TAMPA, Fla. (AP) – Tom Brady has made the Buccaneers, their fans and their city believe since he arrived in Tampa Bay.
With the help of old friend Rob Gronkowski and a fierce defense, Brady and the Buccaneers are Super Bowl champions.
Brady throws twice to Gronkowski and one to good mate Antonio Brown, and the Buccaneers send Patrick Mahomes and Kansas City 31-9 home Sunday in Super Bowl 55.
“You come this far and you want to do the work, and we did it,” Brady said. “We just believed. I’m so proud of the guys. ‘
Despite moving south to a new team and conference during a pandemic, Brady did not slow down at age 43.
The BOAT earned its fifth Super Bowl MVP award and expanded his Super Bowl titles record in his 10th appearance, nine with New England. Brady broke his own point as the oldest player to win a Super Bowl and joined Hall of Famer Peyton Manning as the only fullback to win one with multiple franchises.
“I think they’m all special,” Brady said. “I do not compare. To experience this with this group of guys is incredible. ”
Strikingly, it was easier than any of his previous Super Bowl victories, averaging five points. Mahomes lost by double figures for the first time in his four-year career.
The Buccaneers (15-5) won their second NFL title and for the first time in 18 years as the first team to play the big game at home, playing an unusual and challenging season through the new coronavirus. They won three road games as a game card to reach the Super Bowl, and joined the NHL’s Lightning as a 2020 season champion. The Rays are also after the World Series, but lose to the Dodgers.
Mahomes and the Chiefs (16-3) could not become the first repeat champion since Brady’s Patriots in 2003-04.
“I did not see it coming at all,” Chiefs coach Andy Reid said. ‘I thought we were going to get these guys in, just like our teams played, and that did not happen. I give them credit for that. ”
The NFL completed its 269-game season in a timely manner without any cancellations, a remarkable feat that required nearly 1 million COVID-19 Tests for players and team personnel.
As a result of the virus, only 25,000 masked fans attended, including about 7,500 vaccinated health workers who received free tickets through the NFL. About 30,000 cardboard scraps made the stadium look full.
A striker with a hot pink onesie dodged safety and with 5:03 left in the end zone. Kansas City’s strong offense has never come this far against Tampa’s hard defense.
“Of course I did not play the way I wanted to play,” Mahomes said. What else can you say? All you can do is leave everything you have on the field. I feel like the guys did it. … They beat us pretty well, the worst I’ve beaten in a long time. ‘
Bruce Arians became the oldest coach to win the Super Bowl at age 68. His mother, 95-year-old Kay Arians, witnessed it in person. Brady, Gronk and defense coordinator Todd Bowles helped Arians score the Vince Lombardi trophy.
“It really belongs to the coaching staff and our players. I did nothing, “said Arians after handing over the trophy.
Bowles devised a masterful plan to frustrate Mahomes and shut down the Chiefs, the opposite of Kansas City’s 27-24 victory over Tampa in Week 12, when the Chiefs led 17-0 in the first quarter. Tyreek Hill received 269 yards and three TDs in one. He was held on Sunday on seven catches at 73 yards.
“Coach Bowles is a mastermind,” said Bucs cornerback Sean Murphy-Bunting.
After leading the Chiefs 3-0 earlier, it was all Brady and the Bucs.
Brady led a first career with an 8-yard TD pass to Gronkowski for a 7-3 lead with 37 seconds left in the first quarter. Brady’s nine Super Bowl teams in New England scored just three points in the first quarter. Gronkowski, who retired to play with his partner, caught his 13th and 14th post-season TDs from Brady. They were tied at 12 with Jerry Rice and Joe Montana.
“Coming here and being Super Bowl champions is surreal, man,” said Gronkowski, who has retired to play with Brady. ‘We have so many superstars in this team, but nobody’s head was too big. Whoever got the ball got the ball. It’s so great to be in this team. There was no one who was selfish in this team. No one is selfish in the organization. It was coincidentally I was the one who succeeded the touch this time. ‘
Despite playing at home, the Buccaneers may not fire the cannons of their famous pirate ship after touch and big plays. They did so shortly after the bell rang when red, white and black confetti fell on the field.
Fans still enjoyed the blow of Gronk’s thunderous rise after his first score.
Tampa missed a chance to extend the lead when Brady knocked out a 2-pointer to attacking linebacker Joe Haeg in the end zone. Ronald Jones was stopped for short consecutive tasks because Arians stuck to his philosophy “No risk it, no biscuit” and went down fourth.
But the Chiefs gained no momentum. Instead, they made one expensive mistake after another.
First, All-Pro tighthead Travis Kelce dropped a pass that would be a big win on the third time. Then the cup Tommy Townsend shot a 29-year-old after a penalty kick that forced him to kick again. The Bucs started at Kansas City’s 38 instead of their 27.
An interruption by cornerback Charvarius Ward denied an interception by All-Pro safety Tyrann Mathieu. The Kansas City defense held, but an innocent penalty goal during Ryan Succop’s successful field goal gave the Buccaneers a first discount. Sarah Thomas, the first female officer in a Super Bowl, threw the flag.
Brady stopped Gronkowski for a 17-yard TD and a 14-3 lead. Gronk hesitated before stabbing the ball and waited to make sure another flag was at stake against the sloppy Chiefs.
Mahomes drove the offense for a 34-yard field goal by Harrison Butker, which cut it to 14-6, but the Kansas City defense fell apart in the last minute of the first half, allowing 42 yards on two penalties. has. One against Mathieu in the final zone set Brady’s TD pass to Brown for a halftime lead of 21-6.
It was Brady who convinced his new team to give Brown a chance after the troubled former All-Pro came off the suspension. His TD throw to Brown was his 50th of the season, including ten in the post-season.
Mathieu took an unsportsmanlike penalty kick after the TD pass because he succeeded with Brady when he ran to the sideline.
Leonard Fournette, like Brown an addition this season, ran 27 yards untouched to extend Tampa’s lead to 28-9. Arians pumped his fist to the score and pointed to offensive coordinator Byron Leftwich, who made the call.
Succop’s field goal of 52 meters increased the lead to 31-9.
Last year, Mahomes defeated the Chiefs in a ten-point deficit in the fourth quarter against San Francisco and earned MVP honors by leading Kansas City to its first NFL championship in half a century. But Tampa’s rush gave him no chance in this one.
Shaq Barrett had one of three pockets on Mahomes, who for most of the match tried to escape Jason Pierre-Paul, William Gholston and a relentless group.
“There was nothing that would stop us from winning the game,” Barrett said. “I knew we were going to increase the pressure. Coach Bowles had an amazing game plan. We had the guys up there to make it work, and we made it work, honey. ‘
After 20 seasons in New England, Brady signed a $ 50 million two-year contract with Tampa in March. The Buccaneers have not reached the playoffs since 2007 and have not won a national game since the 2002 season in 2002.
There were plenty of red-clad Chiefs fans doing the tomahawk hood during part of the first half until the Bucs made a turn. Then it was the fans of the hometown who sang ‘Let’s Go Bucs’.
Before kicking off, 22-year-old poet-laureate Amanda Gorman recited a poem honoring three people chosen as honorary captains for the game and all teachers, military veterans and health workers in the front line.
Brady avenged his loss to Chiefs defense coordinator Steve Spagnuolo, who held the same position for the Giants when New York thrashed the Patriots in the 2008 Super Bowl, preventing New England from a perfect season.
The warmer climate suited Brady perfectly. He has overtaken Michael Jordan in championships and does not look like he is ready to slow down. He has already said that he might be 45 years old.
“I’m coming back,” Brady said with a smile.
There is never any doubt that he will be for number 8 next season.
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