Back on Jan. 22 Stephen A. Smith didn't just say that Patrick Mahomes putting together a threepeat for the Kansas City Chiefs would make him the best quarterback ever. The First Take star went so far as to say it would "cement" the Chiefs QB into that position, even though he'd still trail Tom Brady 7-4 in Super Bowl wins. It was quite a thing to say but Super Bowl LIX was on the horizon and everyone gets a bit of Super Bowl fever.
It became quite clear on Sunday night that there was no need to get the cement trucks out to do work in this debate as the Philadelphia Eagles made a mockery of the Chiefs offense in building a 40-6 lead in en route to their own championship. Mahomes was not just bad by his own standards, he was plain old bad—and he took responsibility for it in the postgame.
So in the span of about 28 minutes of action, weeks of sitting in front of a camera and suggesting seriously that Mahomes is somehow more accomplished and better than Brady in the business of winning unraveled. That's a tough blow but the best pundits are real pros and can pivot on a dime.
Smith chose to do this, incredibly, by suddenly bringing Joe Montana into the equation on Monday's show and declaring the NFL GOAT debate "officially over."
"We ain't going to be talking about this right now, we ain't going to be talking about this next year," Smith said before showing Mahomes's less impressive cumulative Super Bowl stats. "We gotta bring Joe Montana back into this conversation back into this conversation because of what we witnessed yesterday. Joe Montana: 4-0, 68 percent completions, 285.5 passing yards, 11 touchdowns not a single interception."
.@stephenasmith says for right now, the NFL GOAT debate is "officially over" after Super Bowl LIX 😯 pic.twitter.com/Lg1ws7bzCj
— First Take (@FirstTake) February 10, 2025
"After this Super Bowl, it's one thing to be talking about Patrick Mahomes and Tom Brady. After this Super Bowl we're talking about Tom Brady, Patrick Mahomes and Joe Montana. Montana has been added to the conversation."
So there you go. The big winner from the Super Bowl, in addition to the Eagles, is a quarterback who retired in 1994. It's all very confusing, especially because this is the same person who went the furthest in Mahomes's direction during a nonsensical debate where somehow a threepeat would count for triple the credit or something. But that's how all of this works.
This may surprise you but Montana's stats and accomplishments are the exact same today as they were last week, two weeks, and 30 years ago. It just took the Eagles' front four getting immense pressure against a suspect line to dust off. That's the beauty of sports and sports takery. Nothing is predictable.
More of the Latest Around the NFL
This article was originally published on www.si.com as Patrick Mahomes Lost the Super Bowl So Badly It Made 'First Take' Remember Joe Montana.
