Tom Brady Earns 7th Ring as the Tampa Bay Buccaneers Win Super Bowl 2021

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the Kansas City Chiefs faced off at Super Bowl LV on Sunday

A champion has emerged from the meeting between two of the NFL's best teams.

On Sunday, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers beat the Kansas City Chiefs to win Super Bowl LV at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Florida.

The game pitted two of the league's best quarterbacks against each other: the Buccaneers' Tom Brady — who made his 10th appearance in the championship game at 43 years old — and the Chiefs' Patrick Mahomes, who led Kansas City to a Super Bowl win last year.

But what was expected to be a high-scoring game turned out to be a lopsided affair, with the Buccaneers' defense holding Mahomes at bay all game, allowing Brady to rack up the score early on.

Brady connected with Rob Gronkowski in the waning minutes of the first quarter to score the first touchdown of the game, giving the Bucs an early 7-0 lead. The Chiefs countered with a field goal, but the Bucs scored their second touchdown — again, by way of Gronkowski — in the middle of the second quarter.

tom brady
Tom Brady. Mike Ehrmann/Getty

Then, before the end of the first half, Brady connected with Antonio Brown for another touchdown, bringing the Bucs' lead to 21-6.

This was the story for the rest of the game, with Tampa Bay eventually winning 31-9.

Super Bowl 2021
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Before Brady and the Bucs stepped onto the field, they had already made history as the first team to ever host a Super Bowl in their home stadium.

They earned the milestone by going undefeated in the playoffs, first by eliminating the Washington Football Team in the Wild Card round, then by taking down the New Orleans Saints in what could have been Drew Brees' last game in the NFL.

Tampa Bay then met Aaron Rodgers and the Packers in Green Bay, beating them 31-26 to win the NFC Championship. Rodgers was recently named Pro Football Writers of America's Most Valuable Player for 2020.

Meanwhile, the Chiefs took on the Buffalo Bills from Arrowhead Stadium for the AFC Championship, defeating the team 38-24. The Chiefs arrived in Tampa this weekend with their eyes set on being the first team to repeat as Super Bowl champions since the 2003-04 Patriots, which were led by Brady.

Super Bowl 2021
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A meeting between Brady and Mahomes may have been inevitable — each of the last two Super Bowls have featured one of the pair.

Mahomes led the Chiefs to their first Super Bowl win in 50 years when they beat the San Francisco 49ers 31-20 in 2020, and Brady and the Patriots beat the Los Angeles Rams 13-3 in 2019.

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Canadian singer The Weeknd headlined the Pepsi Super Bowl Halftime Show during the game.

Because of the coronavirus pandemic, the NFL capped attendance at Raymond James Stadium at 25,000 attendees. The change was to allow fans enough space to socially distance themselves from each other in "seating pods," according to the New York Times.

Of those allowed inside, 7,500 were vaccinated healthcare workers who were gifted free tickets from the league.

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