Chiefs’ Patrick Mahomes Fails to Match Tom Brady’s Invincible Aura as $130,000 Difference Shows Why Patriots Legend is Still the GOAT

Patrick Mahomes, the reigning Super Bowl champion, handles everything with poise. His social status, PR, massive portfolio, and most importantly, the responsibility of doing justice to a 10-year $450 million contract extension with the Kansas City Chiefs. He’s arguably the best quarterback in the game right now and in due time, he might even surpass Tom Brady. But has that time come yet? Well, it seems like Brady is still the one ruling people’s hearts!

But this time, it isn’t about on-field shenanigans or records. Instead, the NFL community’s eyes have been drawn to a recent Patrick Mahomes rookie card sale. TMZ recently posted an update on X that read: “#PatrickMahomes is so beloved, even a piece of cardboard with his imagery on it just fetched nearly a quarter of a million dollars at auction!!” 

The back-to-back Super Bowl wins might be a driving factor for the massive upsurge in the auction price, right? But why would someone pay an arm and a leg for a collectible card? What’s the hoopla about these rookie cards that a company called Beckett makes? Well, the card is signed by none other than the 3x Super Bowl winner and on top of that, it’s a rookie card that dates back to around 2017, if not older. But that’s not nearly as surprising, right? The card is the 8 of the only 10 ever produced and the icing on the cake is that each of those 10 cards has a piece of Mahomes’ rookie jersey patched onto it.

But, the sky-high price does make sense in a way! Right from the start of his career, Mahomes knew how to turn heads. During the 2017 NFL Draft, he was selected 10th overall in the first round, making way for many firsts. Historically, he was the only QB selected by the Chiefs in the first round since Todd Blackledge, selected seventh overall in 1983. And, though, the 3x Super Bowl MVP only played one game in his rookie season, he was the first Chiefs quarterback to start the game in 38 years! Moreover, the three point (27-24) victory in his first career start in Week 17 against the Denver Broncos was the first victory by a Chiefs QB since 1998. He completed 22 of 35 passes for 284 yards and one interception.

Taken out of the game during the fourth quarter as the score settled with KC leading 24-10, the Broncos quickly tied the game with two touchdowns. And this is when Mahomes worked his magic after coming back to the field with 2:45 left on the clock. The player quickly led the team to a goal just as time expired, notably, with the only touchdown of the day by a quarterback! Now that’s what we can call iconic, isn’t it? Well, hold on because we are yet to get to the former New England Patriots star.

Tom Brady retired, but Patrick Mahomes has some catching up to do! 

“I don’t have to be an insurance salesman,” 

is one of the first things that came to Tom Brady’s mind after he was finally drafted by the New England Patriots in the sixth round as a No. 199 pick. Expected to be drafted in the second or third round, the retired player’s inclusion to his professional career was underwhelming, to say the least. But once he got his start, there was no stopping him. Surprisingly, Brady only played 1 game in his rookie season and worked as a fourth string quarterback behind Drew Bledsoe and had 6 yards to show for the whole year. However, it didn’t take long for this Patriots Hall of Famer to shut down Bledsoe.

Now coming to the 5x Super Bowl MVP’s rookie card, if you thought it would be fully loaded with Brady’s signature and a patch from his rookie jersey like Mahomes’, the truth is a far cry from that. Even after someone paid a staggering $312,000, they weren’t bestowed with TB12’s autograph. Instead, this card from the year 2000 shows him wearing a practice jersey. So, what makes the card so expensive? The value must have gone through the roof when Brady won his first Super Bowl in 2002.

On the field, Brady was dropping dimes on a regular, was an all-time leader in passing yards (89,214) and touchdown passes (649). He also holds the record for most regular season wins(251) and postseason wins (35). Whatever QB metric you can of, there’s a guarantee that Brady will be in the top 5 of those categories. So, is it still okay to pay more than 300 grand for the card? Apparently so because the collectors are driven by nostalgia.

A company named SP Authentic used to make these cards and, per the netizens, these were the highest quality cards available back in the day. Moreover, only 1,250 of them were made in total. But, all of this is the tip of the iceberg because a collector’s universe runs on rarity, and one of Brady’s cards was so rare that it was sold on eBay for $2.3 million!

Brady’s 7x Super Bowl championship wins are enough to put his competitors’ resumes’ to shame. Mahomes is a legend in the making and there’s no doubt that they can get past that 3x Super Bowl win mark. Now the only thing left to see is when. Though, that isn’t much of a hurdle to auctioneers, it seems!

In another surprising turn of events, back in 2017, PWCC Marketplace announced that a Mahomes 2017 Panini National Treasures 1-of-1, NFL shield, autographed card has sold for $4.3 million, the most ever paid for a football card and the fourth-largest sum fetched by a sports card of all time.

So, are you into collectibles? What’s your prized possession out of the bunch? Let us know below.