LAS VEGAS -- In a city where odds are its lifeblood, few have as impressive a professional success rate as Joe Thuney. The All-Pro guard made three consecutive Super Bowls with the Patriots and now is just days away from his second with the Chiefs.
Five shots at a ring in eight years (62.5 percent of his seasons) gives Thuney a better career Super Bowl percentage than his two favorite quarterbacks. Tom Brady made 10 Super Bowls over 23 seasons (43 percent), and Patrick Mahomes has been to four in his seven seasons (57 percent).
“I have to pinch myself,” Thuney told NBC Sports Boston this week. “It’s remarkable. I can’t believe it. Just so fortunate to get drafted by the Patriots. Spent great years there. Signed with the Chiefs. What an organization as well. I gotta pinch myself. It’s just… It’s insane.”
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Thuney may not be healthy enough to play Sunday against the 49ers as he deals with a pectoral injury, but he was named a first-team All-Pro for the first time in his career for his performance this season. He has two Second-Team All-Pros to his name as well.
His career path gives him a rare behind-the-scenes and in-the-huddle view of the best quarterback ever and the only quarterback currently on pace to one day be included in that conversation. Though Brady and Mahomes’ styles of playing the quarterback position differ, Thuney explained that their mindsets have similarities.
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“Both such special players,” Thuney said. “I think the attention to detail, the desire to win, the determination and focus… I could keep going on with adjectives. It’s hard to describe. They’re great, and I just try to do my part when I’m in the huddle on each play.”
Thuney, ever the diplomat, did acknowledge that Brady could be the more fiery of the two. When asked which quarterback was more likely to curse him out following a missed assignment, he laughed.
“I don’t know,” Thuney said. “I think I’ve heard it probably from Tom more. He never did it, like, bad or anything. It was just one of those things.”
Thuney has also had the opportunity to play with two of the greatest coaches of his generation, and arguably the two best ever in Bill Belichick and Andy Reid. With a culture change of sorts afoot in New England, Thuney was asked to describe the biggest difference he’s experienced as a part of a winning culture in Kansas City when compared against a different kind of winning culture in Foxboro.
“It’s still great attention to detail (in Kansas City),” Thuney explained. “Everyone is so determined to win. Everyone is so focused with one mindset just to try to win and be successful each week. The Chiefs, Coach Reid loves it when we show our personalities and have fun out there. It’s great. But at the end of the day when we step on the field, we just want to execute each play. It’s all business. We just want to win.”