Why would fans settle on crowning the NFL’s GOAT?
Opinion Columnist Nicholas Schindler explains why Tom Brady is not the greatest of all time (GOAT) in the NFL.
Mar 12, 2020
Michael Jordan, Babe Ruth, Serena Williams. All of these athletes are the best to have ever done it in their respective sports. There is zero debate about it. When we look to the NFL, there has been much debate between fans as to who is the greatest of all time for the National Football League. And as of the last five years, since Aaron Rodgers has not won as many Super Bowls as some had hoped, we have all settled on the fact that Tom Brady (aka TB12) is the NFL’s greatest player of all time. This bothers me. Why should the greatest sport, entertainment and America’s pastime have to settle on crowing our GOAT? This isn’t an election. We are not picking between two subpar choices. This decision should take time and we should avoid grabbing at the latest shiny object. We should all drop the GOAT status conversation from being started every two minutes. We should only debate the greatest of all time about every 25 years to take everything into perspective. But, since we live in a society that wants to always crown the GOAT, let’s discuss the NFL’s supposed goat, Tom Brady.
To start off, let’s dive deep into the “WOW” factor of Tom Brady. I know what you are thinking, what WOW factor? Exactly my point. The best to ever do it (play QB in the NFL) should be amazing to watch. I understand that Tom Brady has won 6 Super Bowls. Thinking about that fact is the only “WOW factor” about Tom Brady, though. Over the last 15 years, we have been trying to crown the GOAT for the sport of the NFL. First, we tried Peyton Manning, but a narrative started that he was a choker who always lost to Tom Brady in the playoffs. This was and still to this day is just absolutely asinine. Peyton Manning was 3-2 vs. Brady in the playoffs; all three wins for Manning were in the AFC Championship where he led his team to the Super Bowl. But, the media put it in our heads that Manning was a choker and since Brady accumulated more Super Bowls than Manning, we just decided to throw Manning out of the conversation for good.
Next, we tried to crown Aaron Rodgers the GOAT. As Stephen A. Smith from ESPN put it, “The greatest talent at the quarterback position ever […] and he’s a bad man,” and Max Kellerman just says, “Aaron Roders has more influence on the outcome of a game than any player ever.” Clearly, once Aaron Rodgers won his first Super Bowl in 2011, we were ready to crown him the king because his talent was unlike something we had ever seen and it looked like he was poised to win for years with the Green Bay Packers. Unfortunately, for a Packers fan, which I am, Rodgers still has not won another Super Bowl and Brady now has six. So, unless Rodgers wins a few at the final stages of his career, Rodgers won’t catch Brady.
And that brings us to today. We are trying to crown Patrick Mahomes as the greatest of all time. He is as fun to watch, has as good of an arm and makes as many spectacular plays as Aaron Rodgers. Do you see the problem here? Everything we say Mahomes does great, we compare it to Aaron Rodgers. Why? Because the NFL has the worst GOAT of all time. If Tom Brady was really the GOAT, we would compare Mahomes’ play to Brady. Guess what? Brady isn’t on the same level as Aaron Rodgers or Patrick Mahomes. He’s the least exciting, most boring, check-down system quarterback GOAT of all time. Time will tell if Patrick Mahomes will ever surpass Tom Brady, according to the media, as the GOAT, but to the viewer at home the talent isn’t close. We, as NFL fans, need to wait for the talent of a Rodgers/Mahomes quarterback coupled with the accomplishments of Brady before the NFL should really crown our own Babe Ruth.
Big Daddy • Jul 7, 2021 at 2:38 pm
Brady winds games and titles because of his brilliant football mind. He’s not as gifted athletically as the two you mention in your article, but he edges them in preparation, experience, and know-how. While it’s fun to watch a quarterback scramble away from a dangerous situation to throw the ball 40 yards downfield to an open receiver for a big play, Brady avoids all that by methodically picking apart defenses despite their best efforts to crush and confuse them. He reads defenses at a P.H.D level while the other QBs are under-grads. It also helps that he plays on good teams loaded with talent as well, which incidentally can be partly attributed to the man himself. While other QBs like Rodgers and Mahomes chase big contracts, competing for the biggest NFL payout of all-time, Brady has throughout his career taken less money so that there is more Cap room to hire quality players at other positions. The inflated salaries of Mahomes and Rodgers actually can be a hindrance to winning by not allowing other star players to join or stay with the team. If you look at the QB record book, you will see Brady on the top of so many important stats besides Super Bowl wins, that it’s hard to make a case for anybody else being the GOAT. If you were to make a baseball analogy for the greatest hitter of all time, you seem to be focused on the homerun, the big exciting play that makes you go wow. While Rodgers and Mahomes would be the homerun guys, Brady is steady hitting singles and doubles all the while leading in batting average, RBIs, and winning it all in the end time and time again. That’s why people think Tom Brady is the GOAT.
Liz Schindler • Mar 15, 2020 at 12:26 pm
I, Liz Schindler would like to comment on this article specifically on the part that said that society was ever thinking about crowning Tom Brady the GOAT TITLE. I have never heard him make goat noises before! And I’m pretty sure he doesn’t eat grass but I wouldn’t put it past him!!!!!