Editor’s note: The following article is an op-ed, and the views expressed are the author’s own. Read more opinions on theGrio.
With all due respect to other NFL quarterbacks – including whoever goes second – the pecking order is clear aside from their family and friends. The rest of us won’t hesitate to make Patrick Mahomes our first pick at QB if we’re choosing squads on the playground.
That’s nothing against anyone else, including Baltimore’s Lamar Jackson, the presumptive MVP who led and followed the Ravens to defeat against Kansas City on Sunday.
I was rooting for Jackson to get over the hump and reach his first Super Bowl (ditto for the Detroit Lions later that heartbreaking evening), and I expected Baltimore to win. The Ravens produced an all-time great regular season, crushing playoff teams like the Lions, San Francisco 49ers, Miami Dolphins and Houston Texans, while Jackson escaped injury for a change. It was his time.
But it’s Mahomes’ clock and he’s still winding up.
This is his fourth Super Bowl appearance in six seasons as the Chiefs’ starting QB. The other two seasons ended one step away in the AFC Championship game. Feel free to bet against him getting that far next year, but it wouldn’t be the smartest play.
“You don’t take it for granted,” Mahomes told reporters Sunday after ending Baltimore’s season. “You never know how many [Super Bowls] you’re going to get to, or if you’re going to get to any. It truly is special just to do it with these guys after what we’ve been through all season long, guys coming together, it really is special. But I told them the job’s not done. Our job now is to prepare ourselves to play a good football team in the Super Bowl and try to get that ring.”
Rings are zero-sum propositions. You either win one or you don’t, no ties allowed. Championships aren’t a prerequisite for greatness, but they represent the Big Joker each season. A Super Bowl…
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