BALTIMORE – Won’t Get Fooled Again.
The anthemic rock-and-roll proclamation from The Who was issued more than five decades ago (shortly after the NFL and AFL merged in 1970). But it happened. Sunday. When we got fooled.
Again.
Four seasons after leading a record-setting, top-seeded outfit into the AFC playoffs before a divisional-round collapse, this was supposed to be the year Baltimore Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson, who will soon make space for a second league MVP award in his trophy case, finally reached the Super Bowl. This was also the year when Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes, a two-time league and Super Bowl MVP, looked mortal – the highlight throws, gaudy stats and wins coming with less frequency and more difficulty.
Tasked with picking the AFC championship game’s outcome, I was among eight USA TODAY Sports staffers who collectively called it for the Ravens – odd as such anti-Chiefs unanimity rendered.
Yet after the superstar quarterbacks clashed at Baltimore’s M&T Bank Stadium? Great as they both are, perhaps the defining talents of the contemporary quarterbacking generation? Same old Jackson. And same old Mahomes.