Super Bowl 2025: Patrick Mahomes’ legacy already secure, but he wants even more — and is making a run at Tom Brady

Super Bowl 2025: Patrick Mahomes’ legacy already secure, but he wants even more — and is making a run at Tom Brady

The Kansas City Chiefs hadn’t even been handed the Lombardi Trophy last year after winning the Super Bowl when Patrick Mahomes was thinking about another.

“We’re not done, dog. I want three,” Mahomes, who was wearing a microphone for NFL Films, told Chiefs defensive lineman Chris Jones on the podium. “Three. No one has ever got three. I want back-to-back-to-back.”

When Mahomes is meeting the media this week before Super Bowl LIX, he’s likely to downplay the subjects of his legacy and the Chiefs making history. But that moment on the podium after last season’s Super Bowl seemed to be an honest one. While every Chiefs player and coach would have his reputation changed by a third straight Super Bowl win, something no team has done before, championships define quarterbacks.

Mahomes understands that and revealed it on the podium in Las Vegas last year.

“Even though you’re winning, you’re enjoying that moment, you enjoy it, but at the same time you have a bigger picture of your entire career,” Mahomes told the media in Kansas City last week. “I want to have as many chances as I can to be in the Super Bowl.”

Three straight championships puts Mahomes on a different tier, not just among NFL quarterbacks but all modern era athletes. He was asked last week about how a three-peat changed the legacies of athletes like Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant and Derek Jeter.

“That’s a long way, I feel like, still for me to go to be mentioned with those guys, but I’ll try to do whatever I can to be close as I can be,” Mahomes said.

Here’s the thing: Mahomes really isn’t too far off from those greats, or anyone else really. He’s already in a small circle of legends, with plenty of his career to go. His remaining Super Bowls, like the one to be played in New Orleans on Sunday, will determine how high up the list he goes.

The stakes are huge for him, and he seems fully aware of it.