Stephen A. Smith Would Pick Patrick Mahomes Over Tom Brady to Win One Game ‘With No Hesitation’

The GOAT debate took another turn on Sunday.

After a win in the AFC title game on Sunday, Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs are heading to the Super Bowl for the fourth time in five years.

In his six years as a starter, Mahomes has yet to miss the AFC championship game, and is already surpassing postseason records set by the likes of Tom Brady and other NFL legends.

The Chiefs’ latest run to the big game has reignited the GOAT debate between Mahomes and Brady. While Brady’s seven rings still stand untouched, Mahomes is on the verge of his third championship at just 28 years old, and is putting up ridiculous numbers.

Mahomes’s success on the field has convinced one of the loudest voices in sports media, ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith, that he would take the Chiefs quarterback over Brady in a do-or-die situation.

“The answer to this question is Patrick Mahomes,” Smith said on First Take on Monday. “I say that with no hesitation whatsoever, but also with profound respect for the greatness of Tom Brady.”

Smith said that while Brady was immediately able to lead the New England Patriots to success, the early years of his career were largely supported by the greatness of the Patriots’ defense as Brady developed into the all-time quarterback he would eventually become.

“In the case of Patrick Mahomes, we’ve been seeing that greatness from day one,” Smith said. “From the moment he became the starting quarterback for the Kansas City Chiefs, six straight trips to the AFC title game, three Super Bowl trips, two Super Bowl titles, what are you gonna say?”

While First Take is a show normally defined by the debates and hot takes sparked from the arguments between panelists, Shannon Sharpe and Ryan Clark were both in agreement with Smith—all three men were taking Mahomes over Brady.

While the debate of “who would you take to win one game?” is slightly different from the GOAT debate, it’s clear that Mahomes has momentum with regard to both questions.

Mahomes is still quite a few Super Bowls shy of reaching the heights that Brady did in his career, but in two weeks, he’ll have the chance to get one ring closer to that rarefied air.