I take no pleasure in writing this column.
But following Tom Brady and the Patriots’ comeback victory over the Jacksonville Jaguars in Sunday’s AFC Championship, something else has come back to water coolers, bars, social media timelines, and the airwaves: the debate about who greatest quarterback of all-time is.
Up here in the Bay Area, that conversation has a predictable formula: Is it Joe Montana or Tom Brady?
Somehow, hundreds, thousands, perhaps even millions of people believe there is still a debate to be had.
Those people are wasting their time.
The debate is over. It’s been over for at least a year.
Brady has already won.
And another Super Bowl win — his sixth, should he beat the Eagles on Feb. 4 — would merely be running up the score on the 49ers’ legend.
Again, it brings me no pleasure to declare the debate over, but perhaps Montana fans can take solace in the fact that Brady is a Bay Area kid who grew up going to Candlestick, idolizing No. 16.
Would Brady be the quarterback he is today without the influence of Montana? No one can say. I will say, though, that the kid has overtaken his idol.
Yes, the eras the two quarterbacks played in were different, but even if you find a way to weigh it, it’s still no contest.
The simple argument is that Brady has been to eight Super Bowls in 16 seasons as the Patriots’ starting quarterback (he didn’t start his rookie year and he was injured in the first game of the 2008 season).
Yes, Brady has made the Super Bowl in half of his active seasons. That’s nearly unfathomable.
Even more amazing: Brady has played in 15 percent of all Super Bowls. Take a moment to think about how ridiculous that is.
We thought Montana was incredible when he went to four, and won each one. That’s impressive, no doubt, but Brady has four Super Bowl MVP awards to his name, the most of all-time.
(To cite Montana’s undefeated record in the Super Bowl is fair game, but it’s not like he was invincible — he did lose those years he didn’t lead the Niners to the Super Bowl, after all.)
I’d say that’s enough to claim that Brady is the G.O.A.T., but Brady’s claim to the throne goes well beyond just Super Bowl accolades.
If the 40-year-old quarterback can outlast Drew Brees, he’ll be the NFL’s all-time passing yards leader. And the two active QBs are tied for third on the all-time touchdowns thrown list, two reasonable seasons behind the leader, Peyton Manning (who probably deserves to be in this conversation over Montana.)
Montana is 18th on the all-time passing list, one spot behind Kerry Collins.
And inside a career marked by insane longevity and steadiness, Brady also posted two of the greatest seasons in quarterback history: his 50-touchdown 2007 campaign and 2016’s 28-touchdown, two-interception effort.
(To think that a near-5,250-yard season and this year’s 102.8 quarterback rating are in a second-tier is mind-blowing.)
And he’s won two MVP awards, too — much like with Michael Jordan, several times a worthy runner-up received the award over Brady — and he’ll likely take home a third before the Super Bowl.
Oh, and Brady is the NFL’s all-time leader in wins. Those, I hear, are pretty important. And he’s also won the AFC East division in all but one of his 16 years in charge, failing to make the postseason only in 2002, when the Patriots lost the division title on a third tiebreaker to the Jets after Brady played through a shoulder injury.
Now there’s no question that Brady has gotten help — this is where irrational people flagellate themselves while yelling “CHEATING!” — as he has the greatest coach of all-time in Bill Belichick at the helm of his team. But Montana can also claim to have played for the best coach in football history, Bill Walsh. (We’re not getting into that debate right now, this one is exhausting enough.)
And if you don’t think the two are separated yet, may I remind you that Montana was throwing to Jerry Rice — the greatest receiver ever — and played in the pre-salary cap era for an owner who was famous for spending money on his roster and for his players.
Brady is certainly well compensated and pampered, but he had one year of Hall of Fame wide receiver play — 2007 with Randy Moss (the year he threw 50 touchdowns) —and he’s played his entire career in a league where rosters have massive annual turnover because of the cap.
Montana was incredible and I feel bad taking such a strong stance against him in this scenario, but I had to make an effort to eliminate that topic from the sports talk radio run-down before any more people are caught up in the nonsense of it all.
Brady should be universally held as the best quarterback to ever to snap a chinstrap.
For now, at least. Jimmy Garoppolo and Derek Carr are only 26 years old…
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