Posted on 02/01/2008 4:38:28 PM PST by maddog55
Is Brady the best quarterback who ever played? NFL By John Powers The Boston Globe Published: February 1, 2008
PHOENIX, Arizona: Even now, after three rings and a season that is one victory shy of unprecedented perfection, the man shakes his head when you put him alongside Joe Montana, Terry Bradshaw and the other immortals in the signal-calling pantheon. "Those guys, as far as I'm concerned, are in a league of their own," Tom Brady said.
And yet, if the New England Patriots beat the New York Giants in Super Bowl XLII on Sunday night, their quarterback will join Montana and Bradshaw as the only four-time winners of football's ultimate game. And since a victory also would cap a flawless season, Brady could well be considered the best who has ever played.
"If Tom wins this game and is part of a team which went undefeated in 19 games, then it strengthens his argument," said the former Dallas Cowboys quarterback Troy Aikman, who won three Super Bowls and who lists Montana as his No. 1.
Comparing quarterbacks from different eras is an inexact science. Bradshaw and the Pittsburgh Steelers won their four titles in the 1970s, Montana and the San Francisco 49ers in the '80s. Since then, the NFL has added expansion teams, gone to free agency, adopted a salary cap and changed its scheduling to promote parity. Its players are bigger, stronger, and faster than ever.
(Excerpt) Read more at iht.com ...
Joey’s got adult ADD and thinks whatever he’s looking at right now is the greatest. Not to take anything away from Tom Brady, because he is great. If Dan Marino had even one ring we wouldn’t even be having this discussion. Here are five QBs I think were better than Tom Brady, ring count notwithstanding:
1. Joe Montana
2. John Elway
3. Troy Aikman
4. Dan Marino
5. Steve Young
He is the BEST of the BEST!
Ever!
How many years will it be before any other team goes unbeaten?
How many of YOU will be DEAD before you see it happen again?
The Pats are the BEST of the BEST.
Ever.
SF 49’er. (team built for the passing game)
The best receiver in the game. (Jerry Rice)
This illustrates why it is so hard to rank an individual who is part of a team effort. Different era’s, different teammates, different rules, different performance enhancing drugs. ;)
Yeah, maybe in the federal pen while he is doing his time
Vick is a thug
He’s probably not the best who’s ever played but, the only ones arguably better didn’t get to play with the ‘07 Patriots.
I would pick the same #1 as you as well. Given a random NFL team against random NFL opponents with 2 minutes left on the clock and down by 6. If your time machine could pick any of the QB’s mentioned at their prime.........who WOULDN’T pick Joe Montana?
Marc Bulger, Chad Pennington, and Duante Culpepper all have higher career passing ratings than Tom Brady. Does that make them better QBs?
Tom Brady wins championships. That is what earns him at least a Top 5 all-time QB.
The 1972 Miami Dolphins plays divisional opponents with a .360 combined record. The 2007 Patriots’ divisional opponents had a .240 combined record. Since they played each divisional opponent twice, this seems significant.
If Marino had even one ring? Yeah if only I had a million dollars, I’d be rich. I’m a Bills fan. We faced the Dolphins twice a year. I would not have traded Marino for Jim Kelly straight up. No way is Marino the greatest.
I’m not a Niners fan but I grew up and worked as a teenager a few miles from Sierra College, where they had summer camp in the Bill Walsh era. I still have the autographs of Walsh, Chuck Studley and Ronnie Lott on a menu. :)
Aside from that, SB rings does not make any one player the best ever. Some of the best to ever play the game never got a ring.
No. Not yet, by a bit.
No doubt.
One of my coworkers said a week or so ago that if it were not for the NFL half of the players would probably be in prison.
I will never forget the first time that I saw Vick playing. He was defying the laws of physics.
This should get me 100 pings tonight...:-)
Too early to really tell. NE’s gestalt is it’s most impressive quality.
I think it can be fairly conclusively said that if Mangini hadn't egged Branch on to hold out, that the Patriots would have beaten the Colts last year in the AFC championship game. Branch doesn't drop those balls while standing alone, that Caldwell did.
While you've already apple/oranged, in comparing general opponents to a subset, it is significant in a different way. Aside from the Giants, who didn't play another regular season game after playing the Patriots, only one opponent of the Patriots beat a team that wasn't the Jets or Dolphins the week after playing the Patriots, and several lost at least the next TWO games. The only team that one could say played well the week after was the Browns beating the Dolphins by 10.
The flip side of your comparison is that the Patriots beat the entire NFC East, including their champions and two Wild Card teams, and the champions of the AFC West, North (and the 10-6 Browns, who would have been the Wild-Card team if the Colts hadn't dogged their last game), and South, in the regular season - the Dolphins played no comparable games to any of those. The Patriots beat TWO teams which ended up 13-3, at times when they were undefeated.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.