Is America Rooting for Tom Brady or Pat Mahomes to Win Super Bowl LV?

A week from Sunday in Super Bowl LV, 43-year-old Tom Brady will lead the Buccaneers against 25-year-old Patrick Mahomes and the reigning-champion Chiefs in the fifth-ever matchup between the star quarterbacks.

Annually the most-viewed event of the year on American television, this year’s game is expected to draw more than 185 million viewers based on consumer spending data from the National Retail Federation and Prosper Insights & Analytics’ 2021 Super Bowl survey.

While fewer than 30 percent of those anticipated viewers plan on throwing a party or watching the game at a bar, 86 percent of viewers are planning to make purchases related to Super Sunday and spend $74.55 on average for a total of $13.9 billion in spending nationwide.

So, we know people will be watching and spending for Super Bowl LV (which could also be called TB SB X given it is Brady’s 10th appearance in the game). But who are they rooting for?

To get an idea, Morning Consult surveyed more than 2,000 adults earlier this week.

According to the survey results, 38 percent of respondents want Mahomes and the Chiefs to win while only 24 percent are backing Brady and the Bucs. And, when respondents were asked which team they thought would win, the gap between KC and Tampa grew even wider with 41 percent of fans saying they think the Chiefs will be victorious and only 24 percent stating their belief that the Bucs will carry the day.

Some of those responses are based on Brady’s status as the NFL’s most well-known player as well as one of the league’s most polarizing due to his two decades of winning.

“More than half of those rooting for the Buccaneers and those rooting for the Chiefs cited their admiration for a specific player as a reason for their choice, with 36 percent of those rooting for the Bucs saying it’s a ‘major’ factor,” according to Morning Consult. While it’s safe to assume the bulk of those responses can be attributed to Brady, he is also likely to blame for the fact that about 1 in 4 Chiefs supporters said animus toward the opposition is a “major” factor behind their loyalty.

Mahomes and Brady have played each other four times in the past three seasons with each quarterback winning twice. Brady is 33-11 in playoff games throughout his career while Mahomes is 6-1. The lone postseason loss was to Brady three seasons ago.

The Chiefs are favored to win at many sportsbooks by three points, the same margin Kansas won by in a 27-24 victory over Tampa in Week 12 of the 2020 regular season.