It's Okay...You Can Say It...Tom Brady Is the G.O.A.T.

I'm not here to talk about Tom Brady and "Deflategate", especially when my favorite quarterback of all time admitted his offensive line sprayed silicone on their jerseys and my favorite receiver said he used stickum to catch the ball better.  I'm not here for his Make America Great Again hat, his association with President Donald Trump, his "immigrant wife", him knocking up two women at the same time or any of his other White male privilege faux pas, not when the great Michael Jordan cheated on his wife, was a notoriously stingy tipper and orchestrated some of the greatest shade ever known (i.e., the Isiah Thomas snub from the Dream Team).  I am here to discuss football and why we can now set ourselves free of the long-debated quarterback G.O.A.T. debate, which has usually included Dan Marino, Peyton Manning in this generation and the consensus favorite in Joe Montana.  While it could be considered being a prisoner of the moment, even people who want to see a box of those Make America Great Again hats dropped on Brady's head from ten stories high have conceded: TB12 is the G.O.A.T. and here's why I won't argue with anyone about it...

First and foremost, calling Tom Brady "system quarterback" is short-sighted because every great quarterback benefits from some form of a system.  What makes a QB great is how he transcends the system and Brady has done that better than any quarterback with his talent and many who were more talented.  Think about it: he ran a 5.28 in the 40-yard dash and a 4.38 in the shuttle run, registered only 24 1/2 inches in the vertical jump, scored a 7.2 in the cone drill and most "experts" said he would be a practice squad QB at best.  Basically, even the greatest system ever conceived shouldn't avail the last quarterback taken in the 2000 NFL Draft who possess such glaring limitations.  However, he overcame his lack of athleticism with a high football IQ--he had the highest Wonderlic test score of any Patriot that year--and studying harder than anyone else calling Gillette Stadium their home field.  When Drew Bledsoe got injured, he leapfrogged John Friesz and Michael Bishop for the starting job and went on a 13-2 tear en route to the franchise's first Lombardi trophy.  Moreover, although Belichick is the master architect, he's more of a defensive mind while Brady has worked with multiple OCs, including Charlie Weis, Josh McDaniels and Bill O'Brien; he's been to Super Bowls with all three of them and won with two.  Show me the number of "system quarterbacks" who win at championship levels with the same OC for their entire career, let alone three different ones...

Against the league's elite quarterbacks, it's hit and miss.  On one hand, Brady hasn't done so well against Drew Brees whether he was a Charger or a Saint and his only win against the No. 32 overall pick in 2001 came in the "show ponies, unicorns, where's the beef" thriller in Foxboro back in 2013.  In his only matchup with 2005's No. 24 overall pick, he lost a 26-21 nail biter at Lambeau to Aaron Rodgers in 2014, although he got his fourth Super Bowl ring that season.  Although most folks consider Eli Manning to be more "unrELIable" than "ELIte", Brady is 2-3 against 2004's No. 1 overall pick and 0-2 against him in the Super Bowl.  On the other hand, most folks from this era contend Peyton Manning, the top pick of 1998, is the best quarterback of this generation.  Unfortunately, although Manning was 3-2 vs. Brady in the playoffs, he was 6-11 in their overall head-to-head and only had one playoff win with the Colts against Brady.  Ben Roethlisberger has two Super Bowl wins under his belt, but he's an abysmal 2-10 against Brady and 0-2 in the playoffs--both games (one at Heinz, one at Gillette) being blowouts in the AFC Championship.  Lastly, although many have already crowned Matt Ryan as an elite field general, the first QB taken in the 2008 NFL Draft (No. 3) has dropped all three games to The Brady Bunch, including the obvious.  While Brady hasn't dominated everyone head-to-head, he's often been convincing when he does...

Most of the elite QBs have benefited from widely respected receivers and tight ends: Peyton Manning had Marvin Harrison and Reggie Wayne; Ben Roethlisberger leaned heavily on Hines Ward's toughness; Aaron Rodgers has relied primarily on Jordy Nelson; Matt Ryan has had Roddy White, Tony Gonzalez and Julio Jones; and Drew Brees always has a solid tight end whether it was Antonio Gates in San Diego or Jimmy Graham in New Orleans.  Counting the two guys with whom he was tied for the most Super Bowl wins until Sunday, Joe Montana had Dwight Clark early before getting Jerry Rice and Terry Bradshaw had Lynn Swann and John Stallworth at his disposal.  However, one of the biggest compliments to Brady's greatness is being able to win with receivers who have largely neither been considered top-flight receivers nor are likely candidates for busts in Canton.  In his first three Super Bowl wins, Troy Brown, David Patten, David Givens and Deion Branch were his best receivers.  In Super Bowl LI, his leading receiver was running back James White--who's not even the starting back--and rookie Malcolm Mitchell was one of the biggest catalysts to the Patriots' comeback.  Outside of Super Bowl XLIX when Brady actually had Rob Gronkowski at his disposal--and even then, Julian Edelman led the team in receiving--he never won a Super Bowl with a wildly intimidating receiver--and he's had both Randy Moss and Chad Ochocinco.  To do more with less for the majority of his career speaks volumes to the level on which he has played for 16 seasons...

If you're a statistical junkie, then maybe you're partial to Peyton Manning or Drew Brees.  While Tom Brady is currently fourth on both the all-time passing yards and TDs lists behind Manning, Brett Favre and Brees, he would realistically need to play three more seasons, pass for at least 3,453 yards and throw at least 25 TDs to eclipse Peyton Manning, and standing in his way is the stats machine in the slightly younger Brees ahead of him in both categories and likely to nab those records first.  Where he leads all three is in all-time QB rating where he's third on the list behind Aaron Rodgers--who some have understandably billed as the best quarterback in the league, although I don't share that sentiment--and Russell Wilson.  Historically, think of some of the other QBs we've heralded for most of our lives: in all of these categories, he's ahead of Dan Marino, John Elway, Warren Moon, Fran Tarkenton, Dan Fouts, Roger Staubach, Troy Aikman and Joe Montana--in some cases, he has a sizable margin.  Granted, the game was much different in the 70s, 80s and 90s inasmuch as many offenses didn't depend as heavily on passing the ball as Brady does--although Marino and Elway didn't have juggernauts at running back for most of their careers, leading to their gaudy numbers.  Nevertheless, with at least two to three more years left in the tank, Brady could be second in most statistical categories if nothing else...

Finally, we get to two of the most important factors regarding great sports figures: 1) how much ice water you have in your veins and 2) the hardware you've earned.  Including his Michigan days when he overcame a 14-point deficit in the 2000 Orange Bowl to beat Alabama 35-34 in OT, overcoming the odds and winning in the game's waning moments at the highest level is not a new concept to Tom Brady.  He led game winning drives to break ties with the Rams, the Panthers and the Eagles for his first three Super Bowl wins and battled back from the largest Super Bowl deficit at that time (ten points, tied with the '87 Skins and the '09 Saints) and two INTs against the Legion of Boom with 14 unanswered points, including the game-winning TD, for his fourth.  However, his crowning achievement was overcoming a 25-point deficit and uncharacteristically inaccurate throws against the overachieving Falcons defense to lead the greatest comeback in Super Bowl history...without a healthy Rob Gronkowski.  Consequently, none of the quarterbacks mentioned in this post have played in more playoff games (34), possess a better playoff record and winning percentage (25-9, .739) or have played in (seven) or won more Super Bowls (five) than Brady.  While you can get him "tap dancing in the pocket better than the late, great Gregory Hines" as Stephen A. Smith is famous for saying, no other quarterback in NFL history has been more clutch when the heat is on than Brady.


I know many of you are throwing up in your mouths having to admit 1) Tom Brady won another Super Bowl, especially after the "Deflategate" scandal and 2) he's better than whoever your favorite QB of all time is.  For me, that's been Joe Montana since the late 80s when he engineered that legendary 92-yard game-winning drive against the Bengals in Super Bowl XXIII.  However, long before he eclipsed Montana for the most Super Bowl wins in NFL history, I said Brady was the closest thing I've seen to Montana and would be the only one in my mind to exceed what he did...not Manning...not Brees...a slow, scrawny kid from San Mateo, California who would see six QBs picked before him in the 2000 NFL Draft.  Not bad for a fourth-string quarterback, although his record in the NFL has been nothing like any underdog we've ever seen before and may not ever see again...and to think, he's still not done.