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How Patrick Mahomes and Kansas City Captured the Super Bowl Over Philadelphia

The team has made the conference championship in each of Mahomes’s five seasons as the starter and won two Super Bowls. He engineered a late drive to set up a winning kick to beat the Eagles.

With another Super Bowl comeback, Patrick Mahomes brightens the N.F.L.’s future.

Patrick Mahomes, right, threw an 18-yard touchdown pass to Travis Kelce as part of Kansas City’s win.Credit...Doug Mills/The New York Times

GLENDALE, Ariz. — On Thursday night, Patrick Mahomes of the Kansas City Chiefs won his second N.F.L. Most Valuable Player Award, cementing him as the most accomplished passer of a new crop of young quarterbacks dominating the league. Three days later, he added the second Super Bowl victory of his career, throwing for 182 yards and three touchdowns to beat the Philadelphia Eagles, 38-35.

The game concluded a tumultuous season for the N.F.L. in which Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin collapsed on the field from a cardiac arrest during a game and high-profile hits to Miami Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa renewed criticisms of how the league handles players’ health, especially concussions.

Mahomes fought through the playoffs with an injury of his own, a high ankle sprain sustained in the divisional round last month that was aggravated in the second quarter Sunday.

Philadelphia dominated the first half. Yet, with Kansas City facing a 10-point deficit to begin the third quarter, Mahomes marshaled a resilient performance in a game noteworthy for pitting him against another emergent passer, Jalen Hurts, in the first Super Bowl contested between two Black starting quarterbacks.

In the end, Mahomes further enshrined himself as the face of the league as he embraced teammates under cascading red and gold confetti, especially after the seven-time champion Tom Brady retired (for good, he said) 11 days before the Super Bowl.

Like Brady, Mahomes delivered a thrilling comeback, this time, from a 10-point second-half deficit, which earned him game M.V.P. honors.

“To be down to a team like that and come back and win the game,” Mahomes said, “I wish I’d make it easier and not be down, but I play better when we are down.”

With just over one minute left in the first half and Kansas City trailing by 21-14, Mahomes scrambled outside the pocket but Eagles linebacker T.J. Edwards tackled him by his right ankle. Mahomes had injured that ankle Jan. 21 against the Jacksonville Jaguars, and had been compromised for the A.F.C. championship game against the Cincinnati Bengals the next week.