Where Patrick Mahomes-Josh Allen rivalry ranks in recent sports history

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This year’s NFL Playoffs have brought about plenty of surprises, a few new faces to the party, a delightfully entertaining Divisional Round, and an intriguing final four which includes a pair of divisional foes on the NFC side, and the league’s best rivalry in the AFC. Over the past half-decade, no two teams have delivered better games in bigger spots than the Kansas City Chiefs vs. the Buffalo Bills, and no two players have become bigger stars — or rivals — because of it than Patrick Mahomes and Josh Allen.

The word Rivalry is defined by the Oxford English Dictionary as “a competition for the same objective or for superiority in the same field.” If this definition were to be taken literally, that means any parties which are competing for anything — a promotion, a love interest, an award, or the top grade in a class — are rivals. However, in sports, the term rivalry often takes on a slightly different meaning. It’s typically reserved for the individuals or teams at the top of their sport, competing for championship glory or the right to be considered the best at their craft.

Sure, there have been notable rivalries like Richard Sherman vs. Michael Crabtree, Tyson Fury vs. Deontay Wilder, or Ron Artest vs. the city of Detroit that have briefly captured the imagination of the collective audience. But with all due respect, these rivalries are simply footnotes within the enormous history of each of these respective sports. They are not the rivalries that have been responsible for forming the foundation on which these sports continue to stand.

So as we head into Sunday night’s highly-anticipated AFC Championship Game, today the question is, what kind of rivalry is Patrick Mahomes vs. Josh Allen? Is it a mere footnote, or is it foundational piece of the NFL’s fabric?

Evaluating the status of the Patrick Mahomes-Josh Allen rivalry 

Since Patrick Mahomes and Josh Allen became the starting quarterbacks of the Chiefs and Bills respectively, these two teams have met on the gridiron eight times, and heading into this weekend’s matchup, they’re deadlocked at four wins a piece. Even beyond the dead even win-loss record, statistically, Mahomes and Allen have routinely proven to be equals when they stop on the field against one another.

Patrick Mahomes, 8 games vs. Buffalo – 64% completion, 2,220 passing yards, 219 rushing yards, 19 total touchdowns, 7 interceptions

Josh Allen, 8 games vs. Kansas City – 62% completion, 2,063 passing yards, 448 rushing yards, 22 total touchdowns, 4 interceptions

Now fans in Kansas City will be quick to remind you that the Chiefs a perfect 3-0 against the Bills in the postseason. They’ll likely also mention that Mahomes has a pair of regular season MVP’s and three Super Bowl MVP’s to Allen’s zero, though the 2024 NFL MVP Award may soon be coming Josh Allen’s way. But even if Allen does hold off Lamar Jackson and Saquon Barkley to win his first MVP Award, we all have enough experience as sports fans to know where this is heading if the Chiefs win on Sunday.

Some have already been eager to dismiss Patrick Mahomes vs. Josh Allen as a true rivalry because of Allen’s lack of postseason success against Mahomes, and you better believe that if the Chiefs once again win at Arrowhead on Sunday night, this group will inevitably grow larger. Looking at this rivalry

However, this is a short-sighted take for two reasons in particular:

First, it assumes that each of Buffalo’s three losses in the postseason fall on the shoulders of Josh Allen. Because Allen is the quarterback of the Bills and the ball is in his hands more than anyone else’s, it’s an easy assumption to make. But time after time, Allen has electrified in the postseason, proving that he’s capable of pushing Mahomes in a way few others have.

Remember, the Chiefs have proven to be a once-an-era force in the Playoffs since Patrick Mahomes arrived. It’s not as if he’s lost postseason games to the likes of Ryan Tannehill, Baker Mayfield or even Brock Purdy. Mahomes has been defeated head to head by Joe Burrow, and Tom Brady twice. You can make a strong case that the Chiefs should’ve won two of those games. The same can be said of Allen, whose Bills were just plays away from beating KC each of the last two times they met in the Playoffs.

Mahomes vs. Allen has the chance to become the NFL’s successor to Tom Brady vs. Peyton Manning. We just need to allow it to be. And yes, it is in our control, because ultimately, rivalries are completely arbitrary. And we can use past rivalries — and not just in football — to prove this point.

What past sports rivalries can teach us about Patrick Mahomes-Josh Allen

The first six times that Tom Brady and Peyton Manning squared off against each other, Manning was winless. Those six meetings included two in the postseason, a pair of games in which Brady (62% completion, 190 yards per game, 3 total touchdowns, 1 interception) outperformed Manning (56% completion, 237 yards per game, 1 total touchdown, 5 interceptions), and New England outscored Indianapolis 44-17.

For this reason, as is the case with Mahomes vs. Allen, there was some early dismissal that Brady vs. Manning was a real rivalry. But as Manning stormed back over the years, eventually winning six of his final 11 meetings against Brady (including three in the Playoffs), we all generally agreed that this was to be the NFL’s go-to rivalry, even if Brady’s spot atop the hierarchy of the greatest quarterbacks in league history is secure.

What we need to be better at understanding is that the greatness of two individuals can be appreciated and nurtured, not torn at and questioned, and in those instances are where we find the best rivalries.

Take for example Larry Bird and Magic Johnson. Thanks to what remains the biggest game in NCAA Tournament history, Larry Bird and Magic Johnson became rivals before they even donned the uniforms of the Boston Celtics and Los Angeles Lakers. One game was all that it took, and yes, three matchups in the NBA Finals over a four-year span certainly helped their cause, but all of these years later, the Bird vs. Magic is defined less by the results of those games, and more by what those games made fans feel.

Even as someone who wasn’t alive during the eighties, there is a visceral feeling that overtakes you when you sit down to watch an old game on YouTube that features the rivalry that saved the NBA. An appreciation of something momentous. Almost as if these two were able to help raise this “game” to event status because they were involved. And hey, speaking of event status, if we want Mahomes vs. Allen to reach the heights it’s worthy of, we should actually be willing to learn a lesson from professional wrestling.

I suppose I don’t need to clarify that professional wrestling is a much different venture than the National Football League, but once upon a time, fans willed a rivalry between Stone Cold Steve Austin and The Rock into existence during the Attitude Era not only because they were the two biggest stars in professional wrestling, but because they were natural foils who made magic every time they stepped in the ring together, whether it was for a main event match or for a promo.

It never really mattered who came out on top. The magic was in the moment it became clear that the two best in the world at what they do were about to put on a show. And that’s exactly what Patrick Mahomes and Josh Allen are about to do.

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