After 20 seasons and six rings with New England Patriots, the NFL’s greatest quarterback Tom Brady has led Tampa Bay Buccaneers to a fairytale 31-9 victory over defending champions Kansas City Chiefs in Super Bowl LV.

In his first season with the Buccaneers, Brady,43, threw for 201 yards and three touchdowns – including two to former Pats teammate Rob Gronkowski – in the shootout with Chiefs superstar quarterback Patrick Mahomes on Sunday.

In front of a limited crowd in Florida due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Buccaneers made history, becoming the first NFL team to win a Super Bowl on their home field.

Only 22,000 spectators, including front line workers given free tickets by the NFL, were in the stadium. A reported 100 million watched on TV. Photo: Getty

Brady was named the most valuable player of the Super Bowl for a record-extending fifth time after leading his team to victory over the top-seeded Kansas City Chiefs.

“Everything we dealt with all year, we had a rough month in November.
But they had all the confidence in us,” he said afterwards.

“The team had a lot of confidence. We came together at the right time. I think we knew this was going to happen, didn’t we?”

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Brady, who previously earned MVP honours with New England Patriots, completed 21 of his 29 passes for 201 yards and three touchdowns in the win and joined Peyton Manning as the only starting quarterbacks to win Super Bowls with multiple teams.

Making his 10th Super Bowl appearance, Brady claimed his seventh ring on Sunday, wasting no time putting the Bucs in position for their second title and first since the 2002 season by firing for three first-half touchdowns and a 21-6 halftime lead.

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The early onslaught included a final-minute drive capped with a one-yard strike to Antonio Brown with six seconds left.

Former Pats teammate Rob Gronkowski grabbed two touchdowns, padding the postseason record for scoring connections from Brady to 14.

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Gronkowski had six grabs for 67 yards.

A 24-metre touchdown (TD) run in the third quarter by Leonard Fournette, who recorded 81 metres on 16 touches, made it 28-9. That TD helped ice the outcome as the Bucs constantly pressured the Chiefs’ Patrick Mahomes, who suffered his worst NFL defeat.

Defending champions Kansas City settled for three field goals by Harrison Butker.

Mahomes finished just 26 of 49 for 246 metres. He had two interceptions, a pick by Antoine Winfield that led to a third-quarter Tampa Bay field goal, and the second with a minute remaining by Devin White.

Mahomes scrambled for 30 metres, Travis Kelce led the Chiefs with 10 receptions for 121 metres and the Chiefs committed 11 penalties, eight in the first half.

-with agencies