Patrick Mahomes may still secure an undefeated season in his career – but it won’t be in 2024, to the delight of Tom Brady.
On Sunday in Week 11, the Kansas City Chiefs suffered their first loss of the 2024 NFL season as Josh Allen led the Buffalo Bills to a thrilling win thanks to his sublime late rushing touchdown. Mahomes and co. entered Highmark Stadium with a perfect 9-0 record but their run came to an end against the Bills, who emerged 30-21 victors.
The defeat means the Chiefs will not join the 1972 Miami Dolphins, who won the Super Bowl with a perfect record. Brady’s 2007 New England Patriots came agonizingly close, finishing the regular season 16-0 and blitzing through the playoffs only to lose Super Bowl XLII to the New York Giants.
Mahomes won’t accomplish an unbeaten season this year, which will allay any fears Brady may have that the two-time MVP is going to pull off the feat for another 12 months at least. Despite being a seven-time Super Bowl champion and standing as the ‘GOAT’, Brady has spoken in the past about how badly he wanted to pull off an invincible season.
The Patriots almost achieved perfection as they chased securing the sole 19-0 season in NFL history. Instead, the Giants bullied their way to a shocking 17-14 upset, and the 18-1 Patriots, for all the records and stats, came out of the 2007 season empty-handed.
When asked if Brady would be willing to give up two of his seven rings to claim the undefeated season, the 47-year-old said: “I would. Let’s be real. Easy.”
Perhaps it is easy for Brady to flog his rings in exchange for sporting immortality given he has so many. But the loss to the Giants remains his biggest regret, as he told Jim Gray back in 2020.
“You always think about the ones that got away,” Brady said. “That was the one that got away. Michael Strahan has become a good friend. Obviously Eli [Manning] I’ve known for a long time. A lot of players on that team, I’m still holding a little bit of a grudge over that one because that one would have been — immortal would be the word.
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Tom Brady’s Patriots went 16-0 during the 2007 regular season but lost the Super Bowl to the Giants ( Getty Images)
“We accomplished some amazing things that year. That 2007 team was incredible. We played so well for so long. I wish that team would have been remembered amongst the all-time greats. And unfortunately, when you don’t win the last game of the year, that’s the reality. No one really remembers who finishes second. We, unfortunately, finished second that year.”
Brady insisted that the locker room is aware of the feat before them, which places more pressure on each result. He added: “The team definitely thinks about it… The closer we got to it in 2007, I wouldn’t say it got more challenging, it was always very challenging. It’s just there’s just a lot of other teams that don’t want to see you ever accomplish that. And I think that’s what you always see, you see this highly competitive situation.”
Just as whispers of an unbeaten season began to get louder, the Chiefs have gone from comparing themselves to the 1972 Dolphins to awkwardly peeking over their shoulder to the 2024 Bills. Suddenly, Buffalo is just one loss behind Kansas City in the standings – and has the head-to-head tiebreaker clinched.
Given the rise of Mahomes as a threat to his status as the ‘GOAT’, there won’t be many happier than Brady following the Chiefs’ defeat. And that’s without considering his stake as a co-owner of the Las Vegas Raiders, the Chiefs’ AFC West rivals.
