Brady Now Stands Alone as the Greatest Ever
The argument for greatest quarterback ever is over. With his fifth Super Bowl win on Sunday night, Tom Brady put any debate to rest. Not only did he win his NFL record fifth ring, but he did it in historic fashion. What happened in Houston is no secret. Everyone knows how the game went down. The Patriots trailed 28-3 at the half. To win the game, they had to more than double the largest comeback in Super Bowl History. Fast forward a touchdown with a missed PAT, a field goal and two touchdowns with two point conversions and the captains were meeting at mid field for the overtime coin toss. Not only did he execute the greatest comeback in sports history, he capped it off by driving 91 yards in just two and a half minutes to tie the game with under 2 minutes remaining.
In overtime Brady marched the offense down the field like he did throughout the entire fourth quarter ending the drive with 2 yard James White touchdown and taking four minutes to go 75 yards. Brady deservingly won his fourth Super Bowl MVP. He completed a record 43 pass attempts for a record 466 yards and a pair of touchdowns. He also completed a tremendous 69% of his pass attempts. All in route to completing the most incredible comeback the sports world has ever seen.
So with a fifth Super Bowl win, let’s take a look at his updated resume:
Playoffs Career:
Playoff Games - 34 (most all time)
Playoff Wins - 25 (most all time)
Win Percentage - 74% (Second highest all time for qualifying quarterbacks)
Passing Yards - 9094 (most all time)
Passing Touchdowns - 63 (most all time)
Pass Completions - 590 (most all time)
Fourth Quarter Comebacks - 7 (most all time)
Playoffs Single Game:
Completions - 43 (most all time)
Passing Yards - 466 (second most all time)
Passing Touchdowns - 6 (most all time)
Completion Percentage - 92.9 (most all time)
Super Bowl Career:
Games - 7 (most all time)
Wins - 5 (most all time)
Completions - 207 (most all time)
Passing Yards - 2071 (most all time)
Touchdowns - 15 (most all time)
Completion Percentage - 67% (third most all time)
Super Bowl Single Game:
Completions - 43 (most all time)
Completion Percentage 74% (fifth most all time)
Passing Yards - 466 (most all time)
Passing Touchdowns - 4 (third most all time)
Largest Comeback - 25 points (most all time)
Tom Brady has 17 individual playoff records (single game and career). The last two Super Bowls he has one upped himself with the two biggest comebacks in the game's history (10 against the Seahawks and 25 against the Falcons). As far as the playoffs go, Brady is easily the best the NFL has ever seen.
Let’s check up on his regular season resume:
Career Passing:
Completions - 5244 (fourth all time)
Passing Yards - 61,582 (fourth all time)
Touchdowns - 456 (fourth all time)
Passer Rating - 97.2 (third all time)
Interception Percentage - 1.8 (third best all time)
Fourth Quarter Comebacks - 39 (second all time)
Wins - 183 (third all time)
Winning Percentage - 78% (third all time)
TD/Int - 3/1 (second all time)
Yes, players like Peyton Manning and Drew Brees may lead TB12 in a few regular season categories. However, he is undoubtably a top 3 regular season quarterback (though the argument is there that he is the best regular season quarterback as well). Brady’s combination of regular season and postseason dominance is what separates him from anyone else that has ever stepped on the field. After all, he is the greatest playoff quarterback to ever play. He is far beyond Manning and now definitely above Montana. Combine that with his regular season success and the debate is over. Brady seems to have a few more years ahead of him meaning he could definitely hold some regular season records by the time he retires. Passing Manning in all time yards and touchdowns definitely seems realistic and he is just 4 wins shy of passing Manning in that category as the all time leader. Even if he doesn’t, he’ll close the gap by more than enough to make it impossible to argue against the five time champion. Anyone that tries to say Tom Brady is not the greatest quarterback of all time may need to think again. Move over Montana, Manning, Bradshaw and company, Brady now sits alone on top of the list.