Could it be a passing of the torch? Tom Brady overcame a woeful second half to lead the Buccaneers to an NFC Championship on Sunday, beating the Packers to advance to his 10th Super Bowl and padding his status as The G.O.A.T. As Tampa Bay becomes the first team to ever play the Super Bowl in its home stadium, Brady and the Bucs will take on the current best quarterback in the game in Patrick Mahomes.
Despite only being 25, there's not much of an argument to be made that Mahomes is on the fast track to the Hall of Fame. He already has an MVP to his name, is the youngest quarterback ever to start three straight AFC or NFC Championship games and could be the youngest to win multiple Super Bowls period, let alone do it back-to-back.
Let's play a game, assuming that Mahomes and Brady will both be in Canton one day (spoiler: they will). It would mean that for the 19th time in 55 Super Bowls there will be two future Hall of Famers under center. Here's how the first 18 ended:
Super Bowl I: The First AFL/NFL World Championship Game featured the Packers' Bart Starr against the Chiefs' Len Dawson, a 35-10 Green Bay win. With 250 yards and a pair of touchdown passes, Starr was named MVP.
Super Bowl VI: Five years later the Cowboys beat the Dolphins 24-3, as the Dallas defense held Bob Griese and the Miami offense to 185 yards. Roger Staubach, meanwhile, threw two touchdown passes and won MVP honors.
Super Bowl VIII: This started a stretch of five straight years in which both Super Bowl starting quarterbacks went to the Hall of Fame. The Dolphins, a year removed from their perfect 17-0 season, went back-to-back as champs as Griese (6-of-7 passing for 73 yards) out-dueled the Vikings' Fran Tarkenton as running back Larry Csonka did yeoman's work in winning MVP.
Super Bowl IX: Tarkenton and the Vikings would lose a second straight Super Bowl the next year, as Minnesota lost to Pittsburgh 16-6. The Steelers' Steel Curtain defense picked off Tarkenton three times, enough for Terry Bradshaw (9-of-14, 96 yards, 1 TD) and MVP Franco Harris to lead the offense.
Super Bowls X & XIII: The 10th and 13th Super Bowls featured the same two quarterbacks, with the same results. Terry Bradshaw's Steelers twice beat Roger Staubach's Cowboys: first a 21-17 victory in 1976, then a 35-31 thriller in 1979 in which Bradshaw was named the game's MVP after throwing for 318 yards and four touchdowns, both records at the time.
Super Bowl XI: For the third time in four years, Tarkenton and the Vikings came up short in the Super Bowl against yet another team. This time Ken Stabler and the Raiders cruised to a 32-14 victory, scoring the first 19 points of the game.
Super Bowl XIX: After that stretch of five straight Super Bowls between Hall of Fame quarterbacks, we'd get just one in the ensuing eight years. Joe Montana and the 49ers against Dan Marino against the Dolphins was hyped as a big matchup featuring arguably the two best QBs of the decade. Montana threw for 331 yards and three touchdowns, rushed for another and won MVP honors in a 38-16 victory. Marino, meanwhile, threw for 318 yards, a TD and two interceptions.
Super Bowl XXIV: As anticipated as Montana vs. Marino, Montana and San Francisco faced another legendary quarterback in 1989, and again won going away. The Niners were too much for John Elway and the Broncos in a 55-10 laugher, still the most lopsided Super Bowl ever. Montana was the MVP for the third time, throwing for a Super Bowl-record five touchdowns (naturally without a pick). Elway, meanwhile, completed just 10-of-26 passes for 108 yards with two interceptions, though he did rush for Denver's only touchdown.
Super Bowls XXVII & XXVIII: The Cowboys and Bills met in back-to-back years, with Troy Aikman and Dallas besting Jim Kelly and Buffalo both times. In 1992 it was all Cowboys, a 52-17 demolition in which Aikman threw for four touchdowns while Kelly exited in the second quarter with an injury.
The next year was a little closer, with Buffalo leading 13-6 at halftime before Dallas poured it on in the second half, pitching a shutout and winning 30-13. Neither QB threw a touchdown in the game.
Super Bowl XXXII: Elway would finally get his ring in his third Super Bowl appearance, as the Broncos won the first of back-to-back titles in 1997 at the expense of Brett Favre and the Packers. Elway (122 pass yards, an interception and a rushing touchdown) let MVP Terrell Davis do the bulk of the work, but he'd cap his career the following season with a Super Bowl MVP of his own.
Super Bowl XXXVI: No one could have predicted what it would lead to, but in 2001 it was merely some unknown named Tom Brady going up against the Greatest Show on Turf in Kurt Warner and the Rams. Warner threw a pick-six, Brady added a touchdown of his own and Adam Vinatieri's heroics were enough for New England to shock the world in a 20-17 victory.
Super Bowls XLII & XLVI: For the sake of this exercise, we're assuming Eli Manning is a Hall of Fame quarterback, and these two games are the biggest reasons why. First, Manning and the Giants stunned Tom Brady and the 18-0 Patriots with a late drive, including David Tyree's helmet catch, in the 17-14 victory.
Four years later, Manning did it again, leading a late drive started with a wild Mario Manningham catch to pull off the 21-17 upset and win another Super Bowl. Brady is 6-3 in Super Bowls, and two of those losses came to Manning.
Super Bowl XLIII: Future Hall of Famer Ben Roethlisberger out-dueled Kurt Warner and the Cardinals in a wild fourth quarter. Arizona scored 16 straight fourth quarter points (Warner and Larry Fitzgerald hooked up twice) to take the lead, only to watch Roethlisberger lead an eight-play, 78-yard drive to win the game on a pitch-and-catch to Santonio Holmes with 35 seconds left.
Super Bowl XLIV: Mahomes vs. Brady might one day top this, but 2009 featured a Super Bowl in which the two quarterbacks would end their careers with a combined 152,298 passing yards and 1,110 touchdowns. Drew Brees and the Saints would win their first Super Bowl by scoring the final 18 points of the game in a 31-17 win over Peyton Manning's Colts. Brees won MVP after throwing for 288 yards and a pair of scores, while Manning threw for 333 yards, a TD and had the back-breaking pick-six in the fourth.
Super Bowl XLV: Aaron Rodgers' only Super Bowl to date came a decade ago against Ben Roethlisberger and the Steelers. Rodgers' 304 yards and three touchdowns led him to MVP honors as Green Bay jumped out to a 21-3 lead and held on from there for the 31-25 victory. Roethlisberger, meanwhile, had two touchdowns and two interceptions in the loss, including a first quarter pick-six.
Super Bowl XLVIII: Another Hall of Fame matchup that ended in a stinker, Russell Wilson and Seattle against Peyton Manning and Denver was never close. It started with a safety on the opening play of the game and never got better for the Broncos in a 43-8 beatdown led by the Legion of Boom defense.
Super Bowl XLIX: This one was just a bit more exciting. Going for a repeat, Wilson and the Seahawks faced Tom Brady and the Patriots, and we all know how it ended: Brady led New England on a go-ahead touchdown drive with two minutes left, Wilson responded by carrying Seattle down to the one-yard line... and threw the interception to Malcolm Butler.
Though that ended a stretch of seven Super Bowls in eight years featuring future Hall of Fame quarterbacks, we haven't had one since... at least until this year.