HOUSTON — The neatly packaged narrative for Sunday’s Super Bowl would be that Tom Brady will take the field, capping the season of his Deflategate revenge tour for the New England Patriots, not only with a chance to win another Lombardi Trophy but with an opportunity to settle the debate once and for all about which quarterback is the greatest in NFL history by putting Joe Montana, Dan Marino, John Elway, Brett Favre, Peyton Manning and everyone else inarguably in his rear-view mirror for good.
In truth, that argument might be already settled.
To many, Brady has secured the title as the best ever and that won’t change Sunday, win or lose.
“I don’t think he needs to do any more,” said Troy Aikman, the Hall of Fame former quarterback of the Dallas Cowboys. “I’m sure he’s sitting there saying he wants to win his fifth. That would be kind of the cherry on the pie. But I don’t think (it’s necessary) when you look at his resume of work and what he has accomplished.”
Aikman, an NFL analyst for Fox who will call Sunday’s game, said this week he has become convinced that Brady is the greatest ever after long being steadfast in his belief that it was Montana.
“I’ve always said Joe Montana was the best,” Aikman said. “That’s just been the guy who I’ve always answered that question with. I was younger. I was in high school and I’m watching Joe and all his great exploits. And I got in the league and we played against each other, and knowing how hard the game is, he always made it look so easy and he did it on the big stage four different times … But getting ready for this game and then really kind of delving into all that (Brady has) accomplished – there’s others, I know. Otto Graham is a guy who seems to always get lost in that conversation.
“But I think that anyone who wants to make a case for Tom Brady being the greatest of all time, they certainly can do that regardless of whatever happens on Sunday.”
Aikman is far from alone in his assessment.
“I think that question has already been settled,” former Washington quarterback Joe Theismann said. “He doesn’t need a fifth ring to prove he’s the best. The quarterback position is the most dependent position on the field. What defines greatness is to be able to operate at the highest level no matter who is around you. Tom defines that. Look at his receiving corps right now. Almost everyone has come from somewhere else. That’s been the hallmark of Tom’s entire career. Look at his running backs. It’s been a rotating cast. Tom has elevated it all to greatness.”
If prominent former quarterbacks from the Cowboys and Washington can agree, can there be any question? And they do have company.
“In my mind it’s already set,” said former quarterback Kurt Warner, an analyst for the NFL Network and a finalist for Saturday’s Hall of Fame vote. “The fact that you play in seven Super Bowls, which is ridiculous. I mean, it’s ridiculous. … He’s done it as well as anybody. He’s been as good as anybody that’s ever played. And he has more of this than everyone else? Then, for me, he moves into that position of being the greatest of all time.”
Brady makes his seventh Super Bowl appearance and seeks his fifth Super Bowl triumph; a fifth win would put him ahead of Montana and Terry Bradshaw for the most ever.
Brady ranks fourth in career passing yards behind Manning, Favre and Drew Brees. He ranks fourth in career passing touchdowns behind the same three. He is third in career passer rating behind Aaron Rodgers and Russell Wilson.
Brees said last week at Pro Bowl preparations in Florida that “you can certainly make that argument, without question” that Brady is the best.
“If he wins a fifth Super Bowl,” Brees said, “then it’s really going to be hard to argue that. … There’s been legendary guys to play the quarterback position in this league, guys that we all looked up to as kids, and there’s going to be guys that come after us that have legendary careers. I think each one of them, within their own generation or their own era of football, you can probably argue, ‘Man, they were the greatest at what they did.’ Greatest of all time, that’s a big statement. But Tom Brady is absolutely in that conversation.”
Some other current quarterbacks were similarly reluctant to make sweeping declarations.
“When you look at his resume and having appeared in, I think, more Super Bowls than any other quarterback and has a chance to win more than any other quarterback, he’s just a consistent winner in terms of their division, home playoff games,” Kirk Cousins of Washington said at the Pro Bowl. “He set the bar for the rest of us and he probably will end up being the greatest of all time when you add it all up.”
Andy Dalton of the Cincinnati Bengals said: “He’s arguably the best of all time. To go to seven Super Bowls and to have as many championships, as many winning seasons and everything that he’s done, he definitely has the argument to be the best of all-time. … Everybody is going to have an opinion on what it is. But I think for him there’s not much more he can do to solidify it.”
Said Alex Smith of the Kansas City Chiefs: “He’s for sure in the conversation of the three, four guys in that pool. Everybody might pick somebody (different). But he’s without a doubt in that conversation. … I think at this point his legacy is cemented. Whatever he adds on will just be more icing on the cake.”
After sitting out the first four games while serving his Deflategate suspension, Brady threw 28 touchdown passes and two interceptions this season at age 39.
“Most of us who went to multiple Super Bowls, we pretty much had our same core,” said Aikman, a three-time Super Bowl winner. “He’s done it with three- and four-wide-receiver sets when they had Randy Moss. He’s done it with two-tight-end packages. He did it earlier in his career with their defense and run the football. And now they’re doing it with little wide receivers that are just running all over the place and just get the ball to them. They know what everyone can do. And Tom knows what everyone can do.”
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