I admit, Tom Brady is the GOAT... Sort Of
When Tom Brady was in the middle of losing 2 Super Bowls to the New York Giants, I was screaming he wasn’t the GOAT. The label ‘greatest of all time’ was being handed out by annoying New Englanders that wanted to be the center of the sport universe. But after Tom Brady earned his 10th trip to the Super Bowl by beating the Packers in the NFC Championship Game and is going for his 7th win as a starting QB, it’s time for me to concede the fact that he is the GOAT… Sort of.
Joe Montana was my, and Tom Brady for that matter, favorite QB growing up. He was the stuff of legend in San Francisco and Kansas City. He led the San Francisco 49ers to 4 Super Bowl wins, never lost in the Super Bowl, 13 TDs, 0 INTs, etc. Not only did he do all this in San Fran, he goes to Kansas City with a ok team and led them to the AFC Championship game in 1993. I held these numbers as the reason why he is the GOAT QB.
Tom Brady had won his first 3 Super Bowls then was being beaten by Peyton Manning (who was 3-1 in AFC Championship games against Brady). He led one of the greatest teams ever to a 18-1 record and loss to the Giants in the 2007 Super Bowl. He lost again in 2011 and it was looking bad. But a 3-1 record in the Super Bowl by beating the Seahawks, Falcons (the greatest comeback in Super Bowl history) and the Rams since has finally turned that idea on its head.
Tom Brady has the records for TDs, yards, wins, etc. He also never missed the playoffs, won the division almost every year, multiple MVPs, etc. But the losses were my out. But 6-3 in the Super Bowl is hard to ignore. I mean when looking at the QB position, Aaron Rodgers, John Elway, Dan Marino, Peyton Manning, even Patrick Mahomes are all more talented than Brady. If I was starting a team, I would pick them over Brady. Joe Montana, Bart Starr, Terry Bradshaw, Troy Aikman, Eli Manning are all multiple Super Bowl winners that never lost the big game. Drew Brees, Brett Favre, Peyton Manning all have the career numbers that stack up with Tom Brady. But in the end, looking at everything that Brady has done in his long career and he’ll sit in the top 3-5 for everything. It’s the eye test that we can’t ignore anymore.
I want to be clear; Tom Brady is the GOAT QB. He is not the greatest football player to ever live. He up there but when you look at pure football players, Lawrence Taylor, Jim Brown, Jerry Rice and Walter Payton are in that short list to me. Tom Brady is not nearly the athlete they are and never revolutionized the position he played. Those men fundamentally changed their position and the game around them. There is football before them and then after them the game changed. You never saw a WR like Rice before, or a RB like Brown, or a defensive force like LT. They changed how you coached, game-planned, approached the game, etc. That’s not Brady, there were greatest before him and greats after him.
Tom Brady in my opinion is the greatest QB to ever do it. Him leading a new team to the Super Bowl at 43 years of age just keeps adding to his legend. I’ll concede him to be the greatest football player, but he is the GOAT QB and I have finally admitted it. Joe Montana was the closest thing to a GOAT and Brady left him behind years ago. Now I just have to convince everyone else.
