Super Bowl-winning MVP quarterback Joe Theismann predicted that the Kansas City Chiefs will win Super Bowl LV over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers this weekend, as millions watch the showdown between quarterbacks Tom Brady and Patrick Mahomes.
“I think Patrick’s legs give them an advantage, and Tom’s going to have to be as hot as he’s ever been, but I’m going to pick Kansas City in this one,” said the former Washington quarterback on CNBC’s “The News with Shepard Smith.”
Brady will make his tenth Super Bowl appearance against last year’s Super Bowl MVP Mahomes at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa. Brady was the last quarterback to win two Lombardi trophies in a row. Mahomes was in kindergarten when Tom Brady won his first Super Bowl with the Patriots back in 2002.
Theismann told host Shepard Smith that Super Bowl LV is one of the most significant quarterback matchups in history because of the age difference between the two quarterbacks.
“It’s such a great story between the grizzled veteran who’s probably going to go at least another couple of years and the young kid that looks like the heir apparent,” Theismann said.
Hall of Fame sports journalist Jerry Green has covered every Super Bowl since the first one in 1967. Green told “The News with Shepard Smith” that while he has great admiration for Brady, he thinks Johnny Unitas was the best there ever was.
It will be the first Super Bowl to ever be hosted by a home team, but Theismann doesn’t think it will provide an advantage to the Bucs.
“Kansas City has basically stayed home, Tampa Bay is at home, so both of the teams have had an opportunity to be able to control the environment that they’re in, in the hopes of making sure that nobody late shows up with Covid and all of a sudden something has to change, so I don’t really see it as that big an advantage right now,” explained Theismann.
The NFL and the players have had to adapt to play amid the coronavirus pandemic. Both the Bucs and Chiefs, for example, have undergone testing two times a day instead of just once since they won their conference championship games. NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell offered President Joe Biden all 30 of the league’s stadiums as mass vaccination sites.
“The NFL and our 32 member clubs are committed to doing our part to ensure that vaccines are as widely accessible in our communities as possible,” wrote Goodell. “To that end, each NFL team will make its stadium available for mass vaccinations of the general public in coordination with local, state, and federal health officials.”
Goodell added that seven NFL stadiums are already being used as mega vaccination sites across the country.
Despite this unprecedented nature of the season and of the Super Bowl, Theismann said he wouldn’t be surprised to see 43-year-old Brady on the field for a couple more years.
“If you have the ability to be able to throw the ball like Tom has done, and the protection that he gets, 45 is conceivable,” said Theismann. “He’s not going away quietly.”