Brady vs. Mahomes is the greatest quarterback matchup in Super Bowl history. The old guy is why. | Mike Sielski

Mahomes is the best of today. Brady is the best of all time, and it'll be fun to see if he can fend off the kid coming for his crown.

Tom Brady and Patrick Mahomes faced each other four times when Brady played for New England. Each won twice.Read moreMaddie Meyer / MCT

by Mike Sielski | Columnist

Published Feb. 6, 2021, 5:00 a.m. ET

It is impossible to look ahead at Super Bowl LV, if you are an aficionado of professional football history, and not think of Johnny Unitas … with the San Diego Chargers. Or Joe Namath … with the Los Angeles Rams. Or Joe Montana … with the team that belongs to Patrick Mahomes now. That’s how much Tom Brady has warped our perspective on the NFL’s past, on the evolution of the quarterback position and the position’s place in the sport. He’s 43. He’s supposed to be one of those aging, once-great players, hanging on. He’s not. He’s in the Super Bowl.

If this were pre- or post-pandemic, if the shroud of COVID-19 were not blanketing us, the hype and buildup for Sunday’s big game between Mahomes’ Kansas City Chiefs and Brady’s Tampa Bay Buccaneers would be beyond that of any of its predecessors. There really has never been a Super Bowl like this one. It will pit the consensus greatest quarterback of all time against the consensus greatest quarterback of this time. Retrace the history of the Super Bowl, and you don’t find another matchup that stacks up.

Montana vs. Dan Marino in 1985? That’s about as close as you can come. But to that point, Montana had not compiled the body of work that Brady has, and Mahomes already has had a season or two comparable to Marino’s incandescent, 48-touchdown campaign in ’84. Brett Favre and John Elway in 1998? Not quite. Favre was the best quarterback in the league at the time, but Elway had been to three Super Bowls and lost them all. His career already in its coda, he needed to beat Favre and the Packers just to enter the conversation. Brady won six championships with the Patriots and holds 19 NFL records. Mahomes threw 50 touchdown passes in his first full season as a starter, won a Super Bowl the next, and won’t turn 26 for another seven months. They are the conversation.

“I think this is a legacy game; I really do,” CBS analyst and former Dallas Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo told reporters. “This is going to be one of the great matchups in sports history, because it doesn’t happen very often. This matchup right here is what you talk about with your friends.

“Can you imagine if Michael Jordan had gotten his team to the Finals in ’98, when he was older, against a young LeBron James, who was the face of the league? it would be the greatest thing in the history of sports. I think we might have that game Sunday. It’s just never happened. It’s Jack Nicklaus still at the top of his game against Tiger Woods.”

Romo’s right. This one’s different, and it’s different because of Brady. He’s the bigger attraction. He’s the primary source of the tension and interest. He’s the middle-aged man who is still playing like a quarterback in his prime. This isn’t Peyton Manning at the very end, winning a second Super Bowl because of the Denver Broncos’ terrific defense, his back tender and balky, his skills having eroded. This isn’t Unitas suiting up for five games with the Chargers when he’s 40, then calling it quits. This isn’t even Unitas at 35, entering Super Bowl III against Namath and the Jets, the Colts down by three scores, the chances of a comeback next to nil, NFL Films needing to manufacture post hoc drama by draping the game’s highlight montage in stirring orchestral music.

We’re used to seeing all-time all-timers struggle, often in strange uniforms, as retirement closes in. Yes, Elway capped his career with two Super Bowls, with the Broncos finally at a stage when he didn’t need to win one for them by himself. Yes, Montana got the Chiefs to a conference championship game. Yes, Manning can thank Von Miller for that second ring. But those were the best of those final acts ... until Brady, and it’s probably premature to say Brady’s act is final. He threw 40 touchdown passes this season. He won three road playoff games, beating Washington’s excellent defense, beating Drew Brees and Sean Payton, beating Aaron Rodgers. Has he been the only reason that the Buccaneers won those games? No. But Bruce Arians, Jason Pierre-Paul, and Shaq Barrett didn’t have to carry him.

“If the Bucs win this game, Brady shuts the door,” Romo said. “There’s almost no way you can ever argue [that Brady isn’t the greatest of all time] if Tom Brady at 43 years old turns back Father Time and beats Patrick Mahomes, who has become the young face of the NFL. If Tom Brady closes that in this game, I just don’t ever see another human being competing in 10 Super Bowls, winning seven, and being able to say, ‘I’m better than Tom Brady.’ ”

If the Chiefs win, that door would stay open, but Mahomes would still be a long way from striding through it. The fun of Sunday will be watching to see whether Tom Brady is young enough to deny him that chance.