How does one determine who is the greatest of all time?
Is it based on overall talent? The number of awards? Titles? Or is it about maintaining a consistent level of excellence over a long period of time no matter how the situation around you changes?
When discussing greatest quarterback in NFL history, Tom Brady has surpassed all of his counterparts and joined Joe Montana at the top of the GOAT discussion. While some believe Montana, who never lost a Super Bowl, deserves to be ranked ahead of Brady, who is 5-3 in his career with the Lombardi Trophy on the line, former NFL QB Joe Theismann believes one thing separates Brady from his boyhood idol.
“He is the greatest who ever played the game,” Theismann told Bleacher Report’s Tyler Dunne. “Joe Montana is definitely in that conversation. But the thing that I look at with Tom is Joe had a fairly consistent group around him when they won those championships. That football team pretty much stayed intact for quite a while. Tom has had so many different receivers, so many different line combinations, so many different running backs.”
Theismann makes a good point. Over the course of his career, Brady only has been blessed with only one true No. 1 receiver and he put up historic numbers alongside Randy Moss. Apart from those few seasons, the Patriot Way has not centered around Brady but rather forced the quarterback to adjust to the personnel put around him and he’s done that flawlessly.
Montana recently noted he still wanted the mantle of GOAT, but acknowledges it would be hard for anyone to surpass the numbers Brady has put up over his impressive career.
The Brady vs. Montana debate will rage on until the sun explodes and wipes us all out, but if the 41-year-old can add one more title to his legacy the debate might finally end (it won’t).
