Tom Brady vs Peyton Manning

[SamAdams76]

Ok, so we have Tom Brady and the New England Patriots playing Peyton Manning and the Indianapolis Colts for the AFC Championship this weekend.

Despite the fact that Tom Brady has gone to and won three Super Bowls in his first five seasons and the fact that Peyton Manning has been to zero Super Bowls in his first EIGHT seasons, the perception is still there that Golden Boy Peyton Manning is the premier quarterback of the NFL.

Why is that? Is it because of all those TV commercials that Peyton Manning is in? Maybe if Peyton did less commercials and concentrated more on football, he'd have been to the Super Bowl by now. Just saying...

Anyway, that's not why I posted this thread. The reason I post this thread is to point out a rather astonishing fact. Tom Brady is now 12-1 in the playoffs for a winning percentage of .923. Does any NFL quarterback even come close to that (and I include Joe Montana and Bart Starr)?

Peyton Manning is 5-6 for a winning percentage of .454.

Now let's say for some inexplicable reason that Tom Brady was to lose every single playoff game for the rest of his career. How long would it take his playoff record to equal that of Peyton Manning's today?

Well for one thing, Brandy and the Pats would have to make the playoff a lot more times and then they would have to lose the first game each and every time. Assuming the Patriots make the playoffs every year for the rest of Brady's career, here is what would need to happen for Brady to "catch up" with where Peyton Manning is today...

2007 - Lose AFC Championship - 12-2 (.857)
2008 - Make playoffs, lose opening round - 12-3 (.800)
2009 - Make playoffs, lose opening round - 12-4 (.750)
2010 - Make playoffs, lose opening round - 12-5 (.706)
2011 - Make playoffs, lose opening round - 12-6 (.667)
2012 - Make playoffs, lose opening round - 12-7 (.632)
2013 - Make playoffs, lose opening round - 12-8 (.600)
2014 - Make playoffs, lose opening round - 12-9 (.571)
2015 - Make playoffs, lose opening round - 12-10 (.545)
2016 - Make playoffs, lose opening round - 12-11 (.522)
2017 - Make playoffs, lose opening round - 12-12 (.500)
2018 - Make playoffs, lose opening round - 12-13 (.480)
2019 - Make playoffs, lose opening round - 12-14 (.462)

Note that it is 12 years later and Brady has now lost 13 consecutive playoff games and STILL, his career playoff winning percentage is a smidgen above that of Peyton Manning today.

I should also mention that Tom Brady will now be 41 years old. Will he even play pro football enough years to lose enough playoff games to match Peyton Manning? That's provided of course that the Pats make the playoffs for each of those 12 years and lose that first game each and ever time. I think it would be easier for Brady to win six more Super Bowls than to achieve that!

So what is all this yip-yip-yapping about Peyton Manning being one of the greatest QBs in NFL history? What is up with all those commercials like he is the Michael Jordan of football or something? Yes, he's good. No doubt about it. He may yet even win a Super Bowl or two, but his best opportunity is THIS YEAR and he's going to have to get past Tom Brady and the Pats this coming weekend.

So far, there is more Dan Marino about Peyton Manning than Joe Montana...or Tom Brady. Not that Joe Montana or Tom Brady would ever have to make a pathetic plea to their hometown fans to keep opposing fans out of the stadium for home games.

Again, not trying to make Peyton Manning out to be a bad guy. I'm sure he's a good guy who opens doors for old ladies, pets neighborhood dogs and gives lollipops to little girls. But there is something about the guy that just gets in my craw. Kind of like the high school jock we all grew up with who always got all the attention because he was annointed "golden boy." Maybe what really annoys me about Peyton is his over-controlling father who just can't stay on the sidelines and cheer like a normal dad. Maybe another thing that annoys me is Peyton's kid brother Eli, the washed-up karaoke singer who deemed himself "too good" to play for the team who drafted him so that he could go to a major market like New York and cash in on more endorsement dollars than he might have gotten in "low-rent" San Diego. Ironically the team he thought he was too good for is kicking butt (just couldn't get past those Patriots though) and doing much better than his precious Giants.

I don't know. Maybe the Mannings represent to me the overprivileged brats who were both annointed saviors of their respective teams while somebody like Tom Brady (199th pick in the 2000 draft) had to struggle and scrap his way to even make his team and in the end, through hard work and discipline, won the job from another spoiled "number-one-draft-pick-annointed-savior" (Drew Bledsoe) and outclassed them all.

[NYCVirago]

I mean Teddy Ballgame, of course.

[Richard Kimball]

Brady's got three Super Bowl rings. As far as QBs go, that puts him in the company of Montana (4), Bradshaw (4), Aikman (3) and not much of anybody else. I think Tom will be making a speech in Canton in a few years. I can hear Belichick's speech now: "Thanks. I hate reporters." He'll probably have his hoodie dyed yellow for the induction, but no doubt, they both belong in there, and they're not done yet.

I'd like to see Manning get one, just so he doesn't have to go around like Fran Tarkenton for the next forty years, going "I was too a great quarterback!"