Tom Brady beats Aaron Rodgers in Hall-of-Fame battle with pedestrian play

Tom Brady is now 2-1 against Aaron Rodgers in meetings between the Hall of Famers

In the latest battle between Tom Brady and Aaron Rodgers, one quarterback showed up while the other started strong and then bottomed out the rest of the way.

After the Green Bay Packers went up 10-0 on the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Rodgers was seen doing a rather interesting dance that certainly got attention of the Buccaneers players. Tampa Bay proceeded to go on an incredible 38-0 run that propelled the Bucs to a 38-10 win and hand Green Bay their first loss of the season.

Brady finished the game 17-of-27 for 166 yards and two touchdowns for a quarterback rating of 104.9, which wasn’t overly impressive but was more than enough. He also earned bragging rights in addition to validation that he is not as “washed up” as many have proclaimed.

Rodgers was nowhere near what we expected. Frankly, it was embarrassing. He finished the loss at 16-of-35 for 160 yards, no touchdowns and two interceptions, including a pick-six, with a quarterback rating of 35.4. To put it in context, Buccaneers backup Blaine Gabbert registered a 39.6 rating in garbage time. Ouch.

While Ronald Jones and the Tampa defense had their way against Green Bay, the storyline revolved around the two signal-callers. All week long, debates raged on as to who was the superior quarterback between the two. Each one has made a case throughout their career as to why they should be better than the other.

Rodgers has one Super Bowl ring and his been dubbed by many “the greatest thrower of the football”. He also holds a number of NFL records including the best touchdown to interception ratio in NFL history and was the first player in NFL history to pass for over 4,000 yards in each of his first two seasons as a starting QB.

Brady? He’s only the first player in NFL history to have won six Lombardi Trophies as a quarterback and have the most wins in NFL history in both the regular season and postseason. He also holds the record for the largest comeback in NFL postseason history — Falcons fans, look away.

To add a little fun to the game, running back Jamaal Williams poked fun at Brady after his confusion in a one-point loss to the Bears a week prior. That now seems like a poor choice

Tom Brady got the last laugh and closed any further debate.

While Brady may have closed the debate between him and Rodgers, they both share the memory of being passed over by their hometown San Francisco 49ers. 2000 was the year Brady had come off a dominant performance in the Orange Bowl at Michigan while Rodgers was seen by many is the best prospect in the 2005 NFL Draft coming out of Cal.

Both times, San Francisco selected a quarterback in their draft class but it was neither of the future Hall of Famers. In 2000, they selected Giovanni Carmazzi, who never played in a regular season game and was released after two seasons.

In 2005, they went the road of Alex Smith, who has had some level of success but not No. 1 overall pick type of success, as Rodgers tumbled down the board. The story, however, of his comeback from a potentially career-ending injury is an inspiring tale.

Rodgers and Brady meanwhile, went No. 24 to Green Bay and No. 199 to New England, respectively, and soon became the faces of the franchises that picked them. Additionally, there were times where these two could have matched up in the Super Bowl against each other, in both 2014 and 2017. Unfortunately, it didn’t.

The Buccaneers have to be feeling good after recording two interceptions off Rodgers and even scoring a touchdown. The offense meanwhile will need to work out a few things, although it was nice to see Rob Gronkowski score a touchdown, to both the delight and sadness of Patriots fans.

As for Green Bay, this is a wake up call for two reasons. The first being that the NFC is going to be tough this year and they can’t afford to take anyone lightly. The second being that their quarterback will never surpass the 12 that resides in Tampa Bay.