Brady is the most accomplished player in NFL history. Belichick was talking about the greatest player he’s ever coached.
Bill built NE offenses to maximize Brady's strengths and minimize his weaknesses.
LT's only weaknesses were off field.
There was a reason his league nickname was Superman...he literally ravaged opposing offenses.
One of my fraternity brothers' brothers was a LB for the Giants during LT's early Giants years and the stories of LT's dominance in practice got back to us weekly. The coaches loved him from day 1.
Then, I had the good fortune (company season tickets) of going to many Giant games in NY during LT's best years and the man simply took over games during an era when LBs were some of the NFL's biggest stars.
I honestly believe there were moments in close Giants games when Fat Tuna or BB would instruct Taylor to "get us the ball" and this rabid pit bull would deliver as instructed
LT's biggest problem IMO was the game was too easy for him and he sought out distractions that he couldn't handle.
My anecdotal evidence:
I was in a night club at 3AM on a Sunday morning in Atlantic City and there's LT partying like a beast, totally whacked out (with frightening assassin eyes).....and then he lit it up on Monday night football the next day.
I was playing golf at a very Italian country club in NJ about the time LT's career was winding down and the member I was with says "follow me, I want to show you someone." And there's LT playing big money poker with a table full of Vinnie Boombatzes. I was told he played poker weekly at this club, but it was just one of his many weekly games at various NJ country clubs.
Last story.... I'm standing outside of Merrill Lynch's new headquarters in lower Manhattan, waiting to cross the street, and there's LT standing next to me, the King of NY at this time. He heads into Merrill and I return to my office and I get a call from a Merrill Lynch trader who tells me LT is on the bond trading floor whipping footballs around and mucking it up with the bigshots....and getting $50k for his 45 minutes of glad-handing.
He was heading to Lehman Brothers right after for another meet and greet payoff.
LT probably asked for his payout in cash and a limo to the nearest poker game in town.
That's all I got.