty in the rearview mirror, the Bills would get their opportunity. Unfortunately for them, they could not get it done losing 38-24 at the hands of the Chiefs in a game that in the beginning they were winning. Patrick Mahomes would go on to finish second in the MVP race behind Aaron Rodgers and were on to face a familiar foe in Tom Brady in the Super Bowl. The Chiefs had taken care of good competition easily all year so that leaves everyone to wonder what happened to the Chief’s powerhouse in the biggest game of the season? 

The Chiefs vs Buccaneers, this game had people’s expectations to the roof. Two elite Quarterbacks battling in the biggest game of the season in a beautiful stadium in Florida. Brady and Gronk playing in the Super Bowl but not on the Patriots. Will the Chiefs repeat and win back to back Super Bowls? What will the Weeknd’s halftime performance be like? After all the storylines and questions you could think of for this game to many people the game wasn’t good at all. To people who just like football and didn’t care what the score was or who won the game it was a little more entertaining. Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs had a lackluster performance scoring 9 points only on field goals. Tampa’s defense led by the amazing game plan of Todd Bowles their defensive coordinator, stopped Kansas City’s great offense. Tampa Bay’s focus was to put heavy pressure on Mahomes forcing him to make bad throws without sacrificing guarding Travis Kelce. This strategy worked granted that Mahomes went 26-49 on his passing attempts. If you watch the highlights of the game you can see the amount of pressure Mahomes was getting and how much he had to scramble out of the pocket trying to escape the defense. On the offensive side of the ball, Tampa Bay had the superior run game with their two running back system leading the way. Leonard Fournette had 89 rushing yards on 16 attempts with one touchdown. Their other running back had 61 yards on 12 attempts. The big thing the running backs did for Tampa Bay’s offensive game plan was their running backs leg strength to push for short first downs and smaller 6-yard gains. The passing game was rolling for the Buccaneers too. Tom Brady went 21-29 passed for 201 YDS and threw 3 TD. Two of those touchdown passes were caught by one of Brady’s favorite targets Rob Gronkowski. In this game, the Buccaneers had more of a complete team than the Chiefs. In the end, they came out on top 31-9. History was made that night with Brady winning his 7th ring which is more than any singular team has won. Brady and Gronk also got the record for most touchdowns between a QB and receiver in the playoffs with 14 touchdowns. Tom Brady would be named Super Bowl MVP for the 5th time in his career and adds to his huge resume. If he hadn’t already he has stamped his ticket to be considered one of the greatest athletes of all time.