Lakers: Two-Time Super Bowl Champ Sees Parallels In Games Of Magic Johnson And One Of The NFL's Current Luminaries
Magic Johnson has been a hot name in NFL circles lately, as it appears the five-time Lakers champ is reportedly putting together a bid to purchase a portion of the Las Vegas Raiders.
But Johnson's on-court greatness as a player was the subject of the latest NFL-themed chatter.
Allow us to explain.
Former NFL kicker Lawrence Tynes, who won two Super Bowls while on the New York Giants, spoke with Brandon "Scoop B" Robinson for an extensive interview on Bally Sports. Robinson made the initial comparison between Johnson and 2019 Super Bowl MVP Patrick Mahomes, the four-time (and counting) Pro Browler quarterback for the Kansas City Chiefs.
Upon hearing the Magic comparison, Tynes remarked:
"I'd never thought about it that way but yes. The no-look passes, right? I mean nobody was doing that until Magic started doing all that. And he is just a unicorn. The things Patrick Mahomes does with a football... I mean, most times you watch a game, you see third and nine, third and ten, if it's your team, you're [saying to yourself], 'Yeah, we're gonna be punting.' He gets like 75, 80% percent of those... He is in another stratosphere... in my opinion."
Tynes is actually the second NFL observer to compare Mahomes with Johnson this month!
The 6'1" vet went undrafted out of Troy State in 2001, and would not make an NFL regular season roster until the 2004 season, when he latched on with the Kansas City Chiefs. He enjoyed a 10-season NFL career between stints with Kansas City, New York, and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 2013. He was the NFC's scoring leader in 2012, his final season with the Giants.
Will Mahomes be able to approach Johnson's lofty legacy as an athlete? The quarterback will probably need to win a couple more titles to get there. But at least in terms of his creativity as a distributor, it does seem like these two all-timers have plenty in common.
