I do believe there’s a Taylor Swift song to cover every event, emotion or thought that can occur in a human’s life.
Awhile back, she wrote the song “22,’’ the saddest number in 49ers Super Bowl history, as we now know after the team’s brutal 25-22 loss to the Chiefs in Super Bowl 58.
Then there’s her morose tune “seven,’’ which she clearly penned for 49ers kicker Jake Moody. Forget the guy’s two 50-plus-yard field goals in Sunday’s game; when his extra-point attempt was blocked in the fourth quarter, he felt the difference between six points and a Swiftie warning.
Beyond even her song “The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived,’’ obviously penned for 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan, who forgot to explain the rules of overtime to his team, there is this fact: Great quarterbacks win repeat Super Bowls. And by so doing, they keep other would-be-great quarterbacks from becoming historic.
It happens over and over again, and it’s at the root of so much in the NFL, from dynasties to also-rans.
Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes already has won three Super Bowls at age 28. He beat upstart Brock Purdy on Sunday night, and nobody knows if Purdy will ever again get a chance to be a champion.
Lions coach Dan Campbell said it best after his team lost a heartbreaker to Purdy’s 49ers in this year’s NFC Championship Game: “It’s going to be twice as hard to get to this point next year as it was this year. That’s the reality.’’
He added, “This may have been our only shot.’’
So true.
Consider that Mahomes and recently retired Patriots and Buccaneers quarterback Tom Brady have won 10 Super Bowls in the last 22 years.
Great quarterbacks are beyond necessary. They gobble up football history.
There have been 58 Super Bowls, and 37 have been won by just 13 quarterbacks.
Twenty-one of the last 32 Super Bowls have been won by just seven quarterbacks: Troy Aikman (three), John Elway (two), Brady (seven), Ben Roethlisberger (two), Eli Manning (two), Peyton Manning (two) and Mahomes (three).
Take the fivesome of Brady, Joe Montana, Terry Bradshaw, Aikman and Mahomes, and you have 21 Super Bowl crowns right there. The opposing quarterbacks these greats beat lie littered like cowboys after a gunfight in a Wild West corral.
The shot-down include Hall of Famers such as Jim Kelly and Dan Marino, neither of whom won a Super Bowl. But they mainly include mediocre helmsmen such as Vince Ferragamo, Neil O’Donnell, Jake Delhomme and Jimmy Garoppolo lying facedown.
And what these fun facts always lead us back to is the truism that a team better not miss when a superstar quarterback is available. And, of course, this: The Bears could have had Mahomes. But they didn’t pick him in the 2017 draft when they could have.
Now the No. 1 pick in this year’s draft is theirs, and young quarterbacks are out there, waiting to be chosen first. What do the Bears do? Take the best college quarterback, whether it’s Caleb Williams or Drake Maye? Trade the slot, get lots of lower picks and go with Justin Fields? This is general manager Ryan Poles’ moment.
What he does will set up or hurt the team for years to come. It’s possible Mahomes and the Chiefs will carry on, and in time the quarterback might drift into Brady territory with another, or two, or four more Super Bowl titles. He’ll likely be around for at least another decade.
But nothing is guaranteed, to anybody, just as Campbell warned. Super Bowls have been won by decent-but-not-great quarterbacks like Jeff Hostetler and Trent Dilfer and even the Bears’ only winner, the perpetually injured Jim McMahon. But most often it’s the superstars who triumph. It’s the nature of the modern game.
There are many moving parts to great teams, including coaches, defenses, play-calling, even, as we now know, the proper decisions on overtime coin tosses. But quarterbacks reign supreme.
Purdy, just 24, may never win a Super Bowl. He may never get to one again. For most quarterbacks, beaten back by the greats, the ones who rack up multiple trophies, it’s just one more Swiftian song title to ponder. “Would’ve, Could’ve, Should’ve.’’
Or maybe it all goes back to that fateful Swift tune “seven’’ and the lyrics the Bears might want to hope are not about them as they ponder their past and hopeful future: “I’ve been meaning to tell you/I think your house is haunted.’’
