NFL future looks bright in the magic hands of Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes

Three years into his career, and at just 24 years of age, it is time to hail Patrick Mahomes a modern day legend of the game.

Fitting, in a year when the NFL has honoured its greatest players as part of their 100-year celebrations.

The Kansas City Chiefs quarterback showed in the balmy heat of Miami that he is the man to take the league into the next century.

Harrassed for three quarters by San Francisco’s vaunted and suffocating pass rush, the boy wonder of the sport appeared for the first time in his short career to be vulnerable.

But unfazed by a 10-point deficit with a little over eight minutes left, Mahomes launched a 44-yard bomb to Tyreek Hill to reignite Kansas City hopes.

A pass interference call on Travis Kelce and a short pass to the same tight end later, and the Chiefs were back from the dead and only 20-17 behind.

And when they needed their defence to stand firm against a 49ers offense that had kept them guessing all night with reverse sweeps and unerring accuracy from Jimmy Garoppolo, they did so, giving Mahomes the ball back with just over five minutes on the clock.

Conventional wisdom would suggest they try to score by taking as much time off the clock as possible, but not the Chiefs, not Mahomes. Speed is the essence of this offence; whether it’s their lightning-quick wide receivers or how quickly they score, particularly in a play-off run in which they have made 10-point deficits evaporate in a heartbeat.

Mahomes’s five-yard pass to Damien Williams was enough for the go-ahead score, although the 49ers can feel aggrieved that the touchdown was awarded with Williams’ toe looking to be out of bounds before he actually breached the goalline with the nose of the ball.