Super Bowl MVP 2021: Key Stats, Twitter Reaction and More for Tom Brady
February 8, 2021
Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Tom Brady won his NFL-record fifth Super Bowl MVP award after completing 21 of 29 passes for 201 yards and three touchdowns in a 31-9 win over the Kansas City Chiefs on Sunday.
Brady, who won his seventh Super Bowl title, found former New England Patriots teammate Rob Gronkowski for a pair of touchdowns in the first half.
The first came from eight yards out and gave the Bucs a 6-3 lead before the first quarter ended.
The second occurred when Brady hit Gronkowski in stride for a 17-yard score, giving the Bucs a 13-3 edge.
Brady and Gronkowski have now connected on an NFL-record 14 postseason touchdowns.
The 43-year-old then linked with another former Pats teammate in wide receiver Antonio Brown, finding him from one yard out to put Tampa Bay up 20-6 with six seconds left before halftime.
Michael David Smith of Pro Football Talk provided a bewildering statistic following the Brown touchdown:
Brady finished the first half completing 16 of 20 passes for 140 yards and three scores, with Next Gen Stats providing the pass chart:
Next Gen Stats @NextGenStatsTom Brady has relied on short, quick passes with heavy play-action in the first half. Brady is averaging 2.18 seconds per pass (his fastest in game in the NGS era) and 3.7 air yards per attempt (his 2nd-shortest in a game). All 3 TDs have come off play-action. #SBLV | #GoBucs https://t.co/nTUXERye7z
He was exceptional, but so was his offensive line, especially in comparison to the Chiefs' blocking efforts. ESPN's Mina Kimes noted the difference:
The Chiefs hit a field goal to start the third quarter, but Brady engineered a six-play, 74-yard touchdown drive that included a 25-yard pass to Gronkowski.
One play later, Leonard Fournette scored on a 27-yard touchdown run.
The Bucs' running game and defense dominated in the second half, salting the game away as Brady piloted Tampa Bay to its second-ever Super Bowl victory.
Brady's first-half performance ultimately gave his team a significant halftime edge to do just that, and now the 43-year-old has won Super Bowls (and Super Bowl MVP awards) in three different decades.
He's also earned this remarkable distinction:
Brady also went through a gauntlet of some of the game's best all-time quarterbacks to get there:
Los Angeles Lakers guard/forward LeBron James, who is squarely in the NBA's greatest-of-all-time conversation, praised Brady postgame:
Pro Football Hall of Famer and Super Bowl champion Kurt Warner has no doubt as to who the greatest of all time is in the NFL:
As NBC Sports' Bruce Beck noted, Brady has now won a Super Bowl in one-third of his 21 seasons.
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