Tom Brady passed the torch to Patrick Mahomes back in 2019.
The legendary quarterback paid a visit to Mahomes in the locker room after his New England Patriots bested the Kansas City Chiefs in the 2019 AFC championship game.
Fans were itching to be flies on the wall back then.
Fortunately, Chiefs coach Andy Reid shed some light on what Brady said to Mahomes during multiple interviews with NFL Network and NBC Sports after the Chiefs' Super Bowl victory over the San Francisco 49ers.
Per Reid, Brady told Mahomes he was "turning the keys over" to him back in 2019.
#Chiefs HC Andy Reid on the Patrick Mahomes/Tom Brady comparisons: "I was there when Tom Brady said I'm turning the keys over to you. He did it right in our locker room. And so I think Tom is as proud as anybody."
— Ari Meirov (@MySportsUpdate) February 12, 2024
Brady went into the Chiefs locker room after beating Mahomes in… https://t.co/bhqvxaP1Du
Then, Reid touched on the moment during a separate interview with NBC Sports insider Peter King.
"He makes the difficult look easy at the highest possible level in the whole world," Reid said. "There's only 32 in the whole world, and he's the special of the special. I watched Tom Brady turn the keys over to him, which was cool. Tom said, ‘Hey, this is your league now, man.'"
Brady snatched the keys back one more time, as he would go on to defeat Mahomes and the Chiefs in Super Bowl LV as a member of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
But it's hard to deny the NFL now belongs to Mahomes and the Chiefs, who have won three championships in five seasons.
Kudos to Reid for pulling back the curtain on this moment between the two larger-than-life athletes.
