By now most people who follow sports know the acronym GOAT stands for Greatest of All Time. It’s a phrase that exemplifies the best to ever perform in their specific area of expertise. The greatest entertainer of all time, in my opinion, is Michael Jackson. Deciding who is the greatest at anything is totally subjective. Factual evidence without context can skew the perception of many because it’s a tangible metric. Areas where athlete’s greatness might not be equally measured can be based on different eras, changes, style of play, etc. Case in point, in 1984 Dan Marino threw a then record 48 TDs at a time when Qbs and receivers could be virtually decapitated by defenders. His record has since been surpassed 4 times since 2004. He had the fastest release in the league, but he's seldom considered the best of all time because he never won the ultimate team accomplishment, the Super Bowl, despite playing the quarterback position at the highest level possible. There have been others who can stake a claim to being the best Qb of all time. John Elway was probably the most physically gifted, Peyton Manning was probably the most cerebral, and Joe Montana was clutch, but after winning a now 7th Super Bowl, I reluctantly now admit Tom Brady trumps them all. Call it pure luck or whatever you want to. Tom Brady is the greatest to play the quarterback position. I can only bring up the "Tuck Rule" so many times. The Patriots would have lost had that call been made correctly, but I digress. Is he the most entertaining Qb to watch? No. But he knows how to play and win the game at the highest level. He is the greatest winner in NFL history.
This notion that he’s the greatest athlete in all of sports though, is asinine. To say he is the greatest football player ever is a little bit of hyperbole as well. Anyone who saw Lawrence Taylor crashing down the line to lay out a helpless running back or Qb with reckless abandon could see his dominance jump off the screen. Yes Brady has taken care of his body. The TB12 method has been widely acknowledged, but that pales in comparison to the legendary workouts Jerry Rice had during his career. The hill he ran made many of his contemporaries tap out because they couldn’t keep up with him. Rice owns practically all of the all-time receiving records. Others like Randy Moss and Calvin Johnson were more physically gifted but Jerry Rice is widely regarded as the greatest receiver to play the game and statistically he’s ahead of them by a large margin and, like Brady, also won multiple championships in the process. In football today Qbs are coddled, if a player lands on you during a sack it's a penalty. Rice played when DBs could lay out receivers. It also takes more athleticism to play receiver. The prototype NFL Qb historically has been more like Brady and less like Lamar Jackson. Qbs are generally more reliant on teammates to make plays. I also can’t dismiss the exploits of running backs like Walter Payton and Jim Brown they were legends in their own right. Am I willing to say Brady is top 5 as an overall NFL player? Sure, but best NFL player ever regardless of position, he is not. If he was the single biggest reason, he won every Super Bowl he has won maybe I could be swayed. The Patriots heavily relied on defense and at times he was relegated to game managing. That never was the case with Dan Marino or John Elway, but in the end Brady found a way to help his team win. The "Tuck Rule" notwithstanding, he has had some fortuitous luck, the idiotic play call by the Seattle Seahawks at the goaline in Super Bowl 49 was probably the most blasphemous. Winning is a result of preparation meeting opportunity. You have to give him credit, he cashes in when given an opportunity.
So how can you be the Greatest Athlete of all sports when it’s debatable that you’re even the best football player of all-time? Serena Williams, Michael Phelps, Floyd Mayweather and Usain Bolt are dominant in their respective individual sports. They dictate their own outcomes and are the greatest in their respective sports. In team sports there are other legends who can claim to be the best athlete ever too. Wayne Gretzky and Babe Ruth just to name a few. To me one man stands out over the rest at least in my lifetime. Michael Jeffrey Jordan. Until last night he and Tom Brady were tied with the total amount of championships in their sports at 6. Like I alluded to earlier Brady has taken care of himself physically with his TB12 method. Brady plays a position that aside from kickers is the most protected in football. The hit that Leonard Marshall put on Joe Montana that knocked him out for a full season back in 1990 would be a penalty today. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FA_CFml13Uw&
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Rules like that are a significant reason he and players like Drew Brees have broken so many passing records and continue to play at a high level. They know they can’t be hit. They have been beneficiaries of not being pummeled by defensive players which prolongs their careers. Michael Jordan played a sport that that requires more raw athleticism especially at the guard position. Centers can lumber up and down the court at an advanced age because they don’t handle the ball as much, but guards have to be facilitators. Jordan could literally take over a game on offense and defense. In football, players generally play only one side of the ball with a few exceptions like Deion Sanders and Troy Brown. Also despite the fact basketball is a team sport, at times it closely resembles individual sports. Jordan could singlehandedly embarrass his opponent mano y mano. Jordan was always the best player on the court when he won his championships. Brady couldn't say the same. He had Ty Law and Richard Seymour anchoring his defense early in his career before he gained his passing prowess. Brady did enough to win, but Jordan was always dominant. He looked the part and won as a result. Jordan is also more iconic worldwide. Jordan helped basketball grow globally in popularity. Yes Brady now has more championships than Jordan. Robert Horry does too, but is Horry better than Charles Barkley or Dirk Nowitski ? Championships don’t mean everything. Yes, 7 is more than 6, but also take into account Brady only went back-to-back once. Jordan had 2 three-peats in an eight year period. The 2 years in between he was retired for most of it, returning to the NBA in the middle of the 2nd season. Who’s to say had he not retired prematurely that he wouldn’t have won 8 straight championships. That’s complete dominance in your sport. Winning championships in your last 6 full seasons screams all-time greatest. He was the unequivocal best player in the game. In the Finals he always got the job done. Not so with Brady. He got upstaged by a career backup Nick Foles in the Super Bowl. Jordan, on the other hand, stole the ball from a fellow Hall of Famer in Karl Malone and went down the court and hit a game winning jumper over Byron Russell to win his last championship. It was the best mic drop for a career in professional sports history. Yeah Jordan came back with the Wizards, 2 years later at 38 but his legacy was already cemented. TO reward his excellence, Nike gave Jordan his own signature brand under the Nike umbrella. The Jumpman logo is stitched on athletic apparel all over the sporting world including Brady's alma mater Michigan. Until Under Armour gives us a signature Brady brand, we can’t even began to quantify the differences in impact that Michael Jordan has had in sports compared to Tom Brady. Tom Brady is undoubtedly a legend in his own right, but don’t be a prisoner of the moment. For God’s sake Brady doesn’t even have a nick name. Jordan is his Air-ness, and Air Jordan. If forced to chose between the two, I want to be like Mike.
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