“You either die a hero or you live long enough to see yourself become the villain.”

That famous film quote, featured in The Dark Knight, holds particular relevance as we steel ourselves for what could be yet another Kansas City Super Bowl title this week, with the Chiefs eying NFL immortality as the first ever to win three Super Bowls in a row – although at a cost!

In the midst of their dominance in the NFL over the past seven seasons – this, a fifth Super Bowl run, along with seven-straight AFC Championship appearances spanning Patrick Mahomes’ entire NFL career as a starter – it is easy to forget they were once the heroes, the great new hope that signalled the end of the ‘evil empire’ of the past that was the Tom Brady and Bill Belichick axis out of New England.

David did not quite slay Goliath at the first attempt, Brady and Belichick getting the better of the Chiefs at the Conference Championship stage in that first season of the Chiefs’ run – the pair notching a sixth and final Super Bowl victory for the Patriots and their prolific partnership – before the former returned in a new uniform and with new toys at his disposal in Tampa Bay as the Buccaneers inflicted a first (and only) Super Bowl defeat on Mahomes and co two years later.

On Sunday, Brady will this time be up in the stands commentating on his first Super Bowl, potentially watching his healthy lead on Vince Lombardi trophies being chipped away at further as Mahomes looks to land a fourth to his seven – and all before his 30th birthday!

Brady was 37 when winning his fourth, and one thing even he and the all-conquering Patriots of the early 21st century even failed to achieve was win three in a row.

So are we already looking at the new ‘GOAT’ of the sport?

“I’m just trying to be the greatest Patrick Mahomes that I can be,” the Chiefs superstar quarterback said this week when asked precisely that.

“That’s obviously a goal of anyone’s, to be the greatest at their profession but, in order to do that, you have to be the greatest that you can be every single day – if that’s on the field and the work ethic I put in, or off the field in the father and husband that I am.

“I’m going to try to be the greatest in that way, and whenever I’m done with football, if I leave everything out there the way that I feel like I have so far, as far as effort and mentality, I’ll be happy with the results and I’ll let others talk about who the greatest is of whatever profession that is.”

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He added: “I never really think about my legacy; I care more about the legacy of our team. We’ve put in so much work and worked so hard that I want to be remembered for the team that we are and the team that we built here in Kansas City.”

Hardly the words of some master villain.

And that is part of the problem as we enter this new reality where Mahomes and Kansas City are considered the NFL’s new ‘bad guys’ as they prepare to attempt to win it all yet again. How can they be the villains when they are just so damn likable?

This is not Brady and his media-trained image of perfection, nor his more ‘system-QB’ skillset. This is Mahomes and his likeable, everyman demeanour combined with gun-slinging talent at the quarterback position the like of which we have never seen before as he effortlessly flings balls deep down the field, throws the odd one left-handed and sidearms his way past all before him.

Through seven seasons, Mahomes has the edge on Brady in every major category, his 32,352 passing yards and 259 total touchdowns dwarfing the GOAT’s 26,370 yards through the air and 202 total TDs at the same stage.

He also already has two league MVP awards to his name, with Brady having clinched one of the three for his career by this point. As for Super Bowl appearances, this is Mahomes’ fifth, with three MVP awards also bagged from the sport’s title game.

This is not a surly Belichick in a ragged, moth-eaten cut-off hoodie masterminding his latest evil plot from the sideline. This is cheeseburger-loving, Hawaiian shirt-wearing Andy Reid dreaming up his next genius play design to match that of Jet Chip Wasp (see Super Bowl LIV win over the San Francisco 49ers).

Bond villain-lookalike Rob Gronkowski makes way for the ultra-charismatic Travis Kelce – he and global superstar girlfriend Taylor Swift combining for quite the tandem – as the quarterback’s top target.

And though there are a fair few disgruntled fans complaining of favourable treatment from referees, but with little substance – NFL commissioner Roger Goodell labelling it a “ridiculous theory” earlier this week… ‘Spygate’ and ‘Deflategate’, that hovered over some of the Patriots’ successes, this is not.

Regardless, the role of villains is one the Chiefs are embracing in the build-up to Sunday’s game in New Orleans.

“If winning football games makes you a villain, we’re going to keep going out there and doing it,” Mahomes said.

“We embrace who we are. We believe we play the game the right way, with a lot of heart and passion for the game.”

He added: “It’s all fun because I was that guy. I was a [Dallas] Cowboys fan growing up, and I used to hate the Patriots.

“But I think, more than anything, I appreciate the greatness of the Patriots now when I see how hard it was to do what they did.

“Hopefully we’re just giving people a great product to watch, and they can see the love for the game that we have. All the other stuff is kind of outside noise.”

Kelce too chimed in on the team’s new villainous story arc: “I love it. At one point in time, it wasn’t that – I was one of the ‘do you feel bad for them’ guys.

“It just makes us even more of a family. You circle the wagons.

“When people are saying whatever they want, you band together and it just makes you appreciate what you have even more, because people want what you have.”

And setting out to knock Kansas City off their perch this year are the Philadelphia Eagles, out for revenge two years on from falling foul in Super Bowl LVII as one of the Chiefs’ victims.

For the sequel, the Eagles boast the NFL’s No 1-ranked defense, as well as running back Saquon Barkley – not part of the original cast in 2023 – in the midst of an historic season since moving from rivals the New York Giants in the offseason.

The 27-year-old has put together an MVP-calibre season in which he became just the ninth player ever to eclipse 2,000 rushing yards in a single season, while he needs only 30 more in the Super Bowl to beat Terrell Davis’ mark of 2,476 for the most rushing yards in a season (including playoffs), set for the 1998 Denver Broncos.

“Giant mistake letting him go,” Brady joked on commentary after watching Barkley score his third touchdown as the Eagles romped into the Super Bowl with a 55-23 hammering of the Washington Commanders in the NFC Championship game.

Meanwhile, Mahomes and Kansas City somewhat limped their way into the postseason, with 11 of their 15 regular-season wins coming by only eight points or fewer – before showing a bit more of the old Chiefs dynamism to again come through the playoffs unscathed.

They ranked 17th in yards per game (327.6) and 15th in points per game (22.6) during the 2024 season, far from the high-octane offensive stats we have come to expect over the course of their near-decade long dominance.

Mahomes too posted record lows in passing yards per game (245.5) and in total touchdowns (28 – tied with the 2019 season). His passer rating of 93.5 was second only to last year’s career low of 92.6.

But in 2019, as well as last season, and perhaps come Sunday too, Mahomes was the one lifting the Vince Lombardi Trophy when all was said and done.

He and the Chiefs know precisely how and when to turn the ‘on’ switch, peaking just at the right time prior to another Super Bowl, playing some of their best football of the year – as they impressively toppled the Houston Texans in the Divisional Round of the playoffs before breaking Buffalo Bills hearts in the AFC Championship game once more.

He and the Chiefs exude the ultimate ‘Final Boss’ energy. You have to get past them, and in the Super Bowl itself that is no easy feat.

In all three of Mahomes’ prior Super Bowl victories, he has carried the team back from the brink, turning around 10-point deficits in each.

Heck, even his lone Super Bowl loss, to the Brady-led Buccaneers, Mahomes produced some of the most remarkable, gravity-defying throws ever seen on a football field, but was badly let down by his butter-fingered receiving corps and leaky offensive line.

“If we can start fast obviously it would help out and make it to where we don’t have to necessarily have a fourth-quarter comeback every time,” he said.

“But however you find a way to win, you find a way to get a win.”

Beware: this Chiefs team, truly living up to this new tag as the villains, are always capable of one last scare.

The Kansas City Chiefs face the Philadelphia Eagles in Super Bowl 59 at the Caesars Superdome in New Orleans on Sunday February 9, live on Sky Sports NFL and Main Event from 10pm ahead of kick-off at 11.30pm; 17-time Grammy-winning rapper Kendrick Lamar headlines the half-time show