Tom Brady: More Super than Joe Montana?
By Daniel
Kyle Terada-USA TODAY Sports
For awhile it seemed as though Joe Montana would never get a worthy adversary when it came to the ‘greatest quarterback of all-time’ debate.
Bart Starr won five total rings with the Green Bay Packers and was a two-time Super Bowl champion and MVP, but he lacked the impressive career numbers that Montana put up.
Peyton Manning has won an incredible five Most Valuable Player awards and has all of the statistics but has only one Super Bowl victory under his belt.
The Baltimore Colts’ Johnny Unitas is a definitely worth mentioning, as some consider him the greatest quarterback of all-time, but even his three championships fall short of Montana’s four.
Terry Bradshaw and Troy Aikman, leaders of the Steelers’ and Cowboys’ dynasties, respectively, were all about championships (seven combined), but both put up underwhelming career numbers. The Miami Dolphins’ Dan Marino and the Packers’ Brett Favre put up amazing career statistics, but combined for only one Super Bowl championship (Favre). It seemed like no quarterback would ever put together the championships, statistics, and awards ever again like Joe Montana did for the 1980s San Francisco 49ers.
Then came Tom Brady.
The Patriots’ signal caller, fresh off his fourth Super Bowl victory (tying the record for starting quarterbacks), is more than just comparable to Montana. Many major sports outlets are suggesting that Brady has passed Montana as the greatest quarterback of all-time. Brady, like Montana, has reached an unbelievable level of success in the NFL. But I believe that some people are too easily giving Brady this, admittedly, arbitrary title.
The vast majority of the notoriously immediate reaction-based sports world is claiming that Brady has cemented himself atop the NFL mountain. Check out Sports Illustrated’s newest cover. Is this another example of sensationalizing a moment and losing context of history? Or has Brady actually done the impossible?
I took a closer look at the careers of Brady and Montana with hopes to find out if Brady really had passed Montana. The results were quite eye-opening to say the least. Check out this detailed comparison of their amazing careers. You might just change your opinion on this topic after looking at the facts.
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