SAN FRANCISCO — Peyton Manning will play in Super Bowl 50 this weekend, but even another championship won’t make him the greatest quarterback of all time.
That title, according to Bleacher Report NFL columnist Mike Freeman, belongs to Tom Brady.
“The Brady-Manning discussion was over, I think, like five years ago,” Freeman told NESN.com’s Michaela Vernava on Tuesday on Super Bowl Radio Row. “If you’re really honest about it, Brady separated himself. To me, Brady is the best of all time, and I think he surpassed (Joe) Montana, I think he surpassed (Johnny) Unitas, whoever you want to name — he’s passed them all now.
“Manning is in the paragraph, but he’s not in the sentence. So I would put Brady clearly at No. 1 right now of all time and Manning in the 5 (to) 6 range.”
Brady, of course, owns four rings and has played in six Super Bowls. Manning, meanwhile, will appear in his fourth Super Bowl, with a second ring on the line.
Said Freeman on Manning: “This is really one of the biggest games of his career because it will prove a lot of people wrong who thought he was done — like me — and even though the defense is really the reason they’re here, just him winning it and playing well will go a long way to sort of elevating him up that scale of the best ever.”
For an extended interview with Freeman, visit NESN’s YouTube page.