When Victory Defeats You
How Success Cost Patrick Mahomes in Super Bowl LIX
Has success ever made you comfortable?
Jalen Hurts is the real deal—the embodiment of poise, resilience, and relentless focus.
Who remembers his stop you in your tracks quote from the Eagles playoff run two seasons ago?
“I had a purpose before anybody had an opinion.” He displayed that purpose on Sunday.
The Philadelphia Eagles’ 40-22 dismantling of the Kansas City Chiefs in Super Bowl LIX wasn’t just a victory; it was a reckoning. While Hurts played with the edge of a man still chasing greatness, Patrick Mahomes looked like a man who had already arrived.
For years, Mahomes has been the gold standard of quarterback excellence. He made the impossible look routine, playing the game with a creativity and confidence that made him nearly untouchable. But this time, something was missing. He wasn’t as sharp, wasn’t as urgent. Not because he suddenly lost his talent—but because success has a way of dulling even the sharpest minds.
There’s a moment in The Dark Knight Rises where Bane delivers a brutal truth to Batman: “Victory has defeated you.” The idea is simple but devastating—past success can make you vulnerable to present failure. When you win too much, when you prove yourself over and over again, the hunger that got you there can start to fade. And that’s exactly what happened to Mahomes.
There’s a reason no team in NFL history has won three straight Super Bowls. It’s not just the competition—it’s the psychology. Sustained greatness isn’t about maintaining skill; it’s about maintaining drive. It requires an obsession with reinvention, an intolerance for comfort, and a level of discipline most people can’t sustain.
Mahomes had a chance to make history, but history showed why it’s never been done. The Chiefs’ offense lacked urgency. The improvisation, the precision, the execution that had defined Mahomes? It wasn’t there when it mattered most.
Meanwhile, Hurts played like a man with something to prove. He commanded the game, his every move reflecting the edge of an athlete who refuses to be denied. He was everything Mahomes used to be—a relentless force chasing something bigger than himself.
Success is a double-edged sword. It can elevate you—or it can soften you. The greatest competitors of all time understood this. Jordan never stopped manufacturing slights to fuel his fire. Brady stayed obsessed with the details long after he had nothing left to prove. Kobe operated with an unrelenting standard of excellence, never allowing past victories to lull him into complacency.
Mahomes is still one of the best in the game. But this Super Bowl loss raises a bigger question—not about his talent, but about his hunger.
Jalen Hurts wasn’t just hungry on Sunday, he was starving for it. He’s made that publicly known on more than one occasion and it showed.
Because in the end, victory doesn’t defeat you—your relationship to it does.
So the real question for Mahomes, and for every high performer who has tasted success, is this: Are you still chasing greatness, or are you living off what you’ve already done?