Deus Irae

That is probably the silliest post that's ever been written on this topic. Congratulations on that, I guess.

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"The object in life is not to be on the side of the majority, but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane."
- Marcus Aurelius

supafly

I think that's a great point. All 5 SB's were played within a 4 point window, losing by 3 and 4, and winning by 3, 3, and 3.

I don't think that any fan with knowledge should really put that on Brady. These championship games have lived up to the hype, particularly lately, and proven to be great matchups--as they really should be.

The bottom line is that in his 11 seasons played (obviously not counting the one where he went down 5 minutes into the season) he has taken us to the SB 5x, and the AFCCG 6x, so you know you're going to be playing for all the marbles about 50% of the time with him under center.

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Patiently waiting to defend the next "bubble" player in this summer's training camp.....

Fixit

So, Montana is better than Brady because he's won more Super Bowls. However, even if Brady wins "a few more" Super Bowls, he won't be better than Montana.

Yeah, your opinion counts.

Bman12

Once he gets 5!

supafly

The current "new" era of free agency should certainly be taken into account in this discussion too.

Players like Montana, Bradshaw, didn't have to deal with much turnover during their days, where guys like Brady are lucky to see some of the same players a few years down the road altogether. Let's imagine Joe Montana throwing to Reche Caldwell, etc. It isn't pretty.

Brady is obviously in the conversation for greatest of all time based on many things. He would certainly be considered the greatest by an even higher number of people if he won another SB before he retires.

The chances of that are pretty good in my opinion, considering that he hasn't shown any major kind of dropoff to date. He should have another 4 seasons in him at least, and he pretty much has a 50% success rate as it is, having taken them to the SB 5x and the AFFCG 6x in just 11 seasons played.

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Patiently waiting to defend the next "bubble" player in this summer's training camp.....

patsfan13

Well most people of course differentiate between the modern era QB and the older guys you cite, Starr (like Unitas) spans the 2 eras.

I would observe that now the game is much more about the pass than in the early era of the NFL, the team Starr played for was based on the sweep not passing to win football games.

And of course the defenses these played faced were incredible simple by today's standards. No sub packages everyone played a 4-3 with man coverage every week.

Even Starr with the Lombardi dynasty Packers could come close to Brady's winning percentage in the regular season. Of course for 3 of Starr's championships he only had to win 1 game not 3 playoff games.

Different eras very hard to compare.

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"Some guys play in all-star games, some guys don't. I don't know who picks all those all-star teams. In all honesty, I don't know who picks the combine, for that matter," Belichick said. "How does (Miami-Ohio offensive lineman Brandon) Brooks not get invited to the combine? How did Vollmer not get invited to the combine? I don't know. We can't really worry about that. We just have to try to evaluate them the best we can."

patsfan13

Using your reasoning when you lose 3 conference championship games to P Simms, J McMahon you aren't really the GOAT?

Really?

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"Some guys play in all-star games, some guys don't. I don't know who picks all those all-star teams. In all honesty, I don't know who picks the combine, for that matter," Belichick said. "How does (Miami-Ohio offensive lineman Brandon) Brooks not get invited to the combine? How did Vollmer not get invited to the combine? I don't know. We can't really worry about that. We just have to try to evaluate them the best we can."

MoLewisrocks

Nominee for best first post of a brief tenure of the season. And the second was another corker. Obviously it never dawned on any of us that 4 was more than 3...

robertweathers

I think that you are a being a bit too harsh. Could Brady have played better in the two SB losses? Sure. We can go on and on how JM threw 3 picks vs WAS in the 1983 NFCCG, or played awful in 1985, 1986 and 1987 playoffs but it's irrelevent. Same goes for TB in a few playoff games.

TB has proven that hes clutch in the playoffs and SBs so it's not like hes a choke artist. He simply didn't play his best vs strong pass rushes. We can argue all day that JM NEVER faced a pass rush in a SB that TB did.

The fact that posters are splitting hairs over these two is clear that there is no right answer and that they are a cut above the rest of the field.

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“I'm not really concerned about the other 31 teams,” - Bill Belichick

"If a player has talent and doesn't succeed, that means that they either don't want to be successful or I have failed as a coach." - Bill Belichick

1960Pats

The biggest factor now is the amount of playoff games that you have to win to get credited with a title. That is huge.

But I don't agree that free agency makes it harder. A team can turn things around a lot quicker now by adding pieces to the puzzle. The 2001 Pats were a great example.

The days of gradually building teams like Chuck Noll did in the 70's could be over, although the Pats seem to be heading in that direction.

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The Pats may have a defense to go along with their offense.