MANO A MANO: NFL QB LEGACIES SHAPE THE BEST DRAMA IN SPORTS

From Rodgers and Brady to Mahomes vs. Allen, we are reminded that the quarterbacking position is the most important and glamorous in sports, with much at stake historically this postseason

     They are the truest prizefighters of the modern day, too artistic for cages, hellbent on wreckage via surgery, with no need to get bloody. MMA beasts have nothing on the NFL's leading quarterbacks, who will say otherwise, insisting football is a team game. But our eyeballs and senses know that sports in 2022 is largely about their singular creativity and greatness, their arms and legs and minds.

     And this weekend, in the lead-up to Hollywood's first Super Bowl in decades, they'll be the showmen we can't stop watching and discussing. Has there ever been a postseason quarterfinal round with so much skill and panache at the most important position in athletics? So many raw and meaningful story lines? Such a contrast between old and young?

     Consider the collision Sunday in Kansas City. You thought Patrick Mahomes was the sure Next Gen prototype, a sorcerer with a firearm, Steph Curry in cleats. But here comes Josh Allen, fresh off another shredding of a Bill Belichick defense, looking in his headiest moments like the most unstoppable QB … ever. Don't be surprised if Chiefs-Bills is the best game of the postseason, unless another fledgling maestro, Joe Burrow, has ideas of his own. All of which reminds us, hard as it may be to fathom, that Tom Brady and Aaron Rodgers will be gone someday, and that the quarterbacking craft might somehow progress without them.

     "It's pretty cool to be in that conversation with a player who's won MVP and won a Super Bowl already,'' Allen said of Mahomes.

     And they are still lads.

     The TV numbers for a mostly dreck wild-card round were spectacular, ranging from 41.5 million viewers for 49ers-Cowboys to a "mere" 26.3 million for Bills-Patriots. Will the divisional round pop 50 million? Will the conference title games blow past 60 million?

     The biggest drama would seem to center around Rodgers, who has the most to lose — specifically, his legacy. No longer can he whine about his bosses in Green Bay, advance quack theories about the coronavirus and generally act like a pompous ass. The moment of reckoning is upon him, as he pushes 38 and floats retirement, in what might be his final chance to win a second championship that would separate him in history from one-time-winners ranging from Brett Favre and Drew Brees to Trent Dilfer and Brad Johnson.

     He already has lost his popularity, falling in "net favorablity rating'' from 32 last season to 15 according to a data tracking company called Morning Consult. If Rodgers loses Saturday at Lambeau Field to the scary-hot San Francisco 49ers, he will have plummeted more in the public standing than any superstar athlete — beyond those who've found trouble with the law — in recent memory. His numbers this season are worthy of a second straight MVP trophy, including 37 touchdowns and just four interceptions with a league-best 111.9 passer rating, but his COVID lie ("immunized'' does not mean vaccinated) cost the Packers a November loss and, in my view, any moral claim to the award. An early playoff exit, or any exit before the Super Bowl, turns Rodgers into one of his favorite words: a "bum.''

     "Football mortality is something that we all think about,’’ he said. "We all think about how many more opportunities we’re going to be afforded, and each one is special. This is a special opportunity. We’re not going to make it bigger than it is. We’ve gotten this far being level-headed and even-keeled and not riding a roller coaster of emotions and we’re going to keep on doing the same thing. If it was good enough to get us this far, it’s good enough to get us past this point.''

     Pressed beyond cliches, Rodgers acknowledged what undeniably is at stake for him, like it or not. "Success is often based, for quarterbacks, on championships won. Success individually is much more than that. And on the flip side of that, failure, in my opinion, shouldn’t be based solely on your losses and your failures and your mistakes and your low points,'' he said. "It’s so much more than that. It’s mindset, it’s approach, it’s the total package. But I understand that in our business, so much of it is focused on the wins and losses — especially in the playoffs, Super Bowl rings and all that stuff. I understand that’s part of my legacy I’ll be judged on when I’m done playing.

     "Every year is important when it comes to furthering your legacy, but I take a lot of pride in the success that we’ve had and that I’ve had and I hope we can add to it — both from a how-we’re-judged standpoint and how-we-judge-ourselves standpoint.''

     Heavy stuff. But is it any heavier than the preposterousness that Brady — 45 this summer, older than the three opposing coaches left in the NFC tournament (Matt LaFleur, Kyle Shanahan, Sean McVay) — is three wins from an eighth Super Bowl ring? He isn't favored this time, with the Buccaneers ravaged by injuries, minus Chris Godwin, possibly top running backs Leonard Fournette and Ronald Jones and, of course, the freak who stripped down and danced half-naked through a tunnel of madness in the middle of a game. Still, Brady has yet to lose a playoff game with Tampa Bay, increasing his number of career wins to a record 35, or 19 more than runner-up Joe Montana. And he'll adjust, even if he's also without All-Pro right tackle Tristan Wirfs and center Ryan Jensen, by trying to manage a football game.

     But the wrong kind of opponent is arriving from Los Angeles, Aaron Donald, who is at his ferocious and disruptive peak with a Rams team trying to do what the Bucs did last year: win a championship on their home field. Brady pivoted last weekend against mediocre Philadelphia by simply getting rid of the ball faster — at an average of 2.17 seconds, quicker than any other league passer this season. "I don’t think anybody is better at dishing it and dumping it off,” said Rob Gronkowski, Brady's bro-bud for life, who might catch 15 or 20 such passes, as many as it takes. Be careful: Those who rule out Brady are doomed to a regretful existence, like that of Belichick, who is stuck on six titles after his TB12 divorce and won't be winning another.

     "I don’t ever take it for granted,'' receiver Mike Evans said.

     It's a precious opportunity for another gifted quarterback to flip a narrative. Is Matthew Stafford ready to leave behind the pick-sixes and blunders that marred his debut regular season in L.A.? The temporary answer is yes, based on his stirring performance Monday night in a stomping of Arizona. But he's always a brain cramp away from an interception — he led the league with 17, four for enemy touchdowns — and beating the Cardinals does not count as winning a big one. Can he take down Brady, the G.O.A.T., in his home stadium?

     "That’s how I expect to play every game,” Stafford said. "It doesn’t always happen that way, but it felt good out there, felt comfortable. I just want to be a part of this team and help us win. I’m trusting myself, trusting my abilities, trusting my teammates. We’ll go out there and play and let the chips fall where they may.''

     The pressure is so substantial in Rams camp, where owner Stan Kroenke has all but mandated that his team reach the Super Bowl in his $6 billion palace, McVay all but begged the media to leave Stafford alone after the 13-year veteran's first playoff win. "It’s good, so you guys don’t have to talk about that anymore, so you can get that one out of the way,'' he said. "I’m just so lucky to be able to do this with him. He’s our leader. We wouldn’t be here without him.''

     But the burden on McVay is as large as it is for Stafford. Considering the Rams traded Jared Goff, who reached a Super Bowl, and two future first-round draft picks for the ''Stafford upgrade,'' a gag job in Tampa would be an embarrassment for the former boy-wonder coach, now 35. In a rare twist, Brady is the QB with the least pressure Sunday. If he loses, he can stare at his seven rings. Stafford, blessed with Cooper Kupp and a seemingly reborn Odell Beckham Jr. and a miraculously rebuilt Cam Akers, has no excuse not to advance to the conference title game.

     The NFC has the OGs. The AFC has the Gen Zs.

     Everyone knows about Mahomes, likable and marketable, part-owner of the Kansas City Royals and the local Major League Soccer franchise, looking for his second Super Bowl victory after he was figured out last year by the Bucs. But do you realize how breathtakingly dominant Allen can be, as clever with the football as he is monstrous as a physical specimen? He has made people all but forget the racist tweets from his teen years, including N-word references, that haunted him on draft day four years ago. In a small media market, Buffalo, he isn't even asked about it anymore as the city's most beloved athlete since Jim Kelly. Allen addressed it last season, and if he reaches the Super Bowl, it will be told as a redemption story.

     "Going back to 2018, my mindset was to get into the locker room and show them who I really was as a person,” Allen told ESPN. "I can say without a doubt that guys know who I am now. I definitely think it's going to take time but at the same time, we learn and we grow as we get older. We see different things and we meet different people that kind of open your eyes and change your mind about different things.''

     His teammates love him. "It's easy to want to run through a wall for him because you know he'd do the same,'' receiver Stefon Diggs said.

     "He’s never blinking. He’s always in kill mode. He doesn’t even wanna lose the coin toss,'' running back Devin Singletary said.

     Mahomes, too, has reached legacy territory, though just 26. The Chiefs looked the part of a dynasty until losing their bid for a second straight Super Bowl win. Falling short again, to Allen and the Bills, would stall the glory. "When you've been to the Super Bowl the last two years and you walk off the field with a loss last year, you want to go back and get that revenge and get that win," he said. "For us, we understand it's gonna be a fight. We've got the Bills coming here, and we are going to have to play our best football. They have a great offense, a great defense, great special teams. I'm glad we're playing at Arrowhead.''

     Said Chiefs defensive end Frank Clark: "You've got Josh Allen, (and) you've got Pat. These are two of the best guys in the league. You say the two best young quarterbacks in the league today, I'd say 99 percent of the people in the world are going to say Pat Mahomes and Josh Allen."

     Then there's Burrow, the chess-playing character who smokes victory cigars and gets away with wearing SpongeBob garb. He is drawing comparisons to Brady and Montana for his instincts, effortless swagger and dynamic playmaking. His return from a devastating knee injury has been nothing short of inspirational. Cincinnati is still drunk from hops and happiness after Burrow directed the Bengals to their first playoff victory in 31 years. Having led LSU to a national championship just two Januarys ago, he isn't quite as impressed as the fans.

     "I've tried to downplay it and all that, because this is how it's gonna be from here on out," Burrow said. "It was a great win for us. But now this is the standard for the bare minimum every year going forward."

     Damn. At least one playoff win every year? It was easy to apply the Broadway Joe nickname to Joe Namath, but no Cincinnati street comes to mind except one, and Pete Rose Way Joe doesn't work.

     Awaiting the Bengals is the team barely talked about, the Tennessee Titans, which is odd because they're the AFC's top seed. Ryan Tannehill is lost in the QB hype game, but this season, he is 4-0 against Mahomes, Allen, Stafford and Russell Wilson. The Titans might win, but the people want Burrow vs. the Mahomes/Allen survivor in the title game.

     Amazing, isn't it, how we discuss the quarterbacking construct the way we used to dissect boxing's heavyweight division? It's an economy onto itself, overflowing with some of sport's most glamorous names, collectively earning billions from franchises and endorsers.

     And, as usual, the QBs will bail out the NFL just as the league needs some aesthetic help. Greedy as ever, Roger Goodell and the owners took even more TV fortunes and added a 17th week of regular-season games and two additional playoff teams. All the expansion did was cause more injuries, more COVID disarray, attrition and dilute the so-called ''Super Wild Card Weekend,'' which included four blowouts unwatchable past halftime. Other than Bengals-Raiders, which was marred by an official's erroneous whistle, and 49ers-Cowboys, which was slimed by last-second idiocy from Mike McCarthy and Dak Prescott, it felt like the preseason.

     Now, we've entered the season of truth. Feel free to call it the Super Divisional Round. This will feel like history.

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     Jay Mariotti, called “the most impacting Chicago sportswriter of the past quarter-century,’’ writes general sports columns for Substack while appearing on some of the 1,678,498 podcasts and shows in production today. He is an accomplished columnist, TV panelist and talk/podcast host. Living in Los Angeles, he gravitated by osmosis to film projects.