Tom Brady switched teams before the 2020 season, but he wound up in a familiar place.
Brady threw three touchdowns in his first Super Bowl as a member of the Buccaneers and Tampa cruised to a 31-9 victory over the Chiefs. The win took place at the Buccaneers’ home field and they are the first team in NFL history to play a Super Bowl in their own stadium.
The Chiefs took a 3-0 lead to open the scoring, but two Rob Gronkowski touchdowns put the Bucs in front and they extended their lead to 21-6 before halftime thanks to an Antonio Brown touchdown catch. That score was set up by a series of penalties on the Chiefs and they ended the game with 10 flags for 110 yards.
Some of those calls were questionable, but there’s little question about which team was better on Sunday. Brady was 21-of-29 for 201 yards to go with those three scores, Leonard Fournette and Ronald Jones ran for 150 yards, and Todd Bowles’ defense kept the Chiefs from getting comfortable all night.
Kansas City was 3-of-13 on third down and Bucs linebacker Devin White continued an outstanding postseason with 12 tackles, two tackles for loss, and an interception in the final minutes that made it party time for the first team to win Super Bowl in their home stadium.
The win is the seventh Super Bowl title of Brady’s career and winning one away from New England likely seals his spot as the greatest quarterback to play in the NFL. It also comes at the end of as unusual a season as one could imagine, although seeing Tom Brady lift the Lombardi Trophy makes it feel like things haven’t gone as far off the rails as it may feel.