National Football League

Tom Brady and Patrick Mahomes' 'rivalry' takes another step after Twitter tiff

Updated Apr. 21, 2021 6:37 p.m. ET

Ahh ... the gift of (Twitter) gab.

Former NFL MVPs Tom Brady and Patrick Mahomes had a fun back-and-forth on Twitter on Tuesday, and it all started on the baseball diamond.

Kansas City Royals catcher Salvador Perez wore a No. 12 Brady jersey to batting practice Tuesday after losing a Super Bowl bet with Tampa Bay Rays outfielder Brett Phillips back in February.

In a video posted by the Royals – a franchise of which Mahomes became a part-owner last summer – Perez resentfully reps the jersey while telling the camera: "Patrick Mahomes is the best."

Brady didn’t take that sitting down.

Mahomes fired back less than an hour later with a cheeky response, reminding the GOAT that he’ll have plenty of time to catch him.

The exchange was enjoyable for onlookers, especially Brady fans who aren’t used to seeing the veteran engage with other players on social media, as Shannon Sharpe pointed out on Wednesday’s "Undisputed."

"He suppressed all these things for the last 20 years [with the Patriots], and the first chance he got, he said, 'Hey, I'm gonna let my hair down. I'm gonna show the real Tom Brady. I'm gonna tweet what I want.'"

But of course, the friendly banter between the two legendary signal-callers has sports fans wondering once again if Brady will ever pass the torch to Mahomes as the game’s all-time best, and if so, what will it take?

Brady, 43, is the all-time NFL touchdown pass leader (581) and ranks second only to Drew Brees in career passing yards (79,204), a record he figures to claim next season after Brees’ retirement at the end of last season. Brady ranks seventh in QB career passer rating, at 97.3, and has won three NFL MVP Awards.

However, the 25-year-old Mahomes is off to a blazing start in his pursuit of Brady. He has 14,152 passing yards and 114 touchdowns under his belt after three seasons as the starter for the Kansas City Chiefs, along with a 108.7 career passer rating.

Mahomes won the MVP during his first season as a starter in 2018.

Brady has more postseason wins than any other NFL quarterback, with a 34-11 record, a staggering 12,248 playoff passing yards and 17 division titles. He has won seven of his 10 Super Bowl appearances and is a four-time Super Bowl MVP.

Mahomes is on a similar track, with a 6-2 postseason record. He led Kansas City to the big game each of the past two years and won it all in 2019, along with the Super Bowl MVP trophy.

On "First Things First," Brandon Marshall labeled the Twitter exchange lighthearted, but he also pointed out that there might be more to it than meets the eye.

"I think we might be overlooking the realness of these tweets," Marshall said. "Tom Brady is one of my favorite guys to follow on social media … but I don’t know if this is banter. … I think that this is something we really need to pay attention to."

Although Brady and Mahomes might not be rivals at the level of Brady and, say, Peyton Manning – who for years battled for the title of the game’s best quarterback – there is an inherent rivalry between the GOAT and the man currently regarded as the top QB in the league.

Look no further than the most recent Super Bowl, in which Brady’s Tampa Bay Buccaneers defeated Mahomes’ Chiefs 31-9.

According to FOX Bet, the Chiefs (+550) and Bucs (+750) are the two favorites to win the Super Bowl next season, meaning we just might see another matchup between the two heavyweight QBs and their gaudy rosters in February 2022 at SoFi Stadium.

Going back to the debate of whether Mahomes can one day one-up Brady, former NFL running back Brian Westbrook thinks it’s definitely a possibility that the K.C. wunderkind moves into the No. 1 spot — but not without a few non-negotiables.

"Tom Brady [has] already played for 21 years. Patrick Mahomes is gonna have to go a long way into his career to come close," Westbrook said. "But I think he will eventually beat his passing numbers, as well as his touchdown numbers. … For Patrick Mahomes to even be in the conversation, he has to get to five [Super Bowl wins]."

Brady and Mahomes are both trailblazers in their own rights.

If Mahomes becomes what the NFL world believes he can be, he might be taking the trail that Brady blazed and burning it to the ground.

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