I wrote about it prior to the Conference Championship Games, and it became increasingly clearer by the later hours of the day. That is, we were moving closer to an epic battle no matter which team came out of its respective conference. The fact that Tom Brady of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Patrick Mahomes of the defending champion Kansas City Chiefs will go head-to-head on Super Bowl Sunday is truly one of the great storylines.
Think about where this season started. Think about the turmoil and the concerns and the actual risks of games being cancelled. I wrote my own personal preseason commentary to my readers addressing this, and I’m sure you could feel the nerves in my words. We didn’t know we’d get football. We didn’t know we’d get here. And we certainly didn’t know we would get a matchup for the ages.
“Ages” is, of course, an intentional pun that needs to highlight just-how-remarkable of a situation is in front of us. Brady is not only the greatest quarterback of All-Time, but he’s continuing to solidify and enhance his legacy at an advanced age. Mahomes is legitimately and undoubtedly special. It’s to the point that, if we ever considered someone possibly supplanting Brady atop the pinnacle of quarterbacks, Mahomes is actually the one we’d pick.
That’s no tall task, and it’s not words I take lightly as I type them. I refuse to value the moment in which I see something more than what came before it, and it’s often to my own detriment — where I need multiple instances of being proven something by a player before I even begin to convert. Mahomes, again, is different. He’s the one player who stepped on the field and played the role of a seasoned veteran from the start. He has the potential, in the end, to beat Brady.
But imagine if he doesn’t beat Brady in a head-to-head Super Bowl. The stakes are astoundingly high despite the greatness already achieved — or assumed — for each respective side. The best part? All we have to do is sit back and enjoy the spectacle.
Below are predictions for each game against the spread. Spreads have been taken from various websites and are subject to change. The spread in parenthesis denotes the selected team. An asterisk denotes a confidence pick.
*Confidence Picks – 2020 Season: 53-42-3 (Last Week: 0-0)
(2019 Season: 57-43-3) (2018 Season: 63-48-4) (2017 Season: 53-48-4) (2016 Season: 53-67-3) (2015 Season: 69-45-2) (2014 Season: 61-46-2) (6-Year Total: 356-297-18)
All Picks Against Spread – 2020 Season: 132-127-7 (Last Week: 1-1)
(2019 Season: 142-118-7) (2018 Season: 137-118-12) (2017 Season: 137-119-11) (2016 Season: 123-136-8) (2015 Season: 143-117-7) (2014 Season: 149-114-4) (6-Year Total: 831-722-49)
Kansas City Chiefs at Tampa Bay Buccaneers
At the start of every postseason, I go through the possible scenarios of teams that could play in the Super Bowl. Naturally, all fourteen — twelve, prior to this year — are physically capable of reaching the endgame by virtue of making the playoffs, but I map out each path and try to gauge which matchups can be expected. By the time it happens, I almost always have a direction in which I expect the Super Bowl to go.
Almost always.
This is the rare year in recent memory where I closed the book on the Conference Championships and stared blankly ahead to the Super Bowl.
I didn’t have a read.
As always, there are pros and cons to this early situation. I approach each game of a given week differently over the course of a season, and many are of the “no early indication” variety. When this happens, the first place I look is the spread.
Fortunately for us, the spread for Super Bowl LV is telling quite the story.