THE BULLETIN • MONDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 2021 A5
Super Bowl LV
Tampa Bay 31, Kansas City 9
SUPER FLY
Planes fly over 25,000 fans at Raymond James stadium before
Super Bowl 55 on Sunday in Tampa, Florida. Mark Humphrey/AP
Column: Brady remains great in a season like no other
BY TIM DAHLBERG
AP Sports Columnist
T
he stadium was full of card-
board cutouts and people in
masks. A poet — yes, a poet
— introduced us to some real heroes,
and one of them handled the open-
ing coin flip like she had done it 100
times before.
On the field a woman joined the
crew in stripes for the first time in a
Super Bowl. Even the commercials
reminded us — at times somberly —
that this was a season like no other in
a time unlike any other.
Then Tom Brady took the field.
And suddenly everything about the
Super Bowl seemed normal once
again.
There was Brady, playing pitch and
catch with Rob Gronkowski like they
were both still toiling in the snow
in New England. There was Brady,
calmly throwing for a score to end
the first half that turned out to be
more than enough for a Tampa Bay
team that was determined not to let
Patrick Mahomes spoil their home-
town party.
And there was Brady, celebrating
a fifth Super Bowl MVP award and
hoisting the Lombardi trophy for the
seventh time.
Did anyone outside of Kansas City
doubt that this would be the way it
would turn out? In a different uni-
Brady wins 5th Super
Bowl MVP award with
vintage performance
Tom Brady took one final snap,
went down on his knee, popped
up and hugged his Tampa Bay
Buccaneers teammates.
With that big, familiar smile.
They were champions and
Brady put together another vin-
tage performance on football’s
biggest stage — doing every-
thing his unquestioned great-
ness has forced the world to ex-
pect whenever he takes the field.
In whatever uniform or city
he’s in.
Brady was masterful. He was
magnificent. He was the Super
Bowl MVP.
Again. For the fifth time. At 43
years old.
“Being down here and expe-
riencing it this with this group of
guys, every year is amazing, and
this team is world champions for-
ever,” Brady said. “You can’t take
that away from us, so thank you
guys, thank you all.”
After not throwing a touch-
down pass in the first quarter of
his previous nine Super Bowls,
Brady eliminated that glitch on
his resume with an 8-yard toss to
Gronkowski — who came out of
retirement for a moment like this
— with 37 seconds left.
By going 16 of 20 in the first
half, he also added a record to his
mile-long list as the first player in
Super Bowl history to complete
80% of his passes and throw for
three touchdowns in any half.
This is all old hat to an ageless
wonder with so many champion-
ship rings — now, seven of them.
But this one was different from
those others with Bill Belichick
and the Patriots, with whom he
already had established an un-
matchable legacy.
— Associated Press
Ashley Landis/AP
Tampa Bay Buccaneers tight end Rob Gronkowski, left, and quarterback Tom Brady
celebrate after defeating the Kansas City Chiefs in Super Bowl 55 on Sunday
form in a year where nothing else
was even remotely as predictable?
Hardly, yet in a way it was oddly
comforting to see. A season ending
yet again with No. 12 sporting the
biggest smile a 43-year-old can mus-
ter and hugging everyone in his path.
The greatest of all time was meant
for just this time.
“I think we knew this was going
to happen tonight, didn’t we?’’ Brady
asked his teammates in front of him
at the trophy ceremony.
Maybe, but they probably weren’t
prepared for the way it did happen.
Brady was Brady, of course, and on
this night he was almost perfect. The
game was pretty much decided in
the first half, meaning there was no
need for any last minute heroics, and
the smothering Buccaneers defense
did what no one expected by keep-
ing Mahomes out of the end zone all
game long.
He’s had more exciting Super Bowl
wins, sure. Indeed, Brady has had so
many Super Bowl wins that the ten-
dency is to try and rank them like
they are not actually equal in value.
And even if Brady wasn’t about to
rate this one, he did acknowledge one
thing: His team rose to the occasion
Super Bowl
Tampa Bay 31, Kansas City 9
Continued from A4
Kansas City
Tampa Bay
Despite playing at home, the Buc-
caneers weren’t allowed to fire the
cannons from their famed pirate ship
after touchdowns and big plays. They
did it soon after the clock expired as
red, white and black confetti fell onto
the field.
Fans still enjoyed the thud of
Gronk’s thunderous spike after his
first score.
Tampa missed an opportunity to
extend the lead when Brady’s 2-yard
pass to offensive lineman Joe Haeg
was knocked out of his hands by
Anthony Hitchens in the end zone.
Ronald Jones was stopped short on
consecutive carries as Arians stuck
to his “No risk it, no biscuit” philoso-
phy and went on fourth down.
But the Chiefs didn’t gain any mo-
mentum off the stop. Instead, they
made one costly mistake after another.
First, All-Pro tight end Travis
Kelce dropped a pass that would’ve
been a big gain on third down. Then
punter Tommy Townsend shanked a
29-yarder after a penalty forced him
to kick again. The Bucs started at
Kansas City’s 38 instead of their 27.
A holding call on Chiefs corner-
back Charvarius Ward negated an
interception by All-Pro safety Tyrann
Mathieu. Kansas City’s defense held
but an offside penalty during Ryan
Succop’s successful field goal gave
the Buccaneers a first down. Sarah
Thomas, the first woman official in a
Super Bowl, threw that flag.
Brady needed one play, firing a
strike to Gronkowski for a 17-yard
TD and a 14-3 lead. Gronk hesitated
before spiking the ball, waiting to
make sure the flag on the play was
again against the Chiefs.
Mahomes drove the offense for a
34-yard field goal by Harrison But-
ker that cut it to 14-6, but Kansas
City’s defense fell apart in the final
minute of the first half — allowing
3
7
3
3
14
10
First Quarter
0
0
—
—
9
31
KC—FG Butker 49, 5:10.
TB—Gronkowski 8 pass from Brady (Succop kick), :37.
Second Quarter
TB—Gronkowski 17 pass from Brady (Succop kick), 6:05.
KC—FG Butker 34, 1:01.
TB—Brown 1 pass from Brady (Succop kick), :06.
Third Quarter
KC—FG Butker 52, 11:26.
TB—Fournette 27 run (Succop kick), 7:45.
TB—FG Succop 52, 2:46.
A—24,835.
KC
TB
First downs
22
26
Total Net Yards
350
340
Rushes-yards
17-107
33-145
Passing
243
195
Punt Returns
1-0
0-0
Kickoff Returns
3-87
3-75
Interceptions Ret.
0-0
2-0
Comp-Att-Int
26-49-2
21-29-0
Sacked-Yards Lost
3-27
1-6
Punts
3-35.7
4-37.5
Fumbles-Lost
1-0
1-0
Penalties-Yards
11-120
4-39
Time of Possession
28:37
31:23
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
Rushing–Kansas City, Edwards-Helaire 9-64, Mahomes 5-33, Hill
1-5, Williams 2-5. Tampa Bay, Fournette 16-89, Jones 12-61, Brady
4-(minus 2), Miller 1-(minus 3).
Passing–Kansas City, Mahomes 26-49-2-270. Tampa Bay, Brady
21-29-0-201.
Receiving–Kansas City, Kelce 10-133, Hill 7-73, Edwards-Helaire
2-23, Williams 2-10, Hardman 2-4, Watkins 1-13, Robinson 1-11,
Pringle 1-3. Tampa Bay, Gronkowski 6-67, Brown 5-22, Fournette
4-46, Brate 3-26, Godwin 2-9, Evans 1-31.
Missed Field Goals–None.
42 yards on two pass interference
penalties. One against Mathieu in the
end zone set up Brady’s TD pass to
Brown for a 21-6 halftime lead.
It was Brady who convinced his
new team to give Brown a chance af-
ter the troubled former All-Pro came
off suspension. His TD toss to Brown
was his 50th of the season, including
10 in the postseason.
Mathieu took an unsportsmanlike
penalty after the TD pass for getting
into it with Brady as he ran to the
sideline.
Leonard Fournette, like Brown
an in-season addition, ran 27 yards
untouched for a touchdown in the
third quarter, extending Tampa’s lead
to 28-9. Arians pumped his fist after
that score and pointed toward of-
fensive coordinator Byron Leftwich,
who made the call.
Succop’s 52-yard field goal in-
when it mattered most in a 31-9 win
that was every bit as lopsided as the
score indicated.
“We ended up playing our best
game of the year,’’ Brady said.
Credit for that doesn’t just go
to Brady, who simply needed to
be good instead of spectacular on
this night. The Tampa Bay defense
chased Mahomes all over the field all
night long, and Gronk came up big
with two touchdown catches in the
first half.
Bruce Arians did a masterful
coaching job as well, joining Brady in
the old-timer’s club by becoming the
oldest coach to win the Super Bowl at
the age of 68 after spending a career
on the sidelines in various capacities.
“I’d have to be smoking something
really illegal to imagine something
like this,’’ Arians said.
It was Arians who called out his
new quarterback early in the year for
an uneven performance, and Arians
who saw the potential for the team
even as the Bucs struggled in No-
vember. They would go on to win
their last eight games, including three
on the road as a wild card before
heading home to finish it off against
the Chiefs.
“We knew we’d be tough once we
got in,’’ Arians said. “We just had to
get in the playoffs.’’
Once in, Brady outplayed fu-
ture Hall of Famers Drew Brees and
Aaron Rodgers — then spent the
days before the Super Bowl urging
his teammates to seize the moment
against the Chiefs.
“He was texting us at 11 at night
that we would win this game,’’ run-
ning back Leonard Fournette said.
“We believed in him.’’
Hard not to believe when No. 12 is
on your team, no matter the uniform
color. Brady didn’t need any more
validation about his place in the his-
tory of the game, but he got it anyway
with a playoff run for the ages — and
the aged.
He did what the greats all do,
which is make the players around
him better. No one wanted to be the
player to let Brady down; no one
wanted to get in the way of yet an-
other Super Bowl ring.
“He is the greatest football player
to ever play. I can tell my kids I
played with that man,’’ Fournette
said. “I’m just blessed.’’
They’re blessed in Tampa Bay,
too, because Brady says he’s coming
back for at least one more year. So is
Arians, and this coach-quarterback
combination figures to be as good
once again as the one Brady left in
New England.
For now, though, Tom Brady is a
Super Bowl champion once again.
Just like normal.
creased the lead to 31-9.
Last year, Mahomes rallied the
Chiefs from a 10-point deficit in the
fourth quarter against San Francisco
and earned MVP honors in leading
Kansas City to its first NFL champi-
onship in a half-century. But Tampa’s
pass rush gave him no chance in this
one.
Shaq Barrett had one of three
sacks on Mahomes, who spent most
of the game trying to escape Jason
Pierre-Paul, William Gholston and a
relentless group.
“There was nothing that was
gonna stop us from winning this
game,” Barrett said. “I knew we were
going to keep the pressure up. Coach
Bowles had a great game plan. We
had the guys up there to make it
work and we made it work, baby.”
Brady was 6-3 in Super Bowls
during 20 seasons in New England
before he signed a $50 million, two-
year contract with Tampa in March.
The Buccaneers hadn’t reached the
playoffs since 2007 and hadn’t won a
postseason game since Jon Gruden
led Tampa over Oakland in Super
Bowl 37.
Despite the home-field advantage,
it wasn’t until Brady hooked up with
Gronkowski for a 21-6 lead that fans
chanted: “Let’s Go Bucs!” They were
roaring in the fourth quarter.
There were plenty of red-clad
Chiefs fans doing the tomahawk
chop for part of the first half until the
Bucs made it a rout.
Brady avenged his loss against
Chiefs defensive coordinator Steve
Spagnuolo, who held the same posi-
tion for the Giants when New York
stifled the Patriots in the 2008 Super
Bowl, preventing New England from
a perfect season.
The warmer climate suited Brady
perfectly. He passed Michael Jor-
dan for more championships and it
doesn’t seem he’s ready to slow down.
He already said he might play past
age 45,
Chiefs lose composure
and see red amid a sea
of yellow in Super Bowl
Offsides. Unnecessary rough-
ness. Unsportsmanlike conduct.
Pass interference. And holding.
Lots of holding.
All those penalties were too
much even for Patrick Mahomes
to overcome: Good as Tom Brady
and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers
were Sunday — worthy champi-
ons, certainly — the Kansas City
Chiefs put on a textbook display
of how not to perform in a Su-
per Bowl.
By halftime, the defending
champs had amassed more pen-
alties (8) than points (6) — and
more frustration than hope. It
was an undisciplined, uncharac-
teristic and somewhat unbeliev-
able loss of composure that set
the stage for a 31-9 drubbing at
the hands of the Bucs that very
few saw coming.
Kansas City’s 95 penalty yards
in the first half were the most by
any team in the first half of any
of the 269 regular-season and
playoff games this season. They
were one more yard than Kansas
City had racked up in any single
game all year. The Chiefs only
committed three penalties in the
second half to finish the game
with 11 for 120 yards. It hardly
counted as progress.
“It was uncharacteristic, and it
was too bad it happened today,”
coach Andy Reid said.
The team that ran like a classy,
unstoppable machine through
one championship season, and
over 16 more wins en route to
their second straight title game,
imploded on itself. The Chiefs got
too handsy in a vain attempt to
cover Tampa Bay’s receivers, too
jumpy on the line of scrimmage,
too chippy when things didn’t go
their way.
— Associated Press