Do rivals ever get over it?

lurker1965 said:

Let's say that Peyton goes to, and wins, the next 5 Super Bowls. (Yeah science fantasy, I know, but humor me.)

Do you say he was better than Brady...

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PATS16N0 said:

Do rival fan bases of the 80's 49'er team still despise Joe Montana and say he sucks and is over rated and a product of whatever?

Do you still hate (or did you ever hate) Dan Marino?

I'm just wondering if our rivals will eventually get over all the thrashings and give Brady his due.

Or if Tom Brady is the Joe Montana that will have had the misfortune of coming along with the rise of internet-fandom which amplified the passions and hatreds of the game by no small margin.

When I was a teenager in the 90's, losing sucked but it was okay. If Bledsoe threw an interception or something bad happen, we lost, instead of losing and having every NFL fan in the country with an axe to grind tracking you down on the interwebs to grind salt into your wounds and declare complete victory.

I think championships matter, much more than people realize, even if they like to say it. I am positive, without another championship, Peyton Manning's media manufactured "GOAT" ranking will drop like bad stock three or four years after he's vanished from the limelight. Championships truly endure.

I just wonder if in thirty years, Jets fans, Steeler fans, Colt fans, and all the other usual suspects, will still be on their "Brady is overrated even though he always crushed us" kick, or if he'll eventually have the near-universal, Montana-like respect Patriot fans (who know his game best) think he deserves.

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mgteich said:

I see little difference in the situations of Brady and Manning. Both are respected by many (almost all?) of their competitors and hated by most of the fans of opposing teams. I don't expect that to ever change.

To put it another way, aren't Denver boards writing the same about Manning that we write about Brady?

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