Saturday night’s playoff game will be the battle of the ages.
Patriots quarterback Tom Brady will be 40 years, 163 days old on Saturday and Titans quarterback Marcus Mariota will be 24 years, 75 days old. That will make it the first time in NFL history that starting quarterbacks in a postseason game were more than 16 years apart.
The previous record for the largest age difference between playoff starting quarterbacks was 15 years, 166 days, when 37-year-old Steve DeBerg’s Chiefs beat 22-year-old Todd Marinovich’s Raiders in 1991.
Three other times there’s been a gap of at least 13 years between starting quarterbacks: Earl Morrall of the 1972 Dolphins was 14 years older than Terry Bradshaw when his team met the Steelers in the 1972 playoffs, and Morrall was 13 years older than Mike Phipps when the Dolphins met the Browns that same postseason. Kurt Warner was 13 years older than Matt Ryan when the Cardinals met the Falcons in the playoffs after the 2008 season.
The older quarterback won all four of the above-mentioned meetings. That may be a good omen for Brady and the Patriots.