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I have to respect the fan of another team who has the gonads to come here and talk some trash about the Pats. But, to be honest, if I were you I'd pick a different subject than Peyton Manning, this era's Brett Favre.
By the way, here is how most people see it. I'm sorry that I can't tell you who the author is, but I seem to have lost his name;
If this were the Miss America pageant, Tom Brady and Joe Montana would hug now and hold hands and wait anxiously for the name of the runner-up to be announced.
They are the final two contestants on the stage, the last men standing. They are the two greatest quarterbacks of all time.
Peyton Manning was right there with them, holding his own in so many important categories, until Sunday night when he was eliminated from the competition. And poor Peyton couldn’t just quietly walk off the stage and out of the spotlight. No, not Peyton. Even when he fails, he breaks records. He even loses in a big, loud, memorable way.
Manning didn’t just come up short in the Super Bowl. He crashed and burned and burst into flames in front of 111 million people. It doesn’t make him a bad guy — just the opposite; he seems quite human when he implodes — but he was under more pressure than any NFL player ever has faced. And it was too much.
He threw two hideous interceptions — neither of which he would have thrown two weeks ago or two months ago. This moment was just too big for him. The Seattle defense and the significance of the Super Bowl swallowed him whole.
“I think the pressure was just too much,” former Patriots safety Rodney Harrison said to us yesterday morning on WEEI. “He clearly looked rattled. He didn’t look like the same Peyton Manning who was throwing the ball all over the place this entire season. He just looked different, and that’s what people are going to remember.”
And now? Now he is out of the most enduring sports conversation. Best quarterback ever? It’s Brady. Or it’s Montana. It’s not Peyton Manning. Can’t be. He became ineligible for that honor Sunday night.
He now is 1-for-3 in Super Bowls. He has fewer rings than Ben Roethlisberger, Jim Plunkett and little brother Eli. He is 11-12 in the postseason. He brought the most prolific offense in NFL history into MetLife Stadium, and together they played like 11 guys who just met on the subway. They scored one touchdown. They were trailing 36-0 when they scored it.
He is the greatest regular-season quarterback ever, but championships matter. Super Bowls matter. You can’t be Miss America if you look like John Goodman in a swimsuit, and you can’t be the best quarterback ever with one title in 16 seasons. Montana won all four Super Bowls in which he played. Brady won three of his five and lost twice to the Giants by a total of seven points.
If Manning had won Sunday, we’d all be bowing before him. He would have been the first QB to win a Super Bowl with two different teams. He’d be in the multiple-ring club, and he’d be in The Conversation. But he didn’t win. Not close. On a 49-degree night and on a neutral field, he lost by five touchdowns. And for much of the night, he looked as over the hill as Joe Namath.
It’s a two-man race now. In the postseason, Brady is 18-8. He has 43 touchdown passes and 22 picks. Montana was 16-7. He had 45 touchdowns and 21 picks. Montana, of course, owns the Super Bowl. He had 11 touchdowns and no picks in his four wins. Brady has nine touchdowns and two interceptions in the big game. Brady has two Super Bowl MVPs, Montana three.
In the regular season, Brady has a big edge on his boyhood hero. At 148-43, Brady is the only starting quarterback more than 100 games above .500. Montana was 117-47. They both won two MVPs. Brady has been named to nine Pro Bowls, one more than Montana. Both played for legendary coaches. Montana had the greatest receiver ever, Jerry Rice, on his side for 77 games spanning eight seasons. Brady threw to Randy Moss for just 37 games in four seasons.
Montana played 192 regular-season games. Brady has played 193. The game has changed, obviously, but Brady has thrown for more yards, more touchdowns and fewer interceptions. In the regular season, at least, he has won more with less. Again, Super Bowls count, but so does everything else. No one would claim Plunkett is better than Dan Marino.
Of course, Brady and Manning have one clear advantage on Montana — they’re not done yet. Manning just won his fifth MVP with 49-of-50 votes. Brady got the other vote. They both, presumably, will be in the playoffs again next year, and since both are in the AFC, they both have a shot at reaching the Super Bowl.
As we sit here today, it’s hard to imagine Manning (38 in March) or Brady (37 in August) beating Seattle or San Francisco. We can all agree that Brady would have lost to this Seattle team, too. Maybe it even would have been a blowout.
But we’ll give him this: He wouldn’t have looked as rattled as Manning did. And he wouldn’t have thrown that first pick. That was a Peyton special.
That’s why Peyton has to leave the stage now. He’s still a great quarterback, but he can’t be greatest ever. Can’t even be in The Conversation.
They are the final two contestants on the stage, the last men standing. They are the two greatest quarterbacks of all time.
Peyton Manning was right there with them, holding his own in so many important categories, until Sunday night when he was eliminated from the competition. And poor Peyton couldn’t just quietly walk off the stage and out of the spotlight. No, not Peyton. Even when he fails, he breaks records. He even loses in a big, loud, memorable way.
Manning didn’t just come up short in the Super Bowl. He crashed and burned and burst into flames in front of 111 million people. It doesn’t make him a bad guy — just the opposite; he seems quite human when he implodes — but he was under more pressure than any NFL player ever has faced. And it was too much.
He threw two hideous interceptions — neither of which he would have thrown two weeks ago or two months ago. This moment was just too big for him. The Seattle defense and the significance of the Super Bowl swallowed him whole.
“I think the pressure was just too much,” former Patriots safety Rodney Harrison said to us yesterday morning on WEEI. “He clearly looked rattled. He didn’t look like the same Peyton Manning who was throwing the ball all over the place this entire season. He just looked different, and that’s what people are going to remember.”
And now? Now he is out of the most enduring sports conversation. Best quarterback ever? It’s Brady. Or it’s Montana. It’s not Peyton Manning. Can’t be. He became ineligible for that honor Sunday night.
He now is 1-for-3 in Super Bowls. He has fewer rings than Ben Roethlisberger, Jim Plunkett and little brother Eli. He is 11-12 in the postseason. He brought the most prolific offense in NFL history into MetLife Stadium, and together they played like 11 guys who just met on the subway. They scored one touchdown. They were trailing 36-0 when they scored it.
He is the greatest regular-season quarterback ever, but championships matter. Super Bowls matter. You can’t be Miss America if you look like John Goodman in a swimsuit, and you can’t be the best quarterback ever with one title in 16 seasons. Montana won all four Super Bowls in which he played. Brady won three of his five and lost twice to the Giants by a total of seven points.
If Manning had won Sunday, we’d all be bowing before him. He would have been the first QB to win a Super Bowl with two different teams. He’d be in the multiple-ring club, and he’d be in The Conversation. But he didn’t win. Not close. On a 49-degree night and on a neutral field, he lost by five touchdowns. And for much of the night, he looked as over the hill as Joe Namath.
It’s a two-man race now. In the postseason, Brady is 18-8. He has 43 touchdown passes and 22 picks. Montana was 16-7. He had 45 touchdowns and 21 picks. Montana, of course, owns the Super Bowl. He had 11 touchdowns and no picks in his four wins. Brady has nine touchdowns and two interceptions in the big game. Brady has two Super Bowl MVPs, Montana three.
In the regular season, Brady has a big edge on his boyhood hero. At 148-43, Brady is the only starting quarterback more than 100 games above .500. Montana was 117-47. They both won two MVPs. Brady has been named to nine Pro Bowls, one more than Montana. Both played for legendary coaches. Montana had the greatest receiver ever, Jerry Rice, on his side for 77 games spanning eight seasons. Brady threw to Randy Moss for just 37 games in four seasons.
Montana played 192 regular-season games. Brady has played 193. The game has changed, obviously, but Brady has thrown for more yards, more touchdowns and fewer interceptions. In the regular season, at least, he has won more with less. Again, Super Bowls count, but so does everything else. No one would claim Plunkett is better than Dan Marino.
Of course, Brady and Manning have one clear advantage on Montana — they’re not done yet. Manning just won his fifth MVP with 49-of-50 votes. Brady got the other vote. They both, presumably, will be in the playoffs again next year, and since both are in the AFC, they both have a shot at reaching the Super Bowl.
As we sit here today, it’s hard to imagine Manning (38 in March) or Brady (37 in August) beating Seattle or San Francisco. We can all agree that Brady would have lost to this Seattle team, too. Maybe it even would have been a blowout.
But we’ll give him this: He wouldn’t have looked as rattled as Manning did. And he wouldn’t have thrown that first pick. That was a Peyton special.
That’s why Peyton has to leave the stage now. He’s still a great quarterback, but he can’t be greatest ever. Can’t even be in The Conversation.
(Hey, my mama did not name me lurker1965 so relax. It was a joke.)
