At the age of 27, Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes is heading to his third Super Bowl after the Chiefs defeated the Cincinnati Bengals 23-20 in Sunday's AFC title game. As a front-runner for the NFL MVP award, he could also do something that has not been done since he was 4 years old -- win the league MVP and Super Bowl in the same year.
The last time a player won the Super Bowl and the league MVP in the same season was 1999, when Kurt Warner did it with the Rams.
This is, of course, assuming Mahomes wins the MVP by beating out Josh Allen, Joe Burrow, Jalen Hurts and Justin Jefferson for the honor, which is all but guaranteed. However, the odds are stacked against him to win the Super Bowl, as the last nine players to win MVP and reach the championship in the same season all lost the big game. But this is Mahomes we are talking about. A high ankle sprain did not stop him from winning the AFC Championship and history being against him is no reason to doubt a Mahomes victory.
Mahomes has the Philadelphia Eagles standing between him and the Lombardi Trophy and possibly even the Super Bowl MVP trophy. The No. 1-seed Eagles defeated the San Francisco 49ers convincingly in the NFC title game to earn the Super Bowl berth.
The last time Mahomes won league MVP was in 2018 when the Chiefs lost in the AFC Championship Game and the last time Mahomes won the Super Bowl (2019) Lamar Jackson was named unanimous MVP. This year things are shaping up to potentially be in No. 15's favor.
In total, six quarterbacks have won the MVP and the Super Bowl in the same season, including Warner, Brett Favre (1996), Steve Young (1994), Joe Montana (1989), Terry Bradshaw (1978) and Bart Starr (1966). Each, with the exception of Favre, also brought home the Super Bowl MVP in the same season.
