Tom Brady has a lot on the line in Super Bowl LIII.
It'll be the New England Patriots quarterback's ninth appearance in the game, which is already the most in NFL history. A win would be Brady's sixth, giving him more rings than any other player.
He'd also surpass his boyhood team.
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SIGN UP HERE Brady, a San Mateo native, grew up rooting for the 49ers. In a span of 14 seasons, San Francisco won five Super Bowls. Brady was four when the 49ers won their first in 1982, and a senior at Junipero Serra High School when they won their fifth in 1995.
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With a victory over the Los Angeles Rams on Sunday, the Patriots would win their sixth championship in 18 seasons. They'd tie the Pittsburgh Steelers for the most Super Bowl wins in league history, but in a much tighter span than the 34 years that separate Pittsburgh's first and sixth titles.
That spread, spanning practically the entirety of Brady's career, is a big reason why one could argue Brady's Patriots dynasty would eclipse the 49ers. That is, if they haven't already.
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The Patriots have turned over the roster quite a bit since Brady took over as the team's starting QB in the 2001 season. He and coach Bill Belichick are the only on-field constants who have been there every step of the way, which was not the case with the 49ers.
Joe Montana won four of the 49ers' five Super Bowls, and longtime backup Steve Young got the monkey off his back with their fifth. Bill Walsh coached San Francisco to three, and George Seifert to two. Jerry Rice, the true bridge between the Montana and Young iterations of the 49ers, has three rings.
Whether or not they beat the Rams on Sunday, Brady and Belichick already exceed them all. No head coach has more Super Bowl appearances than Belichick, either.
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In addition to having more kicks at the can, the Patriots have also been in position to do so more than the 49ers. During those aforementioned 14 seasons, San Francisco appeared in a conference championship game nine times. New England has played in one 13 times, and has made it past the Divisional Round every season since Brady turned 34.
That regularity in the game's most important weekends is unprecedented, and has raised the bar that the 49ers themselves raised from the 1980s through the mid 1990s. One more win on Sunday would satiate the Count The Rings crowd, and put Brady and the Patriots into rarefied air in terms of championships. But the Patriots really already occupy their own echelon in the league's history, and a victory in Super Bowl LII would just be running up the score.
The good news for 49ers fans is they can root for another Bay Area quarterback who grew up cheering for San Francisco. The bad news? Jared Goff plays for their biggest rivals, and that would open up its own can of worms for The Faithful.