Patrick Mahomes has a chance to do something this year that no other quarterback in NFL history has ever done. If the Chiefs beat the Eagles in Super Bowl LVII on Sunday night, Mahomes will end a 56-year QB curse, and the curse is pretty simple: No quarterback has ever led the league in passing yards AND won. the Super Bowl the same year.
Mahomes finished the 2022 season with 5,250 passing yards, which not only led the NFL, but was more than 500 yards more than its next closest competitor (Justin Herbert threw for 4,739).
With prolific passers like Tom Brady, Peyton Manning and Drew Brees dominating the NFL for the past 20 years, it seems almost impossible that none of them led the league in passing yards the same year they did. also won a Super Bowl, but that’s exactly how it turned out.
Even Brady couldn’t end the curse. The recently retired quarterback made it to the Super Bowl twice in a season where he led the NFL in passing, but both times (2007 and 2017) he ended up losing the big game.
Although Manning led the league in passing yards a total of three times, he did not lead the league in 2006 (Brees led the league with 4,418 yards) or 2015 (Brees led the league with 4,870 ), the two seasons he went on to win the Super Bowl.
On Brees’ side, although he led the league in passing SEVEN times in total in his career, he didn’t lead the league in passing in 2009 when the Saints won the Super Bowl. In fact, if you want to surprise your friends this weekend, you can ask them if they know who led the NFL through 2009 (answer: Matt Schaub).
In the past 56 years, only six quarterbacks have even reached the Super Bowl in a season where they led the league in passing yards and those quarterbacks went 0-6 in the big game.
Here is an overview of the list:
1984: Dan Marino (Lost Super Bowl XIX to 49ers)
2001: Kurt Warner (Lost Super Bowl XXXVI to Patriots)
2002: Rich Gannon (Lost Super Bowl XXXVII to Buccaneers)
2007: Tom Brady (Lost Super Bowl XLII to Giants)
2013: Peyton Manning (Lost Super Bowl XLVIII to Seahawks)
2017: Tom Brady (lost Super Bowl LII to the Eagles)
Although this is Mahomes’ third Super Bowl, it will be his first chance to end the curse. When the Chiefs won Super Bowl LIV against the 49ers, Mahomes didn’t come close to leading the league in the process and that was mainly because he missed two games during the regular season. At Super Bowl LV, Mahomes was the NFL’s second-leading passer heading into the game, which was won by the Buccaneers 31-9.
The Eagles ended Brady’s shot to end the curse and now they’ll try to do the same with Mahomes.
The Chiefs QB could actually eliminate two curses this year. If he is elected NFL MVP, he could become the first player of this century win the MVP and the Lombardi Trophy the same year. Kurt Warner accomplished this feat in 1999, but no player has succeeded since 2000.
