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The victory gave Brady a seventh championship — his first since joining Tampa Bay this season.
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Tom Brady threw three touchdowns and had 201 yards passing.Credit...Doug Mills/The New York Times
Final
Updated live
31
Tampa Bay Buccaneers
9
Kansas City Chiefs
Tom Brady won his seventh Super Bowl, 31-9, on Sunday night as he powered the Tampa Bay Buccaneers past the reigning champion Kansas City Chiefs in a game staged in the shadow of a deadly pandemic and a nation roiled by political and racial division.
Brady, 43, outplayed his much younger counterpart, Patrick Mahomes, to deliver his first title to the Buccaneers, who signed Brady to a two-year deal in the off-season after he spent two decades with the New England Patriots.
Tom Brady’s 7th Super Bowl Win Ends N.F.L.’s Most Challenging Year
The title was the second in Tampa Bay’s history, and Brady and his offense scored 30 or more points in all four of their playoff games.
The Buccaneers, the first team to play a Super Bowl in its home stadium, leaned on two other newcomers to the team as well. The tight end Rob Gronkowski caught two touchdowns and Leonard Fournette had a rushing score and 89 yards. Fournette, who was let go by the Jacksonville Jaguars before this season, had four touchdowns in the playoffs.
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Leonard Fournette running for a touchdown in the third quarter.Credit...Doug Mills/The New York Times
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Rob Gronkowski celebrated his second touchdown of the game.Credit...Chang W. Lee/The New York Times
The Chiefs, who were trying to become the first team to win back-to-back titles since the Patriots did it in 2003 and 2004, never got their high-powered offense going. The Buccaneers blanketed Tyreek Hill, the Chiefs’ speedy top receiver, and Mahomes, 25, played on an injured toe and without two starting offensive tackles. He was forced to scramble all night.
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Tampa Bay Buccaneers outside linebacker Shaquil Barrett sacked Patrick Mahomes in the third quarter.Credit...Doug Mills/The New York Times
The double-digit defeat was the first in Mahomes’s short but brilliant career. He ended the game 26 for 49 passing and 270 yards with two interceptions. Several of his passes were dropped or hit receivers in the face mask.
Brady, who led the Buccaneers to victories in Washington, New Orleans and Green Bay in the playoffs, was ruthlessly efficient. He completed 21 of 29 passes for 201 yards and three touchdowns. Gronkowski caught six passes for 67 yards.
The Buccaneers’ defense was even more impressive. Its front line of Shaquil Barrett, Jason Pierre-Paul and Ndamukong Suh feasted on the Chiefs’ backup offensive tackles and pressured Mahomes throughout the night.
The Chiefs were forced to settle for field goals as the Buccaneers scored touchdowns.
The possibility of a Buccaneers championship seemed dim in November, when they dropped three out of four games and fell to 7-5. Brady appeared out of sync with his receivers.
But the Bucs won their last four games of the regular season to finish 11-5 and won four more times in the postseason. Brady found his rhythm with his receivers and Gronkowski, who came out of retirement to rejoin Brady after their years together in New England.
“We had a rough month of November,” Brady said. “We came together at the right time.”
Accepting the Lombardi Trophy on the podium, Brady said he would return next season.
Here’s how the spectacle unfolded on Sunday night:
Feb. 7, 2021, 10:47 p.m. ET2 hours ago
2 hours ago
The New York Times
Tom Brady in his customary end-of-season pose.Credit...Chang W. Lee/The New York Times
In addition to extending his record for Super Bowl titles by winning his seventh ring, Tom Brady also was named the Super Bowl’s most valuable player for a record fifth time.
When CBS’s Jim Nantz asked him to compare his most recent victory to his previous Super Bowl titles, Brady demurred. But with his three children at his side, he hinted that he was prepared to chase an eighth championship next season.
“Yeah,” Brady said about returning, “we’re coming back.”
The noise of the cannons and fireworks in the stadium was intense, particularly in contrast with how quiet the crowd was at various points in the game thanks to its reduced size.
Feb. 7, 2021, 10:12 p.m. ET2 hours ago
2 hours ago
The New York Times
A nearly flawless Tom Brady claimed his record seventh Super Bowl title on Sunday, winning a duel with his young rival Patrick Mahomes and burnishing his legacy as the greatest quarterback in N.F.L. history by leading the Tampa Bay Buccaneers to a 31-9 victory over the Kansas City Chiefs.
Brady’s Super Bowl title — coming at age 43 and in his first season with the Buccaneers — joins the six he won as a member of the New England Patriots (2002, 2003, 2005, 2015, 2017, 2018). He now has one more win than both the Patriots and the Pittsburgh Steelers, the two most decorated franchises in N.F.L. history.
