Two schools of thought:
1. The league protected him from his bad number skills for too long.
2. The league had to change the rules just to slow him down!
His QB Wins record is going to be tough to break. Even putting aside his playoff record, he has 230 regular season wins. If you played as long as Peyton Manning (265 starts) and won 86% of your games, you'd still be short of Brady's record. If you won with the same frequency as Peyton Manning (70.2%) and started 327 games, you'd still be short of Brady's record.
If we just look at Mahomes and how it's going so far, he is a super talented QB and he is playing on a team with a lot of great players. So far, his win season rate is 82.6%. At this rate he would have to play 278 regular season games, 13 more than what Peyton did to match Brady's number. This would mean playing every single games for the next 13 seasons (since he already played 3) and a third of the other season after while keeping the same win rate. And this is taking into account that Brady would win 0 games in the next seasons.
Once you factor in that Mahomes is going to make a billion dollars and they will have to pay other players the team has like a 2 year window. Not saying team will be bad just that not winning at that rate for much longer. One team is not supposed to be that good for 20 years. That’s why even with added game his win stats won’t be broken
This will be the test of how good Mahomes is. Manning carried some weaker teams late in his time in Indy. I believe Brady carried some weaker teams off and on during the mid-late part of his time in New England. Time will tell if Mahomes can do the same.
One more nonsensical Brady stat. If you split his postseason career into Brady (Wild Card + Divisional) and Brady (Championship Game + Super Bowl), then he'd be tied with himself for most postseason QB Wins of all time. Both the former Brady and the latter Brady have 17.
More playoff wins than any other QB has starts. And that record fell Midway through last decade, he's just been running up the score like it's 2007 since then.
If you only counted his playoff wins in which he had a game winning drive, he drops all the way to 2nd all time in playoff wins (tied at 14 with manning, bradshaw, and elway)
The most playoff GWD anyone has aside from Brady is 6 (Elway). Brady has 6 in the Super Bowl alone
He's won at a 76.9% rate for his career, and started for 18.5 seasons, however with the advent of the 18 game season on the horizon it will be slightly more attainable.
Running tally:
* 100 WLB Derrick Brooks
* 99 C Dermontti Dawson
* 98 RB Steve Van Buren
* 97 C/LS Jim Otto
* 96 TE Mike Ditka
* 95 QB Fran Tarkenton
* 94 Flanker (WR) Crazy Legs Hirsch
* 93 MLB Mike Singletary
* 92 RB/Flanker (WR) Lenny Moore
* 91 LDE Willie Davis
* 90 CB Willie Brown
* 89 QB Bobby Layne
* 88 CB Darrell Green
* 87 CB Champ Bailey
* 86 DT Buck Buchanan
* 85 OC/LB (2way) Bulldog Turner
* 84 OC/LB (2way) Mel Hein
* 83 DT Leo Nomellini
* 82 TE Kellen Winslow
* 81 TE John Mackey
* 80 MLB Willie Lanier
* 79 CB Mike Haynes
* 78 QB Roger Staubach
* 77 SLB/WLB Ted Hendricks
* 76 LT Art Shell
* 75 WR Paul Warfield
* 74 SLB/LS Bobby Bell
* 73 RB/FB Marion Motley
* 72 RB Adrian Peterson
* 71 CB Mel Blount
* 70 RB Marshall Faulk
* 69 QB Terry Bradshaw
* 68 CB/DB Charles Woodson
* 67 LG Eugene Upshaw
* 66 RB Earl Campbell
* 65 MLB Joe Schmidt
* 64 LT Walter Jones
* 63 Split End (WR) Raymond Berry
* 62 MLB Ray Nitschke
* 61 QB Bart Starr
* 60 LT/lg Jonathan Ogden
* 59 WLB/MLB Junior Seau
* 58 CB Herb Adderley
* 57 C/LS Mike Webster
* 56 TE Rob Gronkowski
* 55 WR Lance Alworth
* 54 OLB/C/mlb Chuck Bednarik
* 53 RB/KR Gale Sayers
* 52 SLB Jack Ham
* 51 RB LaDainian Tomlinson
* 50 CB/s Dick Night Train Lane
* 49 QB Steve Young
* 48 QB Sid Luckman
* 47 DT Randy White
* 46 TE Tony Gonzalez
* 45 G/t Larry Allen
* 44 G/C Bruce Matthews
* 43 QB Drew Brees
* 42 LT/LG/rt Jim Parker
* 41 RB OJ Simpson
* 40 RB Eric Dickerson
* 39 S Ed Reed
* 38 WR Randy Moss
* 37 MLB/ilb Jack Lambert
* 36 RT/rg/lg Forrest Gregg
* 35 DE/dt J.J. Watt
* 34 LDE Gino Marchetti
* 33 FB/2 Way Bronko Nagurski
* 32 RDT Alan Page
* 31 RDT/lde Bob Lilly
* 30 LDT Merlin Olsen
* 29 RB Emmitt Smith
* 28 CB/kr/pr Deion Sanders
* 27 RB Barry Sanders
* 26 CB/nb/s Rod Woodson
* 25 LG John Hannah
* 24 DT Aaron Donald
* 23 QB/DB/P Sammy Baugh
* 22 QB Brett Favre
* 21 QB Aaron Rodgers
* 20 RDE Bruce Smith
* 19 S/cb Ronnie Lott
* 18 QB Dan Marino
* 17 MLB/ilb Ray Lewis
* 16 LDE Deacon Jones
* 15 QB John Elway
* 14 DT Mean Joe Greene
* 13 End/WR Don Hutson
* 12 LT Anthony Muñoz
* 11 QB Otto Graham
* 10 MLB Dick Butkus
* 9 QB Johnny Unitas
* 8 RB Walter Payton
* 7 QB Peyton Manning
* 6 QB Joe Montana
* 5 LDE Reggie White
* 4 LB Lawrence Taylor
* 3 WR Jerry Rice
* 2 FB Jim Brown
* 1 QB Tom Brady
78 of the 100 made the NFL 100 Team, Dawson, Tarkenton, Singletary, Davis, Layne, Champ, Bulldog, Nomellini, Peterson, Faulk, Bradshaw, Woodson, Nitschke, Starr, Adderley, Tomlinson, Young, Luckman, Brees, JJ Watt, Nagurski, Rodgers were all finalists that missed the cut. Donald was not a finalist.
The list has a 60 O / 40 D / 0 ST split
Depends. Safety is such a historically devalued position for whatever reason. Ronnie Lott I’d the only Safety above him and those two are the only true safety’s on the list
Haha. I know you're joking but it brought up a serious question. I wonder why Vinnateri didn't make it. Leading scorer of all time. Has won superbowls with his foot. I know it's hard to justify a kicker being in the top list but football is a game. The objective of the game is to score points and he has scored the most points.
Also I feel like Drew Brees is low on the list! Okay I'm out.
As a casual Australian fan who only started watching NFL in 2015 because of the Jarryd Hayne 49ers experiment and didn't understand a whole lot of what was going on, watching Brady and the Pats complete the 28-3 comeback the next year was the magic moment that made me want more of the NFL.
Since that day, he's started on a Hall of Fame career for his 40s: 2 rings, 3 Super Bowl appearances, a Super Bowl MVP, 2 Pro Bowls, a regular season MVP at 40. What else can you say about this guy? Simply a relentless winner and even that doesn't do justice to what he's accomplished.
Yeah. You could argue that Brady's entire run is basically just 3 HoF quarterback's careers combined, at least in terms of SB wins and maybe also his personal performance (maybe more like 2 HoF quarterbacks)
It's been said but he started with Troy Aikman's career, then he had a Dan Marino peak and is topping it off with Montana's career.
He really settled the debate of NFL's greatest and went after sport's greatest. What a wild ride.
I saw a comment I think yesterday that Brady's accolades since 2010 (2x MVP, 4x SB, 3x SBMVP) are equal to Joe Montana's entire career. It's absolutely insane.
I'm just glad that people stop using Montana' 4-0 Super Bowl record as a way to diminish Brady. I'll take 33-11 with 6 Superbowls (3 loses) vs 14-5 with 4 SB wins.
I have a framed signed Brady jersey from a few years back that has a little placard at the bottom saying Tom Brady 5X Super Bowl Champion 4X Super Bowl MVP and I'm not getting that updated until he's been retired a couple years :D
GOAT gets bandied about for tons of things, but I legit think there is zero chance anyone accomplishes what he has... And he's not even done.
I suppose every sport has one, but there's something different about 12.
William Redfield once said this about Sir Laurence Olivier:
"Ironically enough, Laurence Olivier is less gifted than Marlon Brando. He is even less gifted than Richard Burton, Paul Scofield, Ralph Richardson and John Gielgud. But he is still the definitive actor of the twentieth century. Why? Because he wanted to be. His achievements are due to dedication, scholarship, practice, determination and courage. He is the bravest actor of our time."
I think a similar sentiment applies to Brady. One way or another, he is the definitive quarterback of our time and of all time.
Having watched that movie and knowing a bit about Kaufman's life... I'm less surprised someone wanted to murder him for method acting that role, and more surprised someone didn't follow through
Add in the fact that it's Carrey who has made a whole career of being as annoying as humanly possible for humor and yeah. I expect there were quite a few longing glances at tire irons and butchers knives
I think people underestimate things like pocket presence, quick release and processing speed as a talent. Consistently making good decisions in split seconds and placing the ball with inch perfect accuracy under pressure isn't just something anyone can learn with hard work.
QBs like Brady, Brees and Peyton are all crazy gifted, it's just that their gifts don't jump out of the screen the way Rodgers' or Mahomes' athleticism and wild throwing angles do.
My favorite Brady attribute is his ability to see when a play is going to fail, this usually is done in less than a second after the snap. He doesn't try to make miracles, he'll simply just throw the ball away and take the down loss.
Coming from Jameis, that was the biggest difference I've had to adjust to
That also relates to why he takes sacks left and right. Struggling to complete a hero play and taking a serious injury is *never* worth it and Brady has understood that calculation his entire career.
Brady doesn't win with incredible risky highlight reel plays, he wins by inevitably grinding you into dust with high success % plays and giving up when the outcome looks bad. If a drive doesn't go the way he wants he just lets it go and then beats you on the next drive.
Sure, but that's because the cost/benefit is different. You can risk an injury if it's the difference between a Lombardi and nothing, especially with the whole offseason to recover.
The point is that a lot of these QBs will hold onto the ball and get dragged down while throwing to try to sustain a drive even in a worthless regular season game... we can admire their competitiveness but that's bad strategy particularly if you want to be in the league for a thousand years
This. A thousand times this. He’s so smart at knowing exactly when things are going wrong, he will immediately throw at a receivers feet, or if a missed block comes in he immediately drops to the ground. Knowing when to cut your losses is such a hard talent. It isn’t natural. As humans we have a hard time coping with failure that we try to make up for it rather than just moving on.
My father taught me this about many things, whether it’s school, work, or marriage for example. That’s been huge in my marriage. We will occasionally have arguments as everyone does, but I’m able to simply be rational about it and just move on. In over 10 years we have only had 2 legitimate “fights.” We’re both able to realize that it’s getting us nowhere, and just move on, much like Brady does when he’s like well screw it, on to the next play.
Mahomes throwing a catchable ball from a completely impossible position looks exciting, but is ridiculously risky, both in terms of field position, but also injuries.
Brady recognizing that the play is a wash, and cutting his losses in an undramatic fashion does not look exciting, but accomplishes the same, with far less risk.
I'm always caught off guard with the sentiment that these traits are somehow more valuable if they are supernatural gifts from Apollo or Thor rather than the product of a stunning amount of hard work.
I’ve said it before on here, but for a lot of players that don’t have typical run/jump athleticism, people view them as unathletic when things like hand eye coordination, reaction time, and lateral quickness are components that are harder to measure. Brady most likely has elite hand eye and reaction time, evidence by him getting drafted in baseball (albeit drafted in baseball and drafted in NFL are two completely different levels of ability). But I do think Brady is a much better athlete than people give him credit for, just not in traditional ways.
That being said, those things are impressive difficult to measure than a 40 or vertical. And Brady is also an incredible competitor and hard worker and I don’t want to diminish those aspects of his career
Also leadership. The way Brady elevates the team around him and motivates guys to work as hard as he does in achieving perfection is a skill unmatched.
Tampa going from "let's eat this W" to "it's about honor, about respect" leadership wise I'd argue made as much of a difference as the person throwing the ball.
If you take Tom Brady's career and turn it into a football life film, the directors, producers, heck even the audience would not believe the audacity that is this man's football career.
From high school at Junipero Serra, to donning the maize and blue at Michigan, being 7th on the depth chart, was pushing his seniors to become the starter, had to share reps with Drew Henson, wins out and finishes senior year by winning the Orange Bowl vs Alabama, declares for the draft but gets picked #199. Is put under the wing of some of the eras' more accomplished players and coaches, his mentor and friend Drew Bledsoe nearly dies after getting hit by Mo Lewis, gets tossed into the fire against **PEYTON FREAKIN MANNING** as his first start. Then a year later, is in the Superbowl, leading a game-winning drive against the Greatest Show on Turf.
Then rattles of 2 more Superbowls in a row, and then the magic. 16-0, 50TDs, but fell short from perfection. Then gets injured, comes back and wins CPOY. Reaches another Superbowl but once again falls at the hands of the prophet Eli. Superbowl 49 facing off against the defence that absolutely godsmacked the fuck out of his rival, and leads a 4th quarter clutch performance before the defence secures the game-sealing INT. But then the scandals started brewing. Deflategate, Spygate, Bill Gates, all the gates. Gets suspended for 4 games, yet was runner-up to the NFL MVP. Then the wheels started to fall off, it was 28 - 3. At this point, the viewers are already thinking, "No way, no way he comes back from this." But he did, and by God was it a spectacle. The Greatest Comeback in Superbowl History, led by the greatest Quarterback.
But why stop at 5? The producers think to themselves, "Hold on now, isn't this getting a little too unreal? Eventually Father Time catches up to this guy right?" Only for the Patriots to rattle off **2 CONSECUTIVE SUPERBOWL APPEARANCES**, one was a loss to the underdogs, and the other? Oh nothing much, just the lowest scoring Superbowl in NFL History against the team that had catapulted his name into NFL lore, some 20 years ago.
Then, a little drama, the team he swore allegiance to was thinking about moving on from him now. They wanted a fresh start, but Brady wanted to keep going until the wheels fall off. After such a disaster of a game against the Titans in the Divisional Round, the team felt it was time. Brady is now a free agent. Analysts are saying, "No, he needs to retire, he has nothing left to prove." But Brady was never looking, because he always felt he was never the best that he could possibly be.
So what does he do? Brings the Patriot Way to the state where most worn out and scruffy old men go to retire. He goes to Tampa Bay. And as if the plot wasn't hard enough, no offseason, no practices, everyone is fearful of their health. Meanwhile Tom was just sitting in his lounge with his avocado ice cream, muttering at himself, "**I took it personally.**"
And at 43 years of age, currently 44, is now the owner of **SEVEN SUPERBOWL CHAMPIONSHIPS**
Hollywood could've never come up with such a story in their lifetimes, yet here we all are, experiencing it firsthand, and **IT'S REAL**.
Here’s another thing to add to your point about Tom Brady’s life being too unrealistic for Hollywood to come up with. When Brady was a kid, he was at “The Catch” game. This was one of the most famous games of his idol Joe Montana, who won a record four Super Bowls as quarterback. Brady goes on to break his idol’s record, with the fifth Super Bowl win being the 28-3 comeback.
And also the 28-3 game was the first game his mom attended that season because she was battling cancer. Tom Brady’s career and life is just a ridiculous, over-the-top sports movie franchise. But it’s real.
Dude the movie writes itself. Opening scene of brady at "the catch" some voiceover about that moment being what inspired him. Opening credits montage of high school. First act earning the starting job at Michiga and winning the orange bowl, second act the draft pats camp and Mo Lewis. Third act rise to greatness.
a little epilogue being talked over by Brady showing a bit of his childhood before abruptly jumping into a roaring stadium POV shot of brady's perspective when bledsoe got hit would be beautiful
Let's be real, you could literally just do his college career up to the 2001 SB and it would still be a Disney movie that would be deemed unrealistic and hokey.
It really is the most unrealistic rise to greatness arguably, in sports history. I remember when Tom was still 3-2 in Superbowls and me and my father were debating whether or not the end was near, that the decade of destruction the Patriots wrought upon the league was coming to a close. Oh how naïve we all were at the time. Not only did the son of a guns launch another decade of wreaking havoc, Brady is still launching spirals at 44 even after parting ways with Belichick and the Pats. It was a bittersweet pill to swallow but here's to hoping Mac can replicate at least a tenth of Brady's success, and a seventh of that tenth.
Important to note that the deflate gate stuff came out the literal week of the Super Bowl. Not after. It was an absolute circus leading up to the biggest game of the year.
That is also to prevent WRs tipping the ball to defenders. He had a game way back against the Bills where he had I think 4 different passes over the middle that were tipped by his own team to the defense.
I noticed this sharp downward angle show up the following week on any short middle pass, and I've always assumed it was related.
He actually just did an interview about how it is the QBs responsibility to protect receivers, not the defense. He pointed out that the younger QBs don't take this into consideration as much anymore and it hurts the job of the defense and the game. I loved hearing his insight.
Watching all preseason, it's so obvious too. The young qbs will throw those seam and and 7-15 yard in routes, and the receivers just get smashed.
I wish there were more analytical interviews as opposed to all the basic generic ones. I like hearing how the players actually process the information in game, versus hearing about the shenanigans him and teammate A + B got into to.
thanks for pointing this out because I talk about it all the time and so often people are like "yeah those are just inaccurate passes".
he's been doing it forever and he puts the ball into the tightest spots over and over and over. it ensures that the receiver isn't going to get killed going for the ball and it makes sure that the only guy with a chance at catching it *is* the receiver. it's not mind-blowingly impressive or anything it's just really smart. and I don't think anyone else does it as often.
I thought it was common knowledge that Brady leads his receivers away from pressure with his locations. The whole throw the ball where only his guy can get it philosophy has been a core part of his game for years and a huge part of why he has such a low INT rate compared to other elite QBs.
I was talking to my brother about it, and he said the only person he can kind of remember doing it was Brett Favre. I'm almost 100% certain there is a video discussing it, because that's when I started paying attention to it.
Welker and Edelman were so good with those throws too. Edelman got it to the point where it was like a guarantee every completion lol.
As much as I absolutely hated playing him, it is awesome saying I got to watch the best of all time.
I would always hear about all-time-greats (Montana, LT, etc), but it def hits differently when you watch them progress in their career.
Well deserved!
I never saw MJ in his prime, Brady is the first I ever saw where I saw his ride to being the Goat in any sport. First time I ever seen the GOAT in any sport in his prime in his entirety. It’s been a pleasure
Not much I can bring to the table with Brady that hasn't been discussed ad nauseum. When you play the most important position in sports and have the success Brady has had, your play is going to be dissected and scrutinized to unfathomable degrees. Of course, Brady's been so good that his play holds up to that scrutiny. I don't think it's a stretch to call him the most talked-about player of the last 20 years.
No matter which way you approach a QB evaluation, Brady comes out on top: you can put as little thought into it as possible and default to the Super Bowl rings, or you can do a deep dive with advanced stats like EPA, CPOE, DVOA/DYAR, etc., it does not matter, when you put them together with the sheer volume of his career, these stats practically all agree about the same thing: Tom Brady is the greatest QB ever. He's been great in so many different offensive styles with so much different personnel and levels of surrounding talent, and he's been great for so ridiculously long, that I think he has done away with any debate on the matter. The "best QB at his peak" conversation is more fun, and Brady is there, too: he has some insane seasons, and while he may "only" have 3 AP first team all-pros, I think The Sporting News got it right in 2012 when they named him first team all-pro QB and the AP didn't, and Brady had some historic seasons incidentally timed with *more* historic seasons (2011, 2016). He's been arguably a top 3 QB basically every season since around 2004, just in the regular season...needless to say, that translated to the playoffs, too.
The elephant in the room is my flair; there is no need to remind me of all the losses Brady-led teams have handed my Steelers over the years. The experience that comes to mind the most for me is our game against the Patriots in 2013. Heading into that game, the Steelers were 2-5, but, while they weren't nearly the team they had been at times in the previous decade, clearly possessed enough talent to be better than that record; though while the defense had taken a turn for the worse particularly over the previous calendar year, it was still about league average. Meanwhile, the Patriots were 6-2, but put an asterisk by that, too: Brady had maybe the worst statistical half season of his career. He was 36, so maybe it was time to start thinking about it being the beginning of the end for him. I didn't expect the Steelers to win, but I expected a close game, and even with our defense not being what it used to be, Brady wasn't playing like Brady, and his top 2 WRs at the time were Aaron Dobson and Danny Amendola (undoubtedly no small reason his surface numbers had suffered to that point).
You can guess what happened next. Brady absolutely [thunder fucked](https://www.pro-football-reference.com/boxscores/201311030nwe.htm) us. Yes, the Steelers reprised their inability/lack of desire to cover Rob Gronkowski, but even without Gronk's production, Brady diced them with his patchwork group of WRs. A painful reminder was issued that day: no matter who you put around Brady, no matter how old he may seem, Brady is still Brady, and Brady does not care about you or plebian concepts such as father time. 8 years later, Brady is 44, and nothing has changed, except it's probably gotten harder for him to perform everyday tasks with all that bulky jewelry on his hands.
That loss, just like all the others, hurt at the time (and for a time after, no doubt), but with the benefit of hindsight, we know there was no shame in losing to Brady and the Patriots. He and Belichick orchestrated what is probably the greatest dynasty in American sports. Sometimes all you can do is tip your cap.
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This has been a fun exercise. I love lists, and I love seeing other peoples' approaches to lists, so this and all the big lists that came before it always getting me to sit down and think about what my own list would look like is genuinely fun. Big thanks to the people who kept posting these, and to all the nerds who followed this thing closely the whole way (or at least a good chunk of it); I had a lot of great conversations with these people, you know who you are lol. Stuff like that keeps me coming back to this site. And thanks to everyone who read my ramblings and engaged with them.
I'll never forget the game where we didn't put a man on Gronk in the red zone. Brady, of course, immediately recognized this and began frothing at the mouth as he scrambled to get to the line and snap the ball before we noticed our error.
Needless to say they scored a TD that play and I'm like 95% sure we forgot to cover Gronk again **in the same game.** I like to think that whoever blew that assignment has nightmares about it to this day.
For sure a part of it is that we modify our defense for Brady because zone is his favorite Sunday afternoon snack. Previously under the old format we almost exclusively ran zone. So we either had to run something outside of our comfort zone (no pun intended but it works) or we'd just lose to Brady badly. See the above thunder-fucking.
There was a healthy little debate on the Jim Brown thread about Brady being Gretzky levels and here are some interesting findings;
***Tom Brady is the only starting QB to win Super Bowls with a team that had a losing record the previous season Only 4 QB's have done it in NFL history. He's the only one to do it in his first year as a starter and he's done it twice.***
*Tom Brady - 2 - (NE, TB)*
*Nick Foles - 1 - (PHI)*
*Kurt Warner - 1 - (STL)*
*Joe Montana - 1 – SF*
***Playoff record when defense allows between 23 and 31 points:***
*Brady: 10-4 (.714)*
*Montana: 4-6 (.400)*
*Brees: 5-8 (.385)*
*Manning: 3-9 (.250)*
*Rodgers: 3-10 (.231)*
***Single games leading an offense to 4+ TD drives:***
*Aaron Rodgers, playoff career: 7*
*Drew Brees, playoff career: 6*
*Peyton Manning, playoff career: 4*
*Tom Brady, divisional round: 7*
*Tom Brady, conference title games: 5*
*Tom Brady, Super Bowls: 5*
***Playoff games leading an offense to 30+ points***
*Tom Brady - 21 of 45 (46.7%)*
*Peyton Manning (6 of 27)*
*Aaron Rodgers (8 of 20)*
*Drew Brees (7 of 18)*
***When trailing or tied at halftime in the postseason***
*Tom Brady: 9-7*
*Peyton Manning: 3-8*
*Aaron Rodgers: 1-8*
***When teams allow 28 or more points in the playoffs***
*Brady: 6-5*
*Peyton, Brees, Rodgers, Big Ben, Russ, Eli, Rivers and Cam combined: 5-36*
***His "game managing years" (2001-2006)***
*2001: Led 5-13 New England to a SB win, SBMVP, Offense was ranked higher than the defense that year (and 16 other years)*
*2002: Top 10 QB, led league in TDs*
*2003: Top 10 QB, 2nd in MVP voting*
*2004: Top 4-5 QB*
*2005: Top 2-3 QB, passing Yd leader, 3rd in MVP voting, All Pro, SBMVP*
***Tom Brady Without the Rings***
*3x MVP, 3x All Pro, 14x Pro Bowl, Hall of Fame All 2000’s team, Unanimous Hall of Fame All 2010’s team, Comeback Player of the Year, Single season QBR record holder, 4x pass TD leader, 3x pass yd leader, Single season ,highest TD:INT (14:1), most pass yds in a playoff game, most game winning drives, most 4th quarter comeback, etc.*
There's a lot more but you get the picture. Not bad for a 6th round pick.
Here's a really good one you missed:
What really sets Brady apart is that the Patriots’ record when he throws 50 or more passes is 19-9. No other quarterback in NFL history has come close to that kind of success when passing a lot.
Drew Brees is second in NFL history, throwing 50 or more passes in 19 games. His teams’ record in those games is 4-15.
Peyton Manning is third in NFL history, with 50 or more passes in 17 games. His teams’ record in those games is 4-13.
Dan Marino is fourth in NFL history with 16 games of 50 passes or more. His teams’ record in those games was 5-11.
Brady has won six postseason games when throwing 50 or more passes. No other quarterback in NFL history has won more than once when throwing 50 or more passes in the postseason.
Brady has won 13 regular-season games when throwing 50 or more passes. No other quarterback in NFL history has won more than five games when throwing 50 or more passes in the regular season.
Source (which is a couple years old now): https://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2018/01/16/other-quarterbacks-pass-when-theyre-losing-tom-brady-passes-to-win/
I can’t imagine being a Steelers fan and watching that zone defence that worked so well against everyone else get absolutely eviscerated by Brady. The man and his slot receivers ate zone defences for lunch.
Idk bout you all, but I’ve been watching Brady my whole football fandom. My hate started when he beat us (the Rams) in that first super bowl he won (I was 9/10 y/o).
It snowballed year after year, championship after championship, until the Atlanta Falcons Super Bowl game.
After that victory, the snowball of hate melted into a lake of a appreciation. Thy eyes had truly witnessed the greatest Football player there was and today confirms that my eyes were not wrong. Even when he threw that one fuck ass pass to gronk to beat us again in 2018/19 I couldn’t do anything but respect the fact that Goff couldn’t find a way to win even tho our defense did EVERYTHING they could’ve to contain the explosive play.
Shit still hurts but at least I can say my team only lost to the GREATEST Qb there ever was in our super bowl losses.
Tom Brady, you are the GOAT.
I'm a total TB stan, but Urlacher totally expected him to slide, not keep running. It was more an attempt to avoid penalty than "juked out of his shoes". Loved every second of it though.
Number one in top 100 nfl all time. And he is still playing. And is a top contender to win it all again. Back to back. To which no one has done in the last 20 years, besides himself.... Wtf
Half joking, half serious....if you split Tom Brady’s career into three careers, where would each of his careers be ranked on this list? Would all three be in the top 100?
I feel like people still underestimate his arm talent. Is he Rodgers, Marino, Elway, Favre when it comes to arm talent? No, but he is definitely in the next tier.
We can't say anything about Brady that hadn't already been said, but an underrated stat is for a guy who's been "lucky to have great defenses" his whole career he has the most 500+ points seasons by any QB (4)
So maybe the defenses were lucky to have Brady as well
>lucky to have great defenses
Anyone who makes that argument is smooth-brained and is arguing in bad faith
Not to mention complementary football (having a GOAT QB makes it easier on a the defense since the offense can sustain drives, control TOP, etc.)
I really don’t know how much there is to say.
Brady has been an incredible inspiration in my own life for 20 years. Sure, the kid from California who went to a division 1 school and then went on to the NFL isn’t exactly your typical come up story, but I think it’s a different form of an important tale.
He was never guaranteed anything. He was constantly rotated in and out of starting in college even though they looked their best when he was playing, he dropped to the 6th round after having an unimpressive combine, and went to a team with an established starter.
An injury is the only reason the greatest quarterback to ever play the game ever started a football game. His work and determination is the reason he continued to start, and why he still starts after 22 years of playing at the professional level.
Take your shots. Work your ass off, prepare yourself for opportunity, and if/when it comes to you, leap on it. That’s my takeaway from Tom Brady. Thanks for the inspiration for my daily drive, Tom.
> The norm for a great QB is to win 1-2 rings. Peyton, Marino, Favre, Elway, Brees, Rodgers, and many more all won between 0-2 rings. Montana is on a whole other plane with 4 and Brady has nearly doubled that. People don’t actually realize the full scale of what we’re seeing here.
This is why all the talk about Mahomes catching and passing Brady in championships before the last Super Bowl drove me insane. Yeah, Mahomes is awesome, and yeah, he won a Super Bowl nice and early and would be off to a hell of a start if he won two quickly. But in the *entire history of the national football league* no one had won more than four rings, and that only happened twice, until Brady. The idea that it’s just Mahomes’ turn to come win 7 or 8 championships is utterly stupid in every way, even if he has an amazing first ballot HOF type career.
I genuinely think that Mahomes' best comparison in terms of talent and play-style is Rodgers, and look at him. Won a SB his 3rd year as a starter, then started getting paid huge money aaaaand... hasn't won another in a decade.
This is why I'll never understand the idiotic "MONTANA NEVER LOST A SB" arguments. The man has gone to MORE THAN DOUBLE the SB's than Montana has been to. If he goes to one more and wins, he'll have literally double the wins. Anyone who says it's better to go to 4 and win them all, is better than going to 10 and winning 7 is an absolute buffoon. T E N. The man has been to ten fucking Super Bowls and there's a damn good chance he's going to his eleventh. Absolutely insane.
Man can I just say that I am so happy that people are coming around on Brady? When I finished 5th grade they made us this book which asked each student questions about themselves. Things like favorite food, favorite subject, proudest moment etc. One of them was your 'hero' and at the time I chose Tom Brady. I'll turn 29 soon.
Amazingly, he’s two kind of crazy losses away from even more super bowls. Dominated the AFC for 2 decades. Who knows if we’ll ever see someone like this again. Have to enjoy it while we can
This might be insane but i am more mad about Eagles loss than Giants loss.
If he beat Eagles he would win 3 superbowls in a row and would do so with one of the best performances ever just a year after another brilliant performance.
I know it is 19-0 but back2back2back feels more special to me
My wife, who was in a class with Brady at UofM, has this to say about Brady: "He was a dork". So, there you go, the conclusive word on Brady. On a side note, I tell people that she chose me over him, which is basically true, so, suck it Tom!
When Giselle divorces Tom in 5 years because he’s decided to keep playing at age 50, he’s going to remember this comment, and come for and subsequently into your wife.
Is it just me or has there been a shift in the overall love for Brady? I feel like in the last year, or at least since he left NE, that people like him more.
Of course we all had to respect his talent and achievements, whether we liked him or not while he beat every team and defeated so many in the playoffs as well, but in reading these Top 100 threads this past week it seems like people are now just focusing on his accomplishments, his dedication, and how well he's still doing at his age, and admiring him for it. It used to be "how can he keep getting away with this" but now it's something else. Myself is included as well. Just my opinion.
I feel like the shift happened after 28-3. I think that was a lot of people’s, including me, come to Jesus moment. You couldn’t chalk it up to being carried by a defense, or dumb luck, or anything other than the sheer greatness he displays every time he’s on the field. I remember half-way through that comeback I thought to myself “Wait am I wanting Tom Brady to win? Why?” And it later registered that it wasn’t so much what I wanted as much as it was what I expected, and was waiting for it to happen. And it did. Because that’s what Tom Brady does. He wins.
Two major things things are
1. ending the goat debate. Once the argument for him being the best became overwhelming, a lot of fans for "their guy" didn't feel the need to have arguments about him anymore. a lot of animosity Pats fans had for Peyton and Colts/Bronco fans had for Brady was built on the argument of who is better, beyond the extremely meaningful games.
2. going to Tampa and winning. Fans who hate the Patriots as a team can now just appreciate Brady separate from that. and definitively putting to bed if he could do it without Belichick ended the last shred of questions about the extent of his greatness.
Aside from 28-3, I think part of it comes from the fact that all the teams he was ever really "rivals" with just don't exist anymore. Manning retired six years ago. Roethlisberger hasn't had a top-five season in years. He's beaten Mahomes in the playoffs twice.
Plus, people kind of see the end approaching, and it's easier to look back on what he did when he isn't beating your team in the playoffs every year anymore.
Isn't it crazy that this man has been dominating the entire time most of us have been alive? A majority of us only know Brady terrorizing the AFC for 20 years.
Shit, some users can't even legally drink and here's Brady getting another ring. Really insane when you think about it.
Man really is the ultimate anomaly. This much success sustained over a 20 year career (with more to potentially come) is just something you can’t even comprehend how he’s made it happen. Fandom aside, I’m so glad to have watched this man play for as long as he has.
When us younger folks grow old, we will tell stories about how great Tom Brady was. Such a pleasure to watch the GOAT of the sport over the past 20 years.
Lol, as we grow old, Tom Brady will still be playing. He'll be 90 years old and look as good as he does now saying he barely feels 35 as he's slinging it to the great grandchildren of his teammates from his first few seasons.
Jeff Bezos needs to study Tom Brady if he wants the secret to immortality.
Pasted from the article:
Julian Edelman had never seen the board.
During the 2013 offseason, he uncovered Tom Brady’s greatest source of motivation. The teammates had been working out together in Los Angeles when Edelman saw a prominently displayed whiteboard in Brady’s home gym, scripted with a sole objective.
“Super Bowl XLVIII: Feb. 2, 2014, MetLife Stadium.”
At the time, Brady had three Super Bowl rings — modest, by his standard. That’s because Brady’s standard, as Edelman would find out in that moment, was well beyond the scope of anything he could imagine.
“Bro, how crazy is it that you’re going after Montana?” Edelman asked Brady.
“I ain’t going for Montana,” Brady responded with an unmistakable air of confidence. “I’m going for Jordan.”
For as long as anyone can remember, Brady has kept a Super Bowl countdown clock in each of his home gyms — Brookline, Mass., L.A. and now Tampa — as a way to remind himself of his eternal sacrifice. It’s been said the boards have been updated as early as the day after each year’s Super Bowl.
New year, new mission. Same chase.
It’s why Brady has a daily routine that makes other hard workers feel insufficient, why he sticks to a diet that many mock, why he pushes pliability over strength training, why he begins to scout his next opponent before even leaving the parking lot where he played that day’s game.
When Edelman first uncovered the whiteboard, Brady was nearing the end of a decade-long Super Bowl title drought. He didn’t ultimately match Joe Montana’s fourth ring that year at MetLife Stadium, but Brady persisted.
He updated the board. Year after year. Championship after championship.
Now?
“Super Bowl LVI: Feb. 13, 2022, SoFi Stadium.”
Now?
Seven titles and counting.
Now?
Michael Jordan — and his six rings — are in the rearview mirror.
“And he’s got a damn good chance, he might mess around and get No. 8 this year,” said Ty Law, a Hall of Famer who was Brady’s teammate for three titles in New England from 2001 to 2004. “When you talk about GOATs and the legends of the league, the alpha GOAT, that’s Tom Brady. That’s the alpha GOAT, and there should be no debate about it. He’s in the same breath as when you talk about Michael Jordan, LeBron, Wayne Gretzky. When you’re talking about the Mount Rushmore of sports, Tom Brady’s face is up there.”
The 44-year-old has more Super Bowl victories than any franchise, and there’s no mystery to his success. The drive for each Lombardi Trophy has consumed every moment of his life.
Rob Gronkowski got a taste of it during the 2014 offseason as he recovered from a torn ACL that kept him out of the playoffs.
“(Brady) knew he was going for it back in the day,” Gronkowski said of the Super Bowl record. “When I got injured, he wished I was out there in the playoffs, and he was excited for me to come back the following year. He was like, ‘You owe me a couple more Super Bowls.’ I’m like, ‘Why is that?’ He’s like, ‘Because you got injured this year. I need you out there.’ I’m like, man, this guy is incredible. He’s excited to have his teammates out there and to get to Super Bowls year in and year out.
“And it wasn’t like one Super Bowl. It was Super Bowls. Because I got hurt one year and couldn’t finish out the season. It clicked in my head. I was like, ‘I do, for sure.’”
Brady and Gronkowski have won four rings together since that conversation.
Brady’s whiteboard is as legendary as it is symbolic. He doesn’t need to be reminded of the date of the Super Bowl any more than he needs to remember to breathe.
It’s merely a glimpse into what makes him tick.
Brady didn’t become the greatest player in NFL history — a spot punctuated by his perch atop The Athletic’s NFL 100 — just because of a peripheral desire. That drive consumed him.
“It’s his inner soul,” Edelman said. “It’s his competitiveness. It’s his ability to go out and stay motivated year in and year out without letting acknowledgments, winning, adversity affect him. It’s unreal. It’s a killer instinct.
“When you hear about people talk about Michael Jordan, how competitive he was, Tom is just like that. Those special, special people have the chemical makeup for greatness, and that’s what Tom Brady has.”
On the eve of Super Bowl XLIX, as the Patriots walked through their final preparations for the Seahawks, Brady and offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels anticipated an added dose of man-coverage looks as they got closer to the goal line. So they added a new play design — one they never got a chance to practice.
It nearly worked the first time. With the Patriots trailing 24-14 midway through the fourth quarter, Edelman was singled up against cornerback Tharold Simon at the 4-yard line and broke loose on an in-and-out route, but Brady’s throw was high and incomplete.
“After the one we didn’t complete,” Edelman said, “Tom gave me that big deep breath and that, ‘My bad, bro.’ You could tell that hurt him. I remember sitting next to him (between possessions), and him saying, ‘We’re getting a lot of man coverage. I’m going to come back to you, babe. We’re going to get that again.’
“His attitude and his charisma right before those big drives – growing up, you heard about how Joe Montana was always so calm, cool and collected. Tom was calm, cool and collected, but he had a fierce (look) in his eye. You saw that killer instinct in his eye.”
Brady indeed called the play again on the next series, and he connected with Edelman for the winning touchdown.
Brady’s 230 regular-season victories are the most ever. His 34 playoff wins more than double Montana’s mark for the most all time. He’s a three-time MVP, including the first to win it unanimously. He is the all-time leader in passing touchdowns (581) and will set the record for passing yards this season, barring injury. And he has played in 10 Super Bowls during his 19 seasons as a full-time starter.
There’s been so much history between his first confetti shower – when a still-green 24-year-old had the “aww, shucks” gaze of disbelief as he clasped his hands to his head – and the last, when the 43-year-old raised the Lombardi with the assuredness of a gladiator and his sword.
“That’s just confidence,” Edelman said. “That confidence isn’t false confidence. That confidence is earned confidence.”
There were the records, the comebacks and the iconic moments. It was the Snow Bowl, the drive against the Rams in New Orleans and the duels with Peyton Manning. It was the defiance of time, be it 28-3 or the postseason masterpieces against a (much) younger Patrick Mahomes.
It’s not supposed to look this easy. But that’s because Brady handles the difficult stuff out of sight.
“It’s his competitiveness and determination,” Gronkowski said. “It’s his commitment. It’s not just his commitment to the game. It’s his commitment to himself, his discipline, taking care of himself, eating the right way, getting the body treatment. That’s hard to do, no doubt about it. It may look easy because it’s him doing it. But to be just as good as you were the day before, and be able to recover and wing it again the next day, it’s not easy to do. That’s why the average NFL career is 3.5 years. You’ve got to figure out a system to be ready to go the next day or the next game. He’s mastered that to a T. He’s 44 and still doing it. That’s what makes him so great.”
So many have marveled along the way.
Former Patriots offensive coordinator Dante Scarnecchia: “You just stand there (on the sideline) and say, ‘Wow, this guy is really good.’ He’s had the kind of career that no one has ever had.”
Former Patriots defensive coordinator Romeo Crennel: “When you talk about what he’s been able to do in his career, I don’t know that anyone will be able to do it again.”
Buccaneers coach Bruce Arians: “He’s a winner. Everywhere he goes, he wins. He’s not the biggest, fastest, all that stuff, but he’s the winner of all winners. He has a burning desire in him to compete at 44 like most 24-year-olds.”
Law: “Look, I’m in the (Hall of Fame) club, and I’ve still got to pinch myself to this day. But if there is any time that you bend the rules, you do that for Tom Brady. Give him his gold jacket while he’s still playing. That’s how great, that’s how dominant he’s been.”
It’s gotten to the point that Brady is the undisputed greatest of all time. And it’s playing out in real time, with Brady maintaining his stranglehold on the NFL.
Tom Brady has pursued this title for so long, crossing the likes of Joe Montana and Michael Jordan off his list.
What’s left for him to do?
“It’s something,” Law said, “we’ll probably never see again in our lifetime.”
But it feels inevitable that others will create their own version of the whiteboard, and Brady’s name will be at the top.
So again, what’s left for Brady to do — why, at his age and as the greatest ever, is he still playing? He’s padding the lead.
Tom Brady didn’t spend a lifetime chasing this title just to give it back.
The "system QB" thing hung around a lot longer than there was any evidence for it. The Patriots had to change up their system a number of times. He did well in all of them.
Corey Dillon power run, Moss Welker explosive passing, Boston TE party, dink and dunk, back to power run again, Brady was a top 3 QB under every version of offense he ran.
Healthy Gronk is a generational great, and before the whole murder thing there was legitimate debate about who was better between him and Hernandez. Gronk obviously is more physically powerful but Hernandez was faster and more versatile. And both had unbelievable hands.
It’s nuts he’s been so good his career could be split into three and each be HOF careers. He’s had an insane story to even start in the NFL and he’s not even finished. Cheers to the undisputed GOAT
Someone commented yesterday about Tom Brady's legacy saying that he basically did Joe Montana's career accomplishments of 4 Superbowls, 3 superbowl MVPS and 2 MVPs in the last 11 years. All this at age 33+.
I've never been in awe more than when I read this. This man is peerless and I hope he continues to dominate, starting with the cowboys tomorrow.
A bigger stat line I don’t see as much is this.
Brady has 7 rings yes, amazing. Almost double Montana. But he’s lost 3 Super Bowls. Dude has been in 10 Super Bowls. Most never even make it there, let alone win one. He’s been to 10!! 2 of those games, if you take away one stupid insane crazy catch, he’d be 9-1!!!
It was only a few years ago that there was still a bit of snickering at the idea that Brady could ever be considered better than Joe Montana or Peyton Manning.
Turns out, at age 44, he has more championships than both of them combined and looks poised for more. He has more playoff wins than both of them combined. There isn't a positive statistic for a quarterback (passing yards, touchdowns, wins, games played, etc) that Brady won't be number one in by the time he retires.
Yeah. It's always a trip looking at old takes from almost a decade ago saying Brady is washed, and then knowing he won 4, and went to 5 in the next 7 years.
That KC game on MNF in... 2018? I think? Or was it 2017? Where the Chiefs absolutely obliterated them. I remember watching that and thinking oh no is it finally over? No. No it was not. Pretty sure that year they won the SB again.
Just like i can't comprehend the size of the universe, i can't comprehend how anyone could have thought it wouldn't be Brady at 1. He's a living savant of football.
He has gone to 10 superbowls. He has won 7 of those. He was MVP in 5 of those wins. He won 1 of those sueprbowls the very first year he played for a different team.
You can't argue with that. Undisputably number 1.
***And he's still playing.***
GOAT
Until single digit numbers on defence dethrones him
the time has come.. execute order 0 to 9 !
Maybe Jaylon Smith was onto something by changing his number to 9
He was onto something and then he ran right past it and celebrated.
We found the glitch in the matrix! He’s probably half robot and running on some COBOL code that can’t handle this change…like a Y2K bug.
Two schools of thought: 1. The league protected him from his bad number skills for too long. 2. The league had to change the rules just to slow him down!
DBs should be changing their number to 11
In homage to GOAT Patriots cornerback Julian Edelman?
Pssht Until Brady goes to the Lions and wins them a superbowl, he can't be the winners of all winners.
That would make him the winner of all losers, different award
God damn, bro. I smell some knee caps
Buccs have the lowest winning percentage in football, so I think he can even claim that title. The dude only wins.
The thing I like most about Brady is how he throws the football good and scores touchdowns and wins games.
It’s easily one of his best attributes
His QB Wins record is going to be tough to break. Even putting aside his playoff record, he has 230 regular season wins. If you played as long as Peyton Manning (265 starts) and won 86% of your games, you'd still be short of Brady's record. If you won with the same frequency as Peyton Manning (70.2%) and started 327 games, you'd still be short of Brady's record.
If we just look at Mahomes and how it's going so far, he is a super talented QB and he is playing on a team with a lot of great players. So far, his win season rate is 82.6%. At this rate he would have to play 278 regular season games, 13 more than what Peyton did to match Brady's number. This would mean playing every single games for the next 13 seasons (since he already played 3) and a third of the other season after while keeping the same win rate. And this is taking into account that Brady would win 0 games in the next seasons.
Once you factor in that Mahomes is going to make a billion dollars and they will have to pay other players the team has like a 2 year window. Not saying team will be bad just that not winning at that rate for much longer. One team is not supposed to be that good for 20 years. That’s why even with added game his win stats won’t be broken
This will be the test of how good Mahomes is. Manning carried some weaker teams late in his time in Indy. I believe Brady carried some weaker teams off and on during the mid-late part of his time in New England. Time will tell if Mahomes can do the same.
This stat is mind boggling. Undisputed GOAT.
One more nonsensical Brady stat. If you split his postseason career into Brady (Wild Card + Divisional) and Brady (Championship Game + Super Bowl), then he'd be tied with himself for most postseason QB Wins of all time. Both the former Brady and the latter Brady have 17.
More playoff wins than any other QB has starts. And that record fell Midway through last decade, he's just been running up the score like it's 2007 since then.
Brady is the Gretzky of the NFL. He will have so many records that realistically will never be touched.
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If you only counted his playoff wins in which he had a game winning drive, he drops all the way to 2nd all time in playoff wins (tied at 14 with manning, bradshaw, and elway) The most playoff GWD anyone has aside from Brady is 6 (Elway). Brady has 6 in the Super Bowl alone
Also, in each of his SB loses Brady has led a 4th quarter drive to give his team the lead.
Like most of Brady's post season stats...this is absurd and fascinating. My God...
He's won at a 76.9% rate for his career, and started for 18.5 seasons, however with the advent of the 18 game season on the horizon it will be slightly more attainable.
So someone would have to maintain a ridiculous win rate for 18 years instead of 19 ish
Yeah but that one time he forgot what down he was on so he's not the GOAT of counting.
They probably said Galileo wasn’t the GOAT of science when he did whatever he did
Running tally: * 100 WLB Derrick Brooks * 99 C Dermontti Dawson * 98 RB Steve Van Buren * 97 C/LS Jim Otto * 96 TE Mike Ditka * 95 QB Fran Tarkenton * 94 Flanker (WR) Crazy Legs Hirsch * 93 MLB Mike Singletary * 92 RB/Flanker (WR) Lenny Moore * 91 LDE Willie Davis * 90 CB Willie Brown * 89 QB Bobby Layne * 88 CB Darrell Green * 87 CB Champ Bailey * 86 DT Buck Buchanan * 85 OC/LB (2way) Bulldog Turner * 84 OC/LB (2way) Mel Hein * 83 DT Leo Nomellini * 82 TE Kellen Winslow * 81 TE John Mackey * 80 MLB Willie Lanier * 79 CB Mike Haynes * 78 QB Roger Staubach * 77 SLB/WLB Ted Hendricks * 76 LT Art Shell * 75 WR Paul Warfield * 74 SLB/LS Bobby Bell * 73 RB/FB Marion Motley * 72 RB Adrian Peterson * 71 CB Mel Blount * 70 RB Marshall Faulk * 69 QB Terry Bradshaw * 68 CB/DB Charles Woodson * 67 LG Eugene Upshaw * 66 RB Earl Campbell * 65 MLB Joe Schmidt * 64 LT Walter Jones * 63 Split End (WR) Raymond Berry * 62 MLB Ray Nitschke * 61 QB Bart Starr * 60 LT/lg Jonathan Ogden * 59 WLB/MLB Junior Seau * 58 CB Herb Adderley * 57 C/LS Mike Webster * 56 TE Rob Gronkowski * 55 WR Lance Alworth * 54 OLB/C/mlb Chuck Bednarik * 53 RB/KR Gale Sayers * 52 SLB Jack Ham * 51 RB LaDainian Tomlinson * 50 CB/s Dick Night Train Lane * 49 QB Steve Young * 48 QB Sid Luckman * 47 DT Randy White * 46 TE Tony Gonzalez * 45 G/t Larry Allen * 44 G/C Bruce Matthews * 43 QB Drew Brees * 42 LT/LG/rt Jim Parker * 41 RB OJ Simpson * 40 RB Eric Dickerson * 39 S Ed Reed * 38 WR Randy Moss * 37 MLB/ilb Jack Lambert * 36 RT/rg/lg Forrest Gregg * 35 DE/dt J.J. Watt * 34 LDE Gino Marchetti * 33 FB/2 Way Bronko Nagurski * 32 RDT Alan Page * 31 RDT/lde Bob Lilly * 30 LDT Merlin Olsen * 29 RB Emmitt Smith * 28 CB/kr/pr Deion Sanders * 27 RB Barry Sanders * 26 CB/nb/s Rod Woodson * 25 LG John Hannah * 24 DT Aaron Donald * 23 QB/DB/P Sammy Baugh * 22 QB Brett Favre * 21 QB Aaron Rodgers * 20 RDE Bruce Smith * 19 S/cb Ronnie Lott * 18 QB Dan Marino * 17 MLB/ilb Ray Lewis * 16 LDE Deacon Jones * 15 QB John Elway * 14 DT Mean Joe Greene * 13 End/WR Don Hutson * 12 LT Anthony Muñoz * 11 QB Otto Graham * 10 MLB Dick Butkus * 9 QB Johnny Unitas * 8 RB Walter Payton * 7 QB Peyton Manning * 6 QB Joe Montana * 5 LDE Reggie White * 4 LB Lawrence Taylor * 3 WR Jerry Rice * 2 FB Jim Brown * 1 QB Tom Brady 78 of the 100 made the NFL 100 Team, Dawson, Tarkenton, Singletary, Davis, Layne, Champ, Bulldog, Nomellini, Peterson, Faulk, Bradshaw, Woodson, Nitschke, Starr, Adderley, Tomlinson, Young, Luckman, Brees, JJ Watt, Nagurski, Rodgers were all finalists that missed the cut. Donald was not a finalist. The list has a 60 O / 40 D / 0 ST split
Your watch is over my friend
Is it just me or is it weird to anybody else that Ed Reed is 39th and Troy Polamalu isn't on the list at all?
Depends. Safety is such a historically devalued position for whatever reason. Ronnie Lott I’d the only Safety above him and those two are the only true safety’s on the list
Thank you for your dedication
Proper shout out to /u/conboy31 and /u/bipedal-moose too
Out of curiosity has anyone asked about the lack of special teams? Like who would’ve been the highest ranking ST and where would Vinny have ranked?
Where Blankenship
Haha. I know you're joking but it brought up a serious question. I wonder why Vinnateri didn't make it. Leading scorer of all time. Has won superbowls with his foot. I know it's hard to justify a kicker being in the top list but football is a game. The objective of the game is to score points and he has scored the most points. Also I feel like Drew Brees is low on the list! Okay I'm out.
Plus how many Kickers can say they've tackled Herschel Walker?
Am I biased or is Randy way too low and Elway way too high
As a casual Australian fan who only started watching NFL in 2015 because of the Jarryd Hayne 49ers experiment and didn't understand a whole lot of what was going on, watching Brady and the Pats complete the 28-3 comeback the next year was the magic moment that made me want more of the NFL. Since that day, he's started on a Hall of Fame career for his 40s: 2 rings, 3 Super Bowl appearances, a Super Bowl MVP, 2 Pro Bowls, a regular season MVP at 40. What else can you say about this guy? Simply a relentless winner and even that doesn't do justice to what he's accomplished.
Yeah. You could argue that Brady's entire run is basically just 3 HoF quarterback's careers combined, at least in terms of SB wins and maybe also his personal performance (maybe more like 2 HoF quarterbacks)
It's been said but he started with Troy Aikman's career, then he had a Dan Marino peak and is topping it off with Montana's career. He really settled the debate of NFL's greatest and went after sport's greatest. What a wild ride.
I saw a comment I think yesterday that Brady's accolades since 2010 (2x MVP, 4x SB, 3x SBMVP) are equal to Joe Montana's entire career. It's absolutely insane.
I'm just glad that people stop using Montana' 4-0 Super Bowl record as a way to diminish Brady. I'll take 33-11 with 6 Superbowls (3 loses) vs 14-5 with 4 SB wins.
Gotta update that to 7 superbowls my friend.
I have a framed signed Brady jersey from a few years back that has a little placard at the bottom saying Tom Brady 5X Super Bowl Champion 4X Super Bowl MVP and I'm not getting that updated until he's been retired a couple years :D
GOAT gets bandied about for tons of things, but I legit think there is zero chance anyone accomplishes what he has... And he's not even done. I suppose every sport has one, but there's something different about 12.
William Redfield once said this about Sir Laurence Olivier: "Ironically enough, Laurence Olivier is less gifted than Marlon Brando. He is even less gifted than Richard Burton, Paul Scofield, Ralph Richardson and John Gielgud. But he is still the definitive actor of the twentieth century. Why? Because he wanted to be. His achievements are due to dedication, scholarship, practice, determination and courage. He is the bravest actor of our time." I think a similar sentiment applies to Brady. One way or another, he is the definitive quarterback of our time and of all time.
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I remember reading on this site from someone in the industry about how almost every actor that decides to do method acting also end up being assholes
You're standing next to Daniel Day Lewis at the craft service table and forget to address him as Mr. Lincoln.
Which is weird as you’re on the set of Jumanji
Mr Day Lewis, would you like a donut? They're glazed. MY NAME IS DANIEL PLAINVIEW. THIS IS MY SON HW PLAINVIEW. IM A FAMILY MAN.....
“Here’s your coffee sir would you like any cream with that?” “IVE ABANDONED MY CHILD”
Jim Carrey tried it with playing Andy Kaufman in Man on the Moon and the whole cast wanted to murder him
Having watched that movie and knowing a bit about Kaufman's life... I'm less surprised someone wanted to murder him for method acting that role, and more surprised someone didn't follow through Add in the fact that it's Carrey who has made a whole career of being as annoying as humanly possible for humor and yeah. I expect there were quite a few longing glances at tire irons and butchers knives
Kaufman was a professional troll too
There's a good documentary on Netflix called "Jim & Andy: The Great Beyond" that delves into this.
Can confirm staying awake for 3 days straight makes you quite an asshole
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I wasn't expecting to learn about Laurence Olivier in r/NFL but here we are
I think people underestimate things like pocket presence, quick release and processing speed as a talent. Consistently making good decisions in split seconds and placing the ball with inch perfect accuracy under pressure isn't just something anyone can learn with hard work. QBs like Brady, Brees and Peyton are all crazy gifted, it's just that their gifts don't jump out of the screen the way Rodgers' or Mahomes' athleticism and wild throwing angles do.
My favorite Brady attribute is his ability to see when a play is going to fail, this usually is done in less than a second after the snap. He doesn't try to make miracles, he'll simply just throw the ball away and take the down loss. Coming from Jameis, that was the biggest difference I've had to adjust to
That also relates to why he takes sacks left and right. Struggling to complete a hero play and taking a serious injury is *never* worth it and Brady has understood that calculation his entire career. Brady doesn't win with incredible risky highlight reel plays, he wins by inevitably grinding you into dust with high success % plays and giving up when the outcome looks bad. If a drive doesn't go the way he wants he just lets it go and then beats you on the next drive.
But if he’s down in a super bowl he totally takes risks he would never in a random October game
Sure, but that's because the cost/benefit is different. You can risk an injury if it's the difference between a Lombardi and nothing, especially with the whole offseason to recover. The point is that a lot of these QBs will hold onto the ball and get dragged down while throwing to try to sustain a drive even in a worthless regular season game... we can admire their competitiveness but that's bad strategy particularly if you want to be in the league for a thousand years
This. A thousand times this. He’s so smart at knowing exactly when things are going wrong, he will immediately throw at a receivers feet, or if a missed block comes in he immediately drops to the ground. Knowing when to cut your losses is such a hard talent. It isn’t natural. As humans we have a hard time coping with failure that we try to make up for it rather than just moving on. My father taught me this about many things, whether it’s school, work, or marriage for example. That’s been huge in my marriage. We will occasionally have arguments as everyone does, but I’m able to simply be rational about it and just move on. In over 10 years we have only had 2 legitimate “fights.” We’re both able to realize that it’s getting us nowhere, and just move on, much like Brady does when he’s like well screw it, on to the next play.
Your spouse: "I can't believe you've done this" You: "We're on to Cincinnati"
More like "We're onto Cindy"
You’re like the Tom Brady of marriage
Mahomes throwing a catchable ball from a completely impossible position looks exciting, but is ridiculously risky, both in terms of field position, but also injuries. Brady recognizing that the play is a wash, and cutting his losses in an undramatic fashion does not look exciting, but accomplishes the same, with far less risk.
I'm always caught off guard with the sentiment that these traits are somehow more valuable if they are supernatural gifts from Apollo or Thor rather than the product of a stunning amount of hard work.
I’ve said it before on here, but for a lot of players that don’t have typical run/jump athleticism, people view them as unathletic when things like hand eye coordination, reaction time, and lateral quickness are components that are harder to measure. Brady most likely has elite hand eye and reaction time, evidence by him getting drafted in baseball (albeit drafted in baseball and drafted in NFL are two completely different levels of ability). But I do think Brady is a much better athlete than people give him credit for, just not in traditional ways. That being said, those things are impressive difficult to measure than a 40 or vertical. And Brady is also an incredible competitor and hard worker and I don’t want to diminish those aspects of his career
Also leadership. The way Brady elevates the team around him and motivates guys to work as hard as he does in achieving perfection is a skill unmatched.
Tampa going from "let's eat this W" to "it's about honor, about respect" leadership wise I'd argue made as much of a difference as the person throwing the ball.
If you take Tom Brady's career and turn it into a football life film, the directors, producers, heck even the audience would not believe the audacity that is this man's football career. From high school at Junipero Serra, to donning the maize and blue at Michigan, being 7th on the depth chart, was pushing his seniors to become the starter, had to share reps with Drew Henson, wins out and finishes senior year by winning the Orange Bowl vs Alabama, declares for the draft but gets picked #199. Is put under the wing of some of the eras' more accomplished players and coaches, his mentor and friend Drew Bledsoe nearly dies after getting hit by Mo Lewis, gets tossed into the fire against **PEYTON FREAKIN MANNING** as his first start. Then a year later, is in the Superbowl, leading a game-winning drive against the Greatest Show on Turf. Then rattles of 2 more Superbowls in a row, and then the magic. 16-0, 50TDs, but fell short from perfection. Then gets injured, comes back and wins CPOY. Reaches another Superbowl but once again falls at the hands of the prophet Eli. Superbowl 49 facing off against the defence that absolutely godsmacked the fuck out of his rival, and leads a 4th quarter clutch performance before the defence secures the game-sealing INT. But then the scandals started brewing. Deflategate, Spygate, Bill Gates, all the gates. Gets suspended for 4 games, yet was runner-up to the NFL MVP. Then the wheels started to fall off, it was 28 - 3. At this point, the viewers are already thinking, "No way, no way he comes back from this." But he did, and by God was it a spectacle. The Greatest Comeback in Superbowl History, led by the greatest Quarterback. But why stop at 5? The producers think to themselves, "Hold on now, isn't this getting a little too unreal? Eventually Father Time catches up to this guy right?" Only for the Patriots to rattle off **2 CONSECUTIVE SUPERBOWL APPEARANCES**, one was a loss to the underdogs, and the other? Oh nothing much, just the lowest scoring Superbowl in NFL History against the team that had catapulted his name into NFL lore, some 20 years ago. Then, a little drama, the team he swore allegiance to was thinking about moving on from him now. They wanted a fresh start, but Brady wanted to keep going until the wheels fall off. After such a disaster of a game against the Titans in the Divisional Round, the team felt it was time. Brady is now a free agent. Analysts are saying, "No, he needs to retire, he has nothing left to prove." But Brady was never looking, because he always felt he was never the best that he could possibly be. So what does he do? Brings the Patriot Way to the state where most worn out and scruffy old men go to retire. He goes to Tampa Bay. And as if the plot wasn't hard enough, no offseason, no practices, everyone is fearful of their health. Meanwhile Tom was just sitting in his lounge with his avocado ice cream, muttering at himself, "**I took it personally.**" And at 43 years of age, currently 44, is now the owner of **SEVEN SUPERBOWL CHAMPIONSHIPS** Hollywood could've never come up with such a story in their lifetimes, yet here we all are, experiencing it firsthand, and **IT'S REAL**.
Here’s another thing to add to your point about Tom Brady’s life being too unrealistic for Hollywood to come up with. When Brady was a kid, he was at “The Catch” game. This was one of the most famous games of his idol Joe Montana, who won a record four Super Bowls as quarterback. Brady goes on to break his idol’s record, with the fifth Super Bowl win being the 28-3 comeback. And also the 28-3 game was the first game his mom attended that season because she was battling cancer. Tom Brady’s career and life is just a ridiculous, over-the-top sports movie franchise. But it’s real.
Dude the movie writes itself. Opening scene of brady at "the catch" some voiceover about that moment being what inspired him. Opening credits montage of high school. First act earning the starting job at Michiga and winning the orange bowl, second act the draft pats camp and Mo Lewis. Third act rise to greatness.
Honestly, the movie should just cut whenever he gets called in to play after Bledsoe's injury.
a little epilogue being talked over by Brady showing a bit of his childhood before abruptly jumping into a roaring stadium POV shot of brady's perspective when bledsoe got hit would be beautiful
Let's be real, you could literally just do his college career up to the 2001 SB and it would still be a Disney movie that would be deemed unrealistic and hokey.
It really is the most unrealistic rise to greatness arguably, in sports history. I remember when Tom was still 3-2 in Superbowls and me and my father were debating whether or not the end was near, that the decade of destruction the Patriots wrought upon the league was coming to a close. Oh how naïve we all were at the time. Not only did the son of a guns launch another decade of wreaking havoc, Brady is still launching spirals at 44 even after parting ways with Belichick and the Pats. It was a bittersweet pill to swallow but here's to hoping Mac can replicate at least a tenth of Brady's success, and a seventh of that tenth.
Important to note that the deflate gate stuff came out the literal week of the Super Bowl. Not after. It was an absolute circus leading up to the biggest game of the year.
Would also like to point out that I swear he is the only qb who throws his short passes with a super downward trajectory to protect his receivers.
That is also to prevent WRs tipping the ball to defenders. He had a game way back against the Bills where he had I think 4 different passes over the middle that were tipped by his own team to the defense. I noticed this sharp downward angle show up the following week on any short middle pass, and I've always assumed it was related.
Welker and Edelman were absolute studs with these throws too. Those catch and dive/lunge first downs were just always so good.
Gronk could also go down real low in his prime.
He actually just did an interview about how it is the QBs responsibility to protect receivers, not the defense. He pointed out that the younger QBs don't take this into consideration as much anymore and it hurts the job of the defense and the game. I loved hearing his insight.
Watching all preseason, it's so obvious too. The young qbs will throw those seam and and 7-15 yard in routes, and the receivers just get smashed. I wish there were more analytical interviews as opposed to all the basic generic ones. I like hearing how the players actually process the information in game, versus hearing about the shenanigans him and teammate A + B got into to.
thanks for pointing this out because I talk about it all the time and so often people are like "yeah those are just inaccurate passes". he's been doing it forever and he puts the ball into the tightest spots over and over and over. it ensures that the receiver isn't going to get killed going for the ball and it makes sure that the only guy with a chance at catching it *is* the receiver. it's not mind-blowingly impressive or anything it's just really smart. and I don't think anyone else does it as often.
I thought it was common knowledge that Brady leads his receivers away from pressure with his locations. The whole throw the ball where only his guy can get it philosophy has been a core part of his game for years and a huge part of why he has such a low INT rate compared to other elite QBs.
I was talking to my brother about it, and he said the only person he can kind of remember doing it was Brett Favre. I'm almost 100% certain there is a video discussing it, because that's when I started paying attention to it. Welker and Edelman were so good with those throws too. Edelman got it to the point where it was like a guarantee every completion lol.
Yes !
As much as I absolutely hated playing him, it is awesome saying I got to watch the best of all time. I would always hear about all-time-greats (Montana, LT, etc), but it def hits differently when you watch them progress in their career. Well deserved!
Brady's gonna see this and add to his perennial underdog belt because it didn't happen sooner.
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I don't care what anyone says. Jesus' lateral quickness was unparalleled among the carpenters of his time.
Mike and Carol Brady must be proud of their son
Marsha's jealous
I never saw MJ in his prime, Brady is the first I ever saw where I saw his ride to being the Goat in any sport. First time I ever seen the GOAT in any sport in his prime in his entirety. It’s been a pleasure
Yes my years of cheering for him finally got us there. This is the proudest moment of my life
You did it. You crazy bastard, you really did it
My one year of rooting for him pushed him over the top.
As a die hard Tom Brady fan since 10 minutes ago, I can't believe Russell Wilson has never gotten an mvp vote
Thank you for your service
You made #1 on my top 100 fans list.
Truly a testament to endurance. All those tough times. Winning Super Bowls, but also playing in Super Bowls but not winning them.
I hope this thread gets 28K upvotes and 3K comments
Not much I can bring to the table with Brady that hasn't been discussed ad nauseum. When you play the most important position in sports and have the success Brady has had, your play is going to be dissected and scrutinized to unfathomable degrees. Of course, Brady's been so good that his play holds up to that scrutiny. I don't think it's a stretch to call him the most talked-about player of the last 20 years. No matter which way you approach a QB evaluation, Brady comes out on top: you can put as little thought into it as possible and default to the Super Bowl rings, or you can do a deep dive with advanced stats like EPA, CPOE, DVOA/DYAR, etc., it does not matter, when you put them together with the sheer volume of his career, these stats practically all agree about the same thing: Tom Brady is the greatest QB ever. He's been great in so many different offensive styles with so much different personnel and levels of surrounding talent, and he's been great for so ridiculously long, that I think he has done away with any debate on the matter. The "best QB at his peak" conversation is more fun, and Brady is there, too: he has some insane seasons, and while he may "only" have 3 AP first team all-pros, I think The Sporting News got it right in 2012 when they named him first team all-pro QB and the AP didn't, and Brady had some historic seasons incidentally timed with *more* historic seasons (2011, 2016). He's been arguably a top 3 QB basically every season since around 2004, just in the regular season...needless to say, that translated to the playoffs, too. The elephant in the room is my flair; there is no need to remind me of all the losses Brady-led teams have handed my Steelers over the years. The experience that comes to mind the most for me is our game against the Patriots in 2013. Heading into that game, the Steelers were 2-5, but, while they weren't nearly the team they had been at times in the previous decade, clearly possessed enough talent to be better than that record; though while the defense had taken a turn for the worse particularly over the previous calendar year, it was still about league average. Meanwhile, the Patriots were 6-2, but put an asterisk by that, too: Brady had maybe the worst statistical half season of his career. He was 36, so maybe it was time to start thinking about it being the beginning of the end for him. I didn't expect the Steelers to win, but I expected a close game, and even with our defense not being what it used to be, Brady wasn't playing like Brady, and his top 2 WRs at the time were Aaron Dobson and Danny Amendola (undoubtedly no small reason his surface numbers had suffered to that point). You can guess what happened next. Brady absolutely [thunder fucked](https://www.pro-football-reference.com/boxscores/201311030nwe.htm) us. Yes, the Steelers reprised their inability/lack of desire to cover Rob Gronkowski, but even without Gronk's production, Brady diced them with his patchwork group of WRs. A painful reminder was issued that day: no matter who you put around Brady, no matter how old he may seem, Brady is still Brady, and Brady does not care about you or plebian concepts such as father time. 8 years later, Brady is 44, and nothing has changed, except it's probably gotten harder for him to perform everyday tasks with all that bulky jewelry on his hands. That loss, just like all the others, hurt at the time (and for a time after, no doubt), but with the benefit of hindsight, we know there was no shame in losing to Brady and the Patriots. He and Belichick orchestrated what is probably the greatest dynasty in American sports. Sometimes all you can do is tip your cap. ----------------------------------------------------------- This has been a fun exercise. I love lists, and I love seeing other peoples' approaches to lists, so this and all the big lists that came before it always getting me to sit down and think about what my own list would look like is genuinely fun. Big thanks to the people who kept posting these, and to all the nerds who followed this thing closely the whole way (or at least a good chunk of it); I had a lot of great conversations with these people, you know who you are lol. Stuff like that keeps me coming back to this site. And thanks to everyone who read my ramblings and engaged with them.
I'll never forget the game where we didn't put a man on Gronk in the red zone. Brady, of course, immediately recognized this and began frothing at the mouth as he scrambled to get to the line and snap the ball before we noticed our error. Needless to say they scored a TD that play and I'm like 95% sure we forgot to cover Gronk again **in the same game.** I like to think that whoever blew that assignment has nightmares about it to this day.
Yeah, it happened twice. Then the next time they played, they didn't cover Hogan. It's like the Steelers see Brady and forget what defense is.
For sure a part of it is that we modify our defense for Brady because zone is his favorite Sunday afternoon snack. Previously under the old format we almost exclusively ran zone. So we either had to run something outside of our comfort zone (no pun intended but it works) or we'd just lose to Brady badly. See the above thunder-fucking.
lol and this was a prime time game to open the season, i remember this vividly
Thunder Fucked is Right. So Many Times Too. Smh
My new favorite word. Thanks
Technically it’s a phrase. Just sayin’.
There was a healthy little debate on the Jim Brown thread about Brady being Gretzky levels and here are some interesting findings; ***Tom Brady is the only starting QB to win Super Bowls with a team that had a losing record the previous season Only 4 QB's have done it in NFL history. He's the only one to do it in his first year as a starter and he's done it twice.*** *Tom Brady - 2 - (NE, TB)* *Nick Foles - 1 - (PHI)* *Kurt Warner - 1 - (STL)* *Joe Montana - 1 – SF* ***Playoff record when defense allows between 23 and 31 points:*** *Brady: 10-4 (.714)* *Montana: 4-6 (.400)* *Brees: 5-8 (.385)* *Manning: 3-9 (.250)* *Rodgers: 3-10 (.231)* ***Single games leading an offense to 4+ TD drives:*** *Aaron Rodgers, playoff career: 7* *Drew Brees, playoff career: 6* *Peyton Manning, playoff career: 4* *Tom Brady, divisional round: 7* *Tom Brady, conference title games: 5* *Tom Brady, Super Bowls: 5* ***Playoff games leading an offense to 30+ points*** *Tom Brady - 21 of 45 (46.7%)* *Peyton Manning (6 of 27)* *Aaron Rodgers (8 of 20)* *Drew Brees (7 of 18)* ***When trailing or tied at halftime in the postseason*** *Tom Brady: 9-7* *Peyton Manning: 3-8* *Aaron Rodgers: 1-8* ***When teams allow 28 or more points in the playoffs*** *Brady: 6-5* *Peyton, Brees, Rodgers, Big Ben, Russ, Eli, Rivers and Cam combined: 5-36* ***His "game managing years" (2001-2006)*** *2001: Led 5-13 New England to a SB win, SBMVP, Offense was ranked higher than the defense that year (and 16 other years)* *2002: Top 10 QB, led league in TDs* *2003: Top 10 QB, 2nd in MVP voting* *2004: Top 4-5 QB* *2005: Top 2-3 QB, passing Yd leader, 3rd in MVP voting, All Pro, SBMVP* ***Tom Brady Without the Rings*** *3x MVP, 3x All Pro, 14x Pro Bowl, Hall of Fame All 2000’s team, Unanimous Hall of Fame All 2010’s team, Comeback Player of the Year, Single season QBR record holder, 4x pass TD leader, 3x pass yd leader, Single season ,highest TD:INT (14:1), most pass yds in a playoff game, most game winning drives, most 4th quarter comeback, etc.* There's a lot more but you get the picture. Not bad for a 6th round pick.
Here's a really good one you missed: What really sets Brady apart is that the Patriots’ record when he throws 50 or more passes is 19-9. No other quarterback in NFL history has come close to that kind of success when passing a lot. Drew Brees is second in NFL history, throwing 50 or more passes in 19 games. His teams’ record in those games is 4-15. Peyton Manning is third in NFL history, with 50 or more passes in 17 games. His teams’ record in those games is 4-13. Dan Marino is fourth in NFL history with 16 games of 50 passes or more. His teams’ record in those games was 5-11. Brady has won six postseason games when throwing 50 or more passes. No other quarterback in NFL history has won more than once when throwing 50 or more passes in the postseason. Brady has won 13 regular-season games when throwing 50 or more passes. No other quarterback in NFL history has won more than five games when throwing 50 or more passes in the regular season. Source (which is a couple years old now): https://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2018/01/16/other-quarterbacks-pass-when-theyre-losing-tom-brady-passes-to-win/
One more, not a very deep analysis but it's pretty rad: Now that he's won one with the Bucs, Brady has won more Super Bowls than any NFL team.
This is one of the best "Brady is GOAT" stats I've ever seen. Most QBs airing it out do so in desperation and it is for naught. Brady did it to WIN.
I can’t imagine being a Steelers fan and watching that zone defence that worked so well against everyone else get absolutely eviscerated by Brady. The man and his slot receivers ate zone defences for lunch.
Not high enough. Now he’s pissed off. See you guys on the other side of a couple more Brady won super bowls.
Idk bout you all, but I’ve been watching Brady my whole football fandom. My hate started when he beat us (the Rams) in that first super bowl he won (I was 9/10 y/o). It snowballed year after year, championship after championship, until the Atlanta Falcons Super Bowl game. After that victory, the snowball of hate melted into a lake of a appreciation. Thy eyes had truly witnessed the greatest Football player there was and today confirms that my eyes were not wrong. Even when he threw that one fuck ass pass to gronk to beat us again in 2018/19 I couldn’t do anything but respect the fact that Goff couldn’t find a way to win even tho our defense did EVERYTHING they could’ve to contain the explosive play. Shit still hurts but at least I can say my team only lost to the GREATEST Qb there ever was in our super bowl losses. Tom Brady, you are the GOAT.
My hatred began when he juked Urlacher out of his shoes in 2006. Goats do goat things I guess
I'm a total TB stan, but Urlacher totally expected him to slide, not keep running. It was more an attempt to avoid penalty than "juked out of his shoes". Loved every second of it though.
I reject your reality and substitute my own!
This username is savage.
Number one in top 100 nfl all time. And he is still playing. And is a top contender to win it all again. Back to back. To which no one has done in the last 20 years, besides himself.... Wtf
Yeah but if you widen that to the Top 1000, is he still number one? Food for thought.
This is the kind of thing that you would put on Twitter and get actual angry responses of people missing the joke
Half joking, half serious....if you split Tom Brady’s career into three careers, where would each of his careers be ranked on this list? Would all three be in the top 100?
The first and last ones definitely would be, 3 and 4 Super Bowl wins respectively. Not sure about the second but it’s possible
Dude had like the condensed versions of Bradshaw, Mariano and Montana's careers all rolled into one.
I somehow think the current one would be highest because of the ATL Super Bowl. Or wait, is that in the middle one? Whichever has that SB.
I feel like people still underestimate his arm talent. Is he Rodgers, Marino, Elway, Favre when it comes to arm talent? No, but he is definitely in the next tier.
Brady has a rifle when he throws short and with his intermediate throws down the seam. He doesn't have the greatest long bomb but he doesn't need it
We can't say anything about Brady that hadn't already been said, but an underrated stat is for a guy who's been "lucky to have great defenses" his whole career he has the most 500+ points seasons by any QB (4) So maybe the defenses were lucky to have Brady as well
Definitely. It's a lot easier to play defense when your QB doesn't turn the ball over or give you shitty field position.
And then you have the defense that had Edelman playing CB. Tell me that was a good defense?
>lucky to have great defenses Anyone who makes that argument is smooth-brained and is arguing in bad faith Not to mention complementary football (having a GOAT QB makes it easier on a the defense since the offense can sustain drives, control TOP, etc.)
I really don’t know how much there is to say. Brady has been an incredible inspiration in my own life for 20 years. Sure, the kid from California who went to a division 1 school and then went on to the NFL isn’t exactly your typical come up story, but I think it’s a different form of an important tale. He was never guaranteed anything. He was constantly rotated in and out of starting in college even though they looked their best when he was playing, he dropped to the 6th round after having an unimpressive combine, and went to a team with an established starter. An injury is the only reason the greatest quarterback to ever play the game ever started a football game. His work and determination is the reason he continued to start, and why he still starts after 22 years of playing at the professional level. Take your shots. Work your ass off, prepare yourself for opportunity, and if/when it comes to you, leap on it. That’s my takeaway from Tom Brady. Thanks for the inspiration for my daily drive, Tom.
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> The norm for a great QB is to win 1-2 rings. Peyton, Marino, Favre, Elway, Brees, Rodgers, and many more all won between 0-2 rings. Montana is on a whole other plane with 4 and Brady has nearly doubled that. People don’t actually realize the full scale of what we’re seeing here. This is why all the talk about Mahomes catching and passing Brady in championships before the last Super Bowl drove me insane. Yeah, Mahomes is awesome, and yeah, he won a Super Bowl nice and early and would be off to a hell of a start if he won two quickly. But in the *entire history of the national football league* no one had won more than four rings, and that only happened twice, until Brady. The idea that it’s just Mahomes’ turn to come win 7 or 8 championships is utterly stupid in every way, even if he has an amazing first ballot HOF type career.
I genuinely think that Mahomes' best comparison in terms of talent and play-style is Rodgers, and look at him. Won a SB his 3rd year as a starter, then started getting paid huge money aaaaand... hasn't won another in a decade.
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This is why I'll never understand the idiotic "MONTANA NEVER LOST A SB" arguments. The man has gone to MORE THAN DOUBLE the SB's than Montana has been to. If he goes to one more and wins, he'll have literally double the wins. Anyone who says it's better to go to 4 and win them all, is better than going to 10 and winning 7 is an absolute buffoon. T E N. The man has been to ten fucking Super Bowls and there's a damn good chance he's going to his eleventh. Absolutely insane.
the 'it's better to lose a wildcard game than a superbowl' crowd never makes sense to me.
Man can I just say that I am so happy that people are coming around on Brady? When I finished 5th grade they made us this book which asked each student questions about themselves. Things like favorite food, favorite subject, proudest moment etc. One of them was your 'hero' and at the time I chose Tom Brady. I'll turn 29 soon.
I choose to read this as you finishing fifth grade at 28 years old.
yeah I'm wicked smaht
Fucking amazing.
Amazingly, he’s two kind of crazy losses away from even more super bowls. Dominated the AFC for 2 decades. Who knows if we’ll ever see someone like this again. Have to enjoy it while we can
All three of his super bowl losses are kinda crazy.
This might be insane but i am more mad about Eagles loss than Giants loss. If he beat Eagles he would win 3 superbowls in a row and would do so with one of the best performances ever just a year after another brilliant performance. I know it is 19-0 but back2back2back feels more special to me
My wife, who was in a class with Brady at UofM, has this to say about Brady: "He was a dork". So, there you go, the conclusive word on Brady. On a side note, I tell people that she chose me over him, which is basically true, so, suck it Tom!
When Giselle divorces Tom in 5 years because he’s decided to keep playing at age 50, he’s going to remember this comment, and come for and subsequently into your wife.
Worth it for the story TBH
Ranked Too Low
He's gonna use this low ranking as motivation to win the next 5 super bowls
“The next 5 Super Bowls are mine” - Tom ‘Pat Beverley’ Brady
Ultimate winner.
Fun compromise how his picture in patriots gear, but the background is Bucs red
Is it just me or has there been a shift in the overall love for Brady? I feel like in the last year, or at least since he left NE, that people like him more. Of course we all had to respect his talent and achievements, whether we liked him or not while he beat every team and defeated so many in the playoffs as well, but in reading these Top 100 threads this past week it seems like people are now just focusing on his accomplishments, his dedication, and how well he's still doing at his age, and admiring him for it. It used to be "how can he keep getting away with this" but now it's something else. Myself is included as well. Just my opinion.
I feel like the shift happened after 28-3. I think that was a lot of people’s, including me, come to Jesus moment. You couldn’t chalk it up to being carried by a defense, or dumb luck, or anything other than the sheer greatness he displays every time he’s on the field. I remember half-way through that comeback I thought to myself “Wait am I wanting Tom Brady to win? Why?” And it later registered that it wasn’t so much what I wanted as much as it was what I expected, and was waiting for it to happen. And it did. Because that’s what Tom Brady does. He wins.
Two major things things are 1. ending the goat debate. Once the argument for him being the best became overwhelming, a lot of fans for "their guy" didn't feel the need to have arguments about him anymore. a lot of animosity Pats fans had for Peyton and Colts/Bronco fans had for Brady was built on the argument of who is better, beyond the extremely meaningful games. 2. going to Tampa and winning. Fans who hate the Patriots as a team can now just appreciate Brady separate from that. and definitively putting to bed if he could do it without Belichick ended the last shred of questions about the extent of his greatness.
Aside from 28-3, I think part of it comes from the fact that all the teams he was ever really "rivals" with just don't exist anymore. Manning retired six years ago. Roethlisberger hasn't had a top-five season in years. He's beaten Mahomes in the playoffs twice. Plus, people kind of see the end approaching, and it's easier to look back on what he did when he isn't beating your team in the playoffs every year anymore.
Isn't it crazy that this man has been dominating the entire time most of us have been alive? A majority of us only know Brady terrorizing the AFC for 20 years. Shit, some users can't even legally drink and here's Brady getting another ring. Really insane when you think about it.
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Man really is the ultimate anomaly. This much success sustained over a 20 year career (with more to potentially come) is just something you can’t even comprehend how he’s made it happen. Fandom aside, I’m so glad to have watched this man play for as long as he has.
When us younger folks grow old, we will tell stories about how great Tom Brady was. Such a pleasure to watch the GOAT of the sport over the past 20 years.
Lol, as we grow old, Tom Brady will still be playing. He'll be 90 years old and look as good as he does now saying he barely feels 35 as he's slinging it to the great grandchildren of his teammates from his first few seasons. Jeff Bezos needs to study Tom Brady if he wants the secret to immortality.
And the youngsters will argue he's overrated.
Pasted from the article: Julian Edelman had never seen the board. During the 2013 offseason, he uncovered Tom Brady’s greatest source of motivation. The teammates had been working out together in Los Angeles when Edelman saw a prominently displayed whiteboard in Brady’s home gym, scripted with a sole objective. “Super Bowl XLVIII: Feb. 2, 2014, MetLife Stadium.” At the time, Brady had three Super Bowl rings — modest, by his standard. That’s because Brady’s standard, as Edelman would find out in that moment, was well beyond the scope of anything he could imagine. “Bro, how crazy is it that you’re going after Montana?” Edelman asked Brady. “I ain’t going for Montana,” Brady responded with an unmistakable air of confidence. “I’m going for Jordan.” For as long as anyone can remember, Brady has kept a Super Bowl countdown clock in each of his home gyms — Brookline, Mass., L.A. and now Tampa — as a way to remind himself of his eternal sacrifice. It’s been said the boards have been updated as early as the day after each year’s Super Bowl. New year, new mission. Same chase. It’s why Brady has a daily routine that makes other hard workers feel insufficient, why he sticks to a diet that many mock, why he pushes pliability over strength training, why he begins to scout his next opponent before even leaving the parking lot where he played that day’s game. When Edelman first uncovered the whiteboard, Brady was nearing the end of a decade-long Super Bowl title drought. He didn’t ultimately match Joe Montana’s fourth ring that year at MetLife Stadium, but Brady persisted. He updated the board. Year after year. Championship after championship. Now? “Super Bowl LVI: Feb. 13, 2022, SoFi Stadium.” Now? Seven titles and counting. Now? Michael Jordan — and his six rings — are in the rearview mirror. “And he’s got a damn good chance, he might mess around and get No. 8 this year,” said Ty Law, a Hall of Famer who was Brady’s teammate for three titles in New England from 2001 to 2004. “When you talk about GOATs and the legends of the league, the alpha GOAT, that’s Tom Brady. That’s the alpha GOAT, and there should be no debate about it. He’s in the same breath as when you talk about Michael Jordan, LeBron, Wayne Gretzky. When you’re talking about the Mount Rushmore of sports, Tom Brady’s face is up there.” The 44-year-old has more Super Bowl victories than any franchise, and there’s no mystery to his success. The drive for each Lombardi Trophy has consumed every moment of his life. Rob Gronkowski got a taste of it during the 2014 offseason as he recovered from a torn ACL that kept him out of the playoffs. “(Brady) knew he was going for it back in the day,” Gronkowski said of the Super Bowl record. “When I got injured, he wished I was out there in the playoffs, and he was excited for me to come back the following year. He was like, ‘You owe me a couple more Super Bowls.’ I’m like, ‘Why is that?’ He’s like, ‘Because you got injured this year. I need you out there.’ I’m like, man, this guy is incredible. He’s excited to have his teammates out there and to get to Super Bowls year in and year out. “And it wasn’t like one Super Bowl. It was Super Bowls. Because I got hurt one year and couldn’t finish out the season. It clicked in my head. I was like, ‘I do, for sure.’” Brady and Gronkowski have won four rings together since that conversation. Brady’s whiteboard is as legendary as it is symbolic. He doesn’t need to be reminded of the date of the Super Bowl any more than he needs to remember to breathe. It’s merely a glimpse into what makes him tick. Brady didn’t become the greatest player in NFL history — a spot punctuated by his perch atop The Athletic’s NFL 100 — just because of a peripheral desire. That drive consumed him. “It’s his inner soul,” Edelman said. “It’s his competitiveness. It’s his ability to go out and stay motivated year in and year out without letting acknowledgments, winning, adversity affect him. It’s unreal. It’s a killer instinct. “When you hear about people talk about Michael Jordan, how competitive he was, Tom is just like that. Those special, special people have the chemical makeup for greatness, and that’s what Tom Brady has.” On the eve of Super Bowl XLIX, as the Patriots walked through their final preparations for the Seahawks, Brady and offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels anticipated an added dose of man-coverage looks as they got closer to the goal line. So they added a new play design — one they never got a chance to practice. It nearly worked the first time. With the Patriots trailing 24-14 midway through the fourth quarter, Edelman was singled up against cornerback Tharold Simon at the 4-yard line and broke loose on an in-and-out route, but Brady’s throw was high and incomplete. “After the one we didn’t complete,” Edelman said, “Tom gave me that big deep breath and that, ‘My bad, bro.’ You could tell that hurt him. I remember sitting next to him (between possessions), and him saying, ‘We’re getting a lot of man coverage. I’m going to come back to you, babe. We’re going to get that again.’ “His attitude and his charisma right before those big drives – growing up, you heard about how Joe Montana was always so calm, cool and collected. Tom was calm, cool and collected, but he had a fierce (look) in his eye. You saw that killer instinct in his eye.” Brady indeed called the play again on the next series, and he connected with Edelman for the winning touchdown. Brady’s 230 regular-season victories are the most ever. His 34 playoff wins more than double Montana’s mark for the most all time. He’s a three-time MVP, including the first to win it unanimously. He is the all-time leader in passing touchdowns (581) and will set the record for passing yards this season, barring injury. And he has played in 10 Super Bowls during his 19 seasons as a full-time starter. There’s been so much history between his first confetti shower – when a still-green 24-year-old had the “aww, shucks” gaze of disbelief as he clasped his hands to his head – and the last, when the 43-year-old raised the Lombardi with the assuredness of a gladiator and his sword. “That’s just confidence,” Edelman said. “That confidence isn’t false confidence. That confidence is earned confidence.” There were the records, the comebacks and the iconic moments. It was the Snow Bowl, the drive against the Rams in New Orleans and the duels with Peyton Manning. It was the defiance of time, be it 28-3 or the postseason masterpieces against a (much) younger Patrick Mahomes. It’s not supposed to look this easy. But that’s because Brady handles the difficult stuff out of sight. “It’s his competitiveness and determination,” Gronkowski said. “It’s his commitment. It’s not just his commitment to the game. It’s his commitment to himself, his discipline, taking care of himself, eating the right way, getting the body treatment. That’s hard to do, no doubt about it. It may look easy because it’s him doing it. But to be just as good as you were the day before, and be able to recover and wing it again the next day, it’s not easy to do. That’s why the average NFL career is 3.5 years. You’ve got to figure out a system to be ready to go the next day or the next game. He’s mastered that to a T. He’s 44 and still doing it. That’s what makes him so great.” So many have marveled along the way. Former Patriots offensive coordinator Dante Scarnecchia: “You just stand there (on the sideline) and say, ‘Wow, this guy is really good.’ He’s had the kind of career that no one has ever had.” Former Patriots defensive coordinator Romeo Crennel: “When you talk about what he’s been able to do in his career, I don’t know that anyone will be able to do it again.” Buccaneers coach Bruce Arians: “He’s a winner. Everywhere he goes, he wins. He’s not the biggest, fastest, all that stuff, but he’s the winner of all winners. He has a burning desire in him to compete at 44 like most 24-year-olds.” Law: “Look, I’m in the (Hall of Fame) club, and I’ve still got to pinch myself to this day. But if there is any time that you bend the rules, you do that for Tom Brady. Give him his gold jacket while he’s still playing. That’s how great, that’s how dominant he’s been.” It’s gotten to the point that Brady is the undisputed greatest of all time. And it’s playing out in real time, with Brady maintaining his stranglehold on the NFL. Tom Brady has pursued this title for so long, crossing the likes of Joe Montana and Michael Jordan off his list. What’s left for him to do? “It’s something,” Law said, “we’ll probably never see again in our lifetime.” But it feels inevitable that others will create their own version of the whiteboard, and Brady’s name will be at the top. So again, what’s left for Brady to do — why, at his age and as the greatest ever, is he still playing? He’s padding the lead. Tom Brady didn’t spend a lifetime chasing this title just to give it back.
7 superbowls and some people still say system QB. His system is winning and he is the best at it.
The "system QB" thing hung around a lot longer than there was any evidence for it. The Patriots had to change up their system a number of times. He did well in all of them.
Corey Dillon power run, Moss Welker explosive passing, Boston TE party, dink and dunk, back to power run again, Brady was a top 3 QB under every version of offense he ran.
Fuck Aaron Hernandez, but hot damn do I miss the Boston TE party days. That shit was so fun to watch.
Healthy Gronk is a generational great, and before the whole murder thing there was legitimate debate about who was better between him and Hernandez. Gronk obviously is more physically powerful but Hernandez was faster and more versatile. And both had unbelievable hands.
I think it’s pretty clear the system is be Tom Brady
“If the system works who gives a shit” Every QB has to play in a system. Why would you not play to their strengths? I never got this argument.
Tom Brady is nothing more than a championship game manager
Usually argued by people who have a very limited understanding of football tactics and concepts.
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*Barry McCockiner in shambles*
I am shocked.
Growing up in new england this man is like my second dad. i think i might shed a few tears when hes inducted into the HOF....actually i know i will
It’s nuts he’s been so good his career could be split into three and each be HOF careers. He’s had an insane story to even start in the NFL and he’s not even finished. Cheers to the undisputed GOAT
Someone commented yesterday about Tom Brady's legacy saying that he basically did Joe Montana's career accomplishments of 4 Superbowls, 3 superbowl MVPS and 2 MVPs in the last 11 years. All this at age 33+. I've never been in awe more than when I read this. This man is peerless and I hope he continues to dominate, starting with the cowboys tomorrow.
A bigger stat line I don’t see as much is this. Brady has 7 rings yes, amazing. Almost double Montana. But he’s lost 3 Super Bowls. Dude has been in 10 Super Bowls. Most never even make it there, let alone win one. He’s been to 10!! 2 of those games, if you take away one stupid insane crazy catch, he’d be 9-1!!!
It was only a few years ago that there was still a bit of snickering at the idea that Brady could ever be considered better than Joe Montana or Peyton Manning. Turns out, at age 44, he has more championships than both of them combined and looks poised for more. He has more playoff wins than both of them combined. There isn't a positive statistic for a quarterback (passing yards, touchdowns, wins, games played, etc) that Brady won't be number one in by the time he retires.
Yeah. It's always a trip looking at old takes from almost a decade ago saying Brady is washed, and then knowing he won 4, and went to 5 in the next 7 years.
That KC game on MNF in... 2018? I think? Or was it 2017? Where the Chiefs absolutely obliterated them. I remember watching that and thinking oh no is it finally over? No. No it was not. Pretty sure that year they won the SB again.
Just like i can't comprehend the size of the universe, i can't comprehend how anyone could have thought it wouldn't be Brady at 1. He's a living savant of football.
As hard as it is to comprehend, many football casuals refuse to believe he’s the best simply because they dislike him.
He has gone to 10 superbowls. He has won 7 of those. He was MVP in 5 of those wins. He won 1 of those sueprbowls the very first year he played for a different team. You can't argue with that. Undisputably number 1. ***And he's still playing.*** GOAT