Problem with comparing teams and players of different eras

[RecoveringCowboy]

This came up on CBS Sports on is Brady GOAT? Definitely not a dig at him, but over time, people only remember the great plays.....ten years from now nobody will remember his two SB interceptions or game with KC....same with Unitas, Montana, etc, etc....Brady will be compared to a Montana that never threw interceptions or fumbled....of course Joe had bad games. Brady will be compared to ghost QBs that never existed.

Not to mention rule changes - imagine Unitas if he played under the pass-friendly rules of 2015? OK, determining the GOAT may not be possible, but in the present era, Brady is as good as it gets.

 

[mosi]

You are 100% right. I tend to look at the stats of all QB's from an era and what you notice is that most are similar. There are very few QB's that, during the regular season, stand head and shoulders over everyone else.

One person that does is Otto Graham. He had a QB rating of ~86 when other QBs , like Unitas and Norm Van Brocklin, two of the other great QB's of that era, were closer to 70-75. Granted he only played for a few years, while Unitas played for close to 20 years but still, he was impressive.