If the Chiefs had beaten the Eagles on Sunday night in Super Bowl LIX, it was going to be time to have a conversation about Patrick Mahomes walking down Tom Brady for GOAT status. But the Chiefs not only didn’t win the game, they got their asses kicked by the Eagles, losing 40-22 in embarrassing fashion, in a game that will go down as a bottom-five Super Bowl and the worst lost of Mahomes’ career. 

So instead of entertaining the Mahomes vs. Brady conversation, let’s shut it down completely. That Brady was on the call was perfectly fitting, since he’s now been in the building for the two separate Super Bowl blowouts. First was the bloodbath of the Chiefs in Tampa during Brady’s first season as the Buccaneers quarterback, a 31-9 mauling when Brady played good football and the Bucs defense destroyed the Kansas City offensive line. 

The second was Sunday night, a destruction by the Eagles defense against the Chiefs offensive line that saw Mahomes under pressure constantly and Kansas City looking generally unprepared and ready to deal with what Philly brought on both sides of the ball.

We’re always looking to rush comparisons in sports — guilty as charged here — and the Mahomes chasing Brady concept wasn’t out of control if he won this game. But he didn’t. And even if judging careers on one game is often a bad process, it’s still how this works in the NFL. You play to win Super Bowls and if you want to be the greatest of all time, you can’t go into the stadium, play for a title and get blown out.

The Chiefs have been blown out twice now. Brady’s lost Super Bowls, but he’d never gotten blown out. Mahomes and the Chiefs playing with fire all season long — winning 17 games through the playoffs and having 12 of them be one-score games with a whole host of comeback wins — felt Patriots-like.

But the result of this game was decidedly not. Brady’s lowest point of his Super Bowl run was the 28-3 deficit against the Falcons in Super Bowl LI, a game he came back and won in the greatest comeback in Super Bowl history. Mahomes and the Chiefs offense didn’t even bother mustering a comeback in either of their blowout losses. 

How can we possibly suggest Mahomes and Reid deserve a place in the echelon with Brady and Bill Belichick, considering how badly they lost in these two games, much less even discuss putting them above the greatest quarterback and coach duo of all time? 

I’m all aboard the idea Mahomes could end his career as the greatest quarterback ever. And I think Reid could be the greatest coach ever. I also think Kirby Smart could walk down Nick Saban as the greatest college coach of all time, but the notion is based entirely on result that isn’t playing itself out on the field.

Speaking of Georgia, the Eagles were loaded with Bulldogs on defense and they dominated Mahomes. Again, it’s the second time he’s been dominated and dismantled in a Super Bowl by an elite defense. Brady got beat but he never got beat bad. 

“It was basically the same blueprint we had [in Tampa],” Rob Gronkowski said following the game. 

Gronk is right: the Bucs rushed four, the Eagles rushed four, they got pressure home and Mahomes and Reid had zero answers. That’s twice now it’s happened. Brady lost like that as well, against the Giants twice when they rolled out a four-man rush that decimated the Patriots offense, but things never got this ugly. And if they did, Brady engineered a way to come back. 

Mahomes couldn’t, for the second time in his career. And until he can, it’s time to table the GOAT talk.