No
By Marshall Macaluso
Tom Brady made his ninth Super Bowl appearance this past Sunday. By the end of the night, he had accomplished a feat no other player in NFL history has ever done: he has too many Super Bowl rings to fit on one hand.
I say this with zero condemnation: as a diehard Denver Broncos fan, I have despised the Brady-Belichick combo that has run the AFC, and perhaps the whole league, for nearly two decades.
Just before the Super Bowl last year, when Nick Foles famously upset the Patriots to deny them back-to-back titles, Aaron Rodgers was the G.O.A.T in my eyes.
I, as others do, claim that Rodgers’ talent and athleticism made him the best quarterback. I respect Tom Brady’s ability to set up in the clutch, but having Rodgers as the best of all time was simply due to the fact that I hated Brady. In my mind, his dominance actually started to skew people’s opinions of him.
This Patriots dynasty has made us take for granted how good Tom Brady actually is. He has dominated the NFL for years now, but not only has his talent as a player been showcased in his career, Brady’s leadership abilities have long been overlooked.
Aaron Rodgers can do on a football field what some say, “Brady could never dream of,” but Brady’s locker room presence is something that puts him above the rest.
Brady led his team to an 11-5 season, blew out the Chargers who had a breakout season, beat the Chiefs with the season’s MVP at quarterback, and marched on to win his sixth championship against the Rams. This past season was simply the same old routine for Brady and he didn’t do anything out of the ordinary.
Mitch will tell you this win altered his legacy, but Brady is already a sure Hall of Famer and will be remembered for the rest of, at least my, life. Probably beyond to be honest.
Yes
By Mitchell Kaminski
As the last seconds of Super Bowl LIII ticked away Tom Brady, knelt down to cap off his most impressive masterpiece yet. At the age of 41, Tom Brady became the oldest quarterback to win a Super Bowl. The victory marked his sixth Super Bowl trophy, the most of any player in NFL history.
He was a mediocre 21-35 with only 262 yards and an interception, but nobody will remember that. The road to get there was hard and that’s what matters.
Along the way he took a team that was 3-5 on the road, with all losses coming against non-playoff teams, and earned a signature career road playoff win over the Chiefs in the AFC Championship. Then he had to beat a Rams defense led by the Defensive Player of the Year Aaron Donald in the Super Bowl.
Sports are all about mythology. Moments from the past tend to be glorified each time we expound upon them.
All of Tom Brady’s shortcomings this season will be forgotten because of the Super Bowl win. He threw an interception on his first pass of the Super Bowl and if it wasn’t for that offside penalty, he would have thrown a third interception in the AFC championship game, falling to the Chiefs.
The only other quarterback that can be in the same G.O.A.T conversation as Tom Brady is Joe Montana, who was 4-0 in Super Bowls and played in an era where the rules did not favor the offense.
Montana’s famous game winning touchdown pass in the 1982 NFC Championship game is simply known as “The Catch.” Everyone forgets that game he threw three interceptions and had a fumble that game.
The Patriots LIII victory enhances the legend of Tom Brady when we look back at his career long after his playing days are over.
If the Patriots had lost we would be calling for Brady to retire. Now, we’ll just keep witnessing greatness. Y
