After an eighteen year drought, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers are going to the Super Bowl, but they are not traveling very far. Going up against the reigning Super Bowl champions, the Kansas City Chiefs, the Bucs will be the first team in NFL history to play the game in their home stadium.
This season marked Tom Brady’s first one in colors that were not the New England blue and red. The legendary quarterback left the New England Patriots after 20 seasons and signed with Tampa Bay in March of 2020. He won 6 Super Bowls alongside HC Bill Belichick, and now, he’s chasing his seventh championship victory.
Super Bowl LV has arguably one of the greatest quarterback matchups ever.
Twenty-five-year-old Patrick Mahomes is competing to lead his Chiefs to back-to-back Super Bowl victories. Which was the last team to achieve this accomplishment? The 2003-2004 New England Patriots led by Tom Brady.
Fans long believed that head coach Bill Belichick was “the system,” or the reason why the New England Patriots continued to succeed season after season. This year, Brady went on to prove them wrong.
Brady threw for a total of 4,633 yards and put Tampa Bay on the board 40 times in the regular season, but he did not do this alone. Wide receiver Mike Evans averaged 14.4 yards on 70 receptions and wide receiver Chris Godwin caught 7 TDs. Tight end Rob Gronkowski, who is a familiar face to Brady from New England, came out of retirement to join his old QB in Tampa Bay. This team helped lead their forty-three-year-old QB to his tenth Super Bowl appearance.
The Buccaneers did not have an easy ride to the Super Bowl. They had to face QBs such as Drew Brees in the divisional round, and this year’s league MVP, Aaron Rodgers, in the NFC Championship.
Prior to Brady’s first season in Tampa Bay, the NFC South team went just 7-9 with QB Jameis Winston. They averaged 28.6 points per game in 2019, but with Tom Brady as their starting QB, that number went up to 30.8. The team finished the season second in the NFC South, trailing behind the New Orleans Saints. Although the Bucs had an amazing season, their Super Bowl opponent will not go down without a fight.
Patrick Mahomes, who finished third in MVP voting this season, threw for a total of 4,740 yards and was tied with Brady for 40 touchdowns. However, he had some help. Pro-Bowl wide receiver Tyreek Hill almost replicated his 2018 career high season. The last time the Chiefs WR faced off against Tampa Bay back in week 12 of the regular season, he had a historic game with 203 yards and 2 TDs on 7 receptions in the first quarter. The Kansas City Chiefs finished the regular season 14-2 and first in the AFC West.
Tom Brady spoke in a press conference about the upcoming Super Bowl matchup and Tampa Bay head coach Bruce Airians, saying, “I think everyone wants to win this for him.” Airians came out of retirement and signed a 4-year contract to become the head coach of the buccaneers in 2019.
Airians spoke to Peter King of NBC Sports before the NFC Championship and acknowledged Brady’s sideline skills. “The New England Patriots didn’t allow him to coach. I allow him to coach. I just sit back sometimes and watch,” he said.
Due to COVID-19, the Super Bowl won’t be as fan-filled like normal. The NFL gave 7,500 vaccinated healthcare workers a chance to win a free ticket to the game. One winner of said raffle and Tampa Bay native Natasha Patel spoke to Wordsworth about her experience. “I was excited and shocked when I got the email saying I had won,” said Patel. She said she also immediately texted her dad to tell him the good news.
Super Bowl LIV reached 99.9 million viewers when Kansas City pulled off a comeback against the San Francisco 49ers last year. Now that Tom Brady is back in the matchup and many will be at home, how much higher will that number get?
