“Football is a team sport, and there is no one individual who is bigger than the next person.” Hall of Famer running back Emmitt Smith said this adage. But our instant thoughts go to players like Tom Brady, who achieved amazing accolades with the Patriots and later with the Bucs. Now, it’s Patrick Mahomes, who is on the brink of achieving unprecedented greatness, the 3-peat. But Stephen A. Smith is not getting on that hype train as he echoes Emmitt’s sentiments.

“As great as Patrick Mahomes is, there’s one thing he can’t do: catch the footballs for you.” Stephen gets passionate about the topics that get him going. The topic on the First Take on September 2nd? Even the great players see a decline in their legacy as they can’t do ‘everything’ in a team sport. Individually, sure, Pat is great. But what can he do when and if the team lets him down? Nothing. He’s going down with them. That’s what Stephen said.

And the Chiefs’ receiving corps did let Patrick down in many instances. The problem? Drop passes. That’s the major issue that got seriously highlighted in the regular season. Sure, the confetti was out after another division title with an 11-6 record. But it was not that straightforward. Andy Reid’s Chiefs were the league leaders in the total number of dropped passes in 2023, dropping 44 off 597 passes that number 15 threw in the regular season. They fumbled 2.6 passes per game on average. For a team hell-bent on winning, it comes out as an easily exploitable weakness.

In such a case, there’s nothing more Patrick Mahomes can do but keep darting footballs to his receivers in the hope that one out of three would result in a progressive play. That’s why Stephen was just not buying into this whole 3-peat thing as he just cannot see Kansas City fixing this issue with one of the youngest WR rosters in the league.

For the co-panelists present on the show, Stephen A. even used the ‘basketball analogy’ to explain why he believes Patrick Mahomes would not be able to complete the 3-peat. One is obviously because of the dropped passes. The other reason is the greatness catching up to him.

Will the tag of the ‘greatest QB’ catch up to Patrick Mahomes?

“You couldn’t stop Michael Jordan the GOAT. Couldn’t stop LBJ, LeBron James. But last time I checked, LeBron, All World, Anthony Davis, All World. Their a—- still got swept,” he said. Ignore his language, but that’s the side of Stephen that usually comes out when he believes his claims are a little too much. And he believes that Patrick is no different in football than the NBA superstars he mentioned.

He was talking about the 527 times King James has come up short in his career. That’s in a 20-year-long illustrious career. A ‘Ballers.PH’s’ published article from May 2023, titled, “We may finally be witnessing the decline of LeBron James,” more or less touched the same points. That James is the Lakers’ face, carrying them on his back during his peak. But the ‘Father Time’ is catching up to him and he’s no longer able to carry the team to glory that often and it’s visible on court.

Highlighting the losses while acknowledging the greatness is not wrong. Patrick Mahomes losses? 22 in his six seasons as a starter for the Chiefs. But because of the longstanding greatness, fans start losing sight of the crucial, heartbreaking losses and that’s where the idea of invincibility kicks in.

Not for Stephen A. who doesn’t question Patrick Mahomes being one of the top QBs the league has ever seen, but he was questioning the team’s consistency as a whole to pick up the pieces after two consecutive wins and start again from 0 in the new season. Replicating success is easier said than done. But if this Kansas City team pulls it off again in the 2024 season, they’ll etch their name in NFL history.