The victory gave Brady a seventh championship — his first since joining Tampa Bay this season.
Tom Brady won his seventh Super Bowl, 31-9, on Sunday night as he powered the Tampa Bay Buccaneers past the reigning champion Kansas City Chiefs in a game staged in the shadow of a deadly pandemic and a nation roiled by political and racial division.
Brady, 43, outplayed his much younger counterpart, Patrick Mahomes, to deliver his first title to the Buccaneers, who signed Brady to a two-year deal in the off-season after he spent two decades with the New England Patriots.
The title was the second in Tampa Bay’s history, and Brady and his offense scored 30 or more points in all four of their playoff games.
The Buccaneers, the first team to play a Super Bowl in its home stadium, leaned on two other newcomers to the team as well. The tight end Rob Gronkowski caught two touchdowns and Leonard Fournette had a rushing score and 89 yards. Fournette, who was let go by the Jacksonville Jaguars before this season, had four touchdowns in the playoffs.
Leonard Fournette running for a touchdown in the third quarter. Doug Mills/The New York Times
Rob Gronkowski celebrated his second touchdown of the game. Chang W. Lee/The New York Times
The Chiefs, who were trying to become the first team to win back-to-back titles since the Patriots did it in 2003 and 2004, never got their high-powered offense going. The Buccaneers blanketed Tyreek Hill, the Chiefs’ speedy top receiver, and Mahomes, 25, played on an injured toe and without two starting offensive tackles. He was forced to scramble all night.
Tampa Bay Buccaneers outside linebacker Shaquil Barrett sacked Patrick Mahomes in the third quarter.Doug Mills/The New York Times
The double-digit defeat was the first in Mahomes’s short but brilliant career. He ended the game 26 for 49 passing and 270 yards with two interceptions. Several of his passes were dropped or hit receivers in the face mask.
Brady, who led the Buccaneers to victories in Washington, New Orleans and Green Bay in the playoffs, was ruthlessly efficient. He completed 21 of 29 passes for 201 yards and three touchdowns. Gronkowski caught six passes for 67 yards.
The Buccaneers’ defense was even more impressive. Its front line of Shaquil Barrett, Jason Pierre-Paul and Ndamukong Suh feasted on the Chiefs’ backup offensive tackles and pressured Mahomes throughout the night.
The Chiefs were forced to settle for field goals as the Buccaneers scored touchdowns.
The possibility of a Buccaneers championship seemed dim in November, when they dropped three out of four games and fell to 7-5. Brady appeared out of sync with his receivers.
But the Bucs won their last four games of the regular season to finish 11-5 and won four more times in the postseason. Brady found his rhythm with his receivers and Gronkowski, who came out of retirement to rejoin Brady after their years together in New England.
“We had a rough month of November,” Brady said. “We came together at the right time.”
Accepting the Lombardi Trophy on the podium, Brady said he would return next season.
Here’s how the spectacle unfolded on Sunday night:
That’s seven Super Bowl titles for Brady. Do we hear eight?
Tom Brady in his customary end-of-season pose. Chang W. Lee/The New York Times
FINAL: The Buccaneers beat the Chiefs, and Tom Brady is a champion again.
A nearly flawless Tom Brady claimed his record seventh Super Bowl title on Sunday, winning a duel with his young rival Patrick Mahomes and burnishing his legacy as the greatest quarterback in N.F.L. history by leading the Tampa Bay Buccaneers to a 31-9 victory over the Kansas City Chiefs.
Brady’s Super Bowl title — coming at age 43 and in his first season with the Buccaneers — joins the six he won as a member of the New England Patriots (2002, 2003, 2005, 2015, 2017, 2018). He now has one more win than both the Patriots and the Pittsburgh Steelers, the two most decorated franchises in N.F.L. history.
He finished 21 of 29 for 209 yards and three touchdowns, including two to his former Patriots teammate Rob Gronkowski, who joined him in Tampa this season. His three touchdown passes gave him 21 in his Super Bowl career, one more than the combined total of the two quarterbacks behind him, Joe Montana (11) and Terry Bradshaw (9).
Tampa Bay, the first team to play a Super Bowl on its home field, became the first one to win on there, too. It is the Buccaneers’ second championship; the team won its first in 2002.
“I think we knew this was going to happen, didn’t we?” he asked his teammates from the stage after being handed the Vince Lombardi Trophy.
Mahomes, 25, a former league most valuable player and a Super Bowl champion last season, finished 26 of 49 for 270 yards, but he was intercepted twice and harried throughout the second half.
Brady, in 10 previous trips to the N.F.L.’s championship game, had never enjoyed an easy win in one until Sunday. All but one of his six previous wins saw both teams within one score of each other at the end.
The closest Brady ever came to a Super Bowl “blowout” was a 13-3 win by the Patriots over the Los Angeles Rams two years ago. And the last 3 points of that game came in the final minute and 16 seconds.
The second-largest margin of victory in a Brady win was a 6-point victory in overtime of Super Bowl LI in February 2017, when James White scored a touchdown on a toss play to give New England the championship.
With his three children standing by his side, Brady declined to compare this year’s Buccaneers to his Patriots teams but said the team came together at the right time and indicated they were loaded with confidence heading into the game.
“Every year is amazing,” he said, “and this team is world champions forever, you can’t take it away from us.”
It’s all over but the taunting now.
Oh wait, now the taunting is over, too.
Winfield breaks up a fourth-down pass intended for Hill, then pops up to taunt the receiver with his own celebration.
Flags fly but the play stands, and Tampa Bay takes possession with four minutes left.
Time to load the cannons on the pirate ship: This one’s over.
Roughing the passer is a penalty, and also exactly what’s happening.
The Buccaneers’ defensive line is really after Mahomes now as the clock continues to roll. Jason Pierre-Paul was called for roughing the passer for a heavy hit after Mahomes got a throw off earlier in this drive, but Tampa Bay — knowing he has no choice but to drop back and pass — is just all over him on every play now.
After a brief delay, it’s Ndamukong Suh’s turn when a pass play takes too long to develop. Mahomes, trying to buy time, never sees him coming and gets flattened.
A game billed as a clash of quarterbacks has indeed turned on their performances.
Expect a lot of Ronald Jones and Leonard Fournette from now on, but this game — as advertised — turned on the quarterbacks.
Tom Brady is having another remarkable performance on the N.F.L.’s biggest stage, which is not surprising, but Patrick Mahomes has been poor, for lack of a better word, which is unexpected.
Brady has been almost flawless, completing 20 of 26 passes through the first three quarters, with three touchdowns and no interceptions. Mahomes was looking better on his most recent drive, but he is limping (turf toe) and has not led his team into the end zone.
The Chiefs turn it over on downs. Spectacularly.
Patrick Mahomes’s third-down heave fell incomplete. So did an even more impressive attempt on fourth-down. Chang W. Lee/The New York Times
After the Chiefs call a timeout to draw up … something, fourth down doesn’t go much better than third down did.
Mahomes runs for his life to his right this time and, tripped as he throws, heaves a 30-yard pass while parallel to the ground that is deflected at the goal line.
Amazing throw. No reward. Buccaneers ball.
The fourth quarter begins: 15 minutes to Brady’s seventh title or an all-time comeback.
Tom Brady entered the fourth quarter in complete control of the game. Doug Mills/The New York Times
The Chiefs come out throwing in the fourth quarter and creep closer to the end zone. But after driving to the 11-yard line, a third-down play tells the story of their frustrating night: Mahomes winds up circling until he is chased back to the 30, and he ends up heaving a ball toward the end zone where it falls incomplete.
They will go for it on fourth down. They don’t have much of a choice.
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By The New York Times
