Historical! Patrick Mahomes' Quest to Become the 7th Player to Win NFL MVP and Super Bowl MVP in the Same Season

Patrick Mahomes earned the NFL's Most Valuable Player award for the second time on Thursday, becoming only the fifth quarterback to do so.

Mahomes, on the other hand, was not present at the league's awards event at Symphony Hall in Phoenix. He was at an unidentified location nearby, practising for Sunday's Super Bowl between his club, the Kansas City Chiefs, and the Philadelphia Eagles.

Unsurprisingly, Mahomes is the favourite to earn the Super Bowl MVP award. According to DraftKings, he is the +120 favourite, slightly ahead of Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts, who is the +125 favourite. Travis Kelce of the Kansas City Chiefs is up next at +1200.
 

The nearly 10-to-1 odds disparity between quarterbacks and Kelce isn't surprising given that quarterbacks have been named Super Bowl MVP 31 times in the game's 56-year history.

This season, Mahomes and Hurts were also the best quarterbacks in the league. Mahomes threw for an NFL-high 5,250 yards and 41 touchdowns while completing a career-high 67.1% of his passes and throwing only 12 interceptions. Hurts, in his second season as a starter, completed 66.5% of his passes for 3,701 yards and 22 touchdowns and ran for 760 yards and 13 touchdowns.
 

An MVP win for  Mahomes on Sunday, will bring Mahomes into an exclusive club. Only six players have earned both the regular season and Super Bowl MVP awards in the same season, and none have done it since Kurt Warner in 1999.

Emmitt Smith (1993) is the first non-quarterback to accomplish this accomplishment, which has never been done by all-time greats and multiple-time regular seasons MVPs such as Tom Brady, Peyton Manning, Brett Favre, and Aaron Rodgers.

Here are the last six players who earned both the regular season and Super Bowl MVP awards in the same season. All of these players have been inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

Bradshaw won his first and only MVP award in the regular season after throwing for 2,915 yards and 28 touchdowns. In the playoffs, he was even better, guiding the Steelers to their third Super Bowl triumph in five seasons, a 35-31 victory over the defending champions, the Dallas Cowboys.

Bradshaw finished the game 17-of-30 for 318 yards and four touchdowns. In the fourth quarter, his 18-yard touchdown throw to Lynn Swann put the Steelers up, 35-17. The Cowboys scored two touchdowns in the last three minutes, but it was insufficient.

The next season, Bradshaw was named Super Bowl MVP when the Steelers defeated the Los Angeles Rams, 31-19, at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California. Bradshaw passed for 309 yards, two touchdowns, and three interceptions that day.

Joe Montana, quarterback of the San Francisco 49ers, was born in 1989.

Montana began the 1989 season as the league's top quarterback of the decade. During the decade, he led the 49ers to three Super Bowl victories and was a two-time Super Bowl MVP. Nonetheless, he had never been named regular-season MVP.

That all changed in 1989 when Montana earned the MVP, completing a career-high 70.2% of his throws for 3,521 yards and 26 touchdowns. In the Super Bowl, he guided the 49ers to a 55-10 win over the Denver Broncos. That is remains the most points scored by a team in a Super Bowl and the most lopsided victory in the game's history. Montana completed 22 of 29 passes for 297 yards and five touchdowns.

Montana earned the MVP award again in 1990, but the 49ers were defeated in the NFC Championship game by the New York Giants, 15-13. He never appeared in another Super Bowl after that.

Emmitt Smith, Dallas Cowboys running back, in 1993

Smith led the NFL in rushing for the third consecutive season during the regular season, gaining 1,486 yards and scoring nine times. He also had 57 catches and became the first player from Dallas to earn MVP.

The Cowboys went on to win their second consecutive Super Bowl, 30-13 over the Buffalo Bills, with Smith rushing for 132 yards and two touchdowns. In the third quarter, the game was tied 13-13 until Smith scored two touchdowns and Eddie Murray kicked a 20-yard field goal to seal the victory.

Smith never won another regular-season or Super Bowl MVP award, but he retired with an NFL record 18,355 running yards and 164 rushing touchdowns.

Steve Young, quarterback for the San Francisco 49ers, was born in 1994.

After Montana missed the 1991 season with an elbow injury, Young took over and never looked back, becoming probably the NFL's finest quarterback. He earned his first MVP award in 1992 and another two years later when he led the league with a 70.3% completion percentage, 35 touchdown passes, and 3,969 yards.

Young passed for 325 yards and a game-high six touchdowns in the Super Bowl, which the 49ers won 49-26 at Joe Robbie Stadium in Miami. Since then, the 49ers have failed to win a Super Bowl.
Kurt Warner, quarterback of the St. Louis Rams, in 1999.

This was one of sports' most unexpected stories. Warner had only appeared in one NFL game before the 1999 season, and the Rams passed him over in the expansion draft. He subsequently returned to the Rams, where he won the starting job after Trent Green was injured in a preseason game.

 

Warner, who was 28 at the time, went on to win the regular season MVP award after leading the league with a 65.1% completion percentage, 41 touchdowns, and 4,353 yards. Warner completed 24 of 45 passes for 414 yards and two touchdowns in the Super Bowl against the Tennessee Titans, including a game-winning 73-yard touchdown pass to Isaac Bruce with 1:54 remaining.

Warner earned MVP again two years later, when the Rams were overwhelming favorites in the Super Bowl. However, St. Louis fell 20-17 to the New England Patriots, who won the first of their six Super Bowls.