1972 Dolphins were slow, and small? You need to not look at slow motion photos on the highlights. They were plenty fast, and plenty strong.
At 6'4" 225 Brady is not particularly strong. Steve Spagnola showed everybody in the world how you beat Brady: pressure, pressure, pressure, because he cannot take a hit. If I were offered Rodgers, Roethlisberger or Brady, I would take them in that order. Brady has no ability whatsoever to escape or extend a play. Unless his line keeps him pristine, he's severely limited.
You are kidding nobody but yourself if you think Brady was ever faster than a premier linebacker. And again, if you offer me a 6'0" 225 linebacker delivering a forearm to the face -- which was perfectly legal before the proliferation of Brady-inspired sissy rules, and certainly so in 1950 -- Brady would go down like Linda Lovelace: ugly and often.
There's no question that the current crop of football players is bigger, faster, and stronger in their own positions. And there's no question sports technology is better than it was in previous years. Nevertheless, despite steroids and all the newest technology, there is no baseball player who has ever come close to doing what Babe Ruth did. And I believe Johnny Unitas, YA Tittle, or Otto Graham [just for example] would have no problem shining as elite quarterbacks in the modern NFL.
The problem with all these "he's the best ever" claims for Brady is that they're being made by people with very short memories. That is in the nature of sports hype, fan enthusiasm, and sports "journalism," which always has enormous biases for the latest players. But that doesn't make it so.
In case you haven't noticed, the fastest players in the NFL have been almost 100% Black for the last 50 years.
The ‘72 Dolphins were 70% white.
The 2015 Patriots are 33% white.
Re: “Steve Spagnola showed everybody in the world how you beat Brady...”
Is that the same Spagnuolo who let Brady throw 3 TD’s, and only sacked him twice in 50 attempts, against the Ravens three weeks ago? Who won that game, by the way?
Re: “Brady cannot take a hit.”
He started 101 consecutive games before the ACL in 2008. He has started 96 consecutive games since 2009. He has started every Patriot playoff game since 2001.
Re: “if you think Brady was ever faster than a premier linebacker.”
I said Brady, in his youth, was faster than most 1955 linebackers.
Re: “he's the best ever”
I never said he was the best ever.
I said your claim that Brady could not play, or survive, in Otto Graham's era was absurd.
Get real. In Super Bowl XLIX he got pasted several times, and actually congratulated the linebackers for good hits. As he blasted them into 2nd-place Super Bowl irrelevance.
Dozens of great players who have competed with him (and, for the most part, lost despite their very best efforts) over a remarkable 15-year career (with only two game-affecting injuries in all that time...) state unequivocally that Tom Brady is one of the toughest SOB's they ever pounded into the turf.
Frankly, I'll trust their judgement on this one.