Random Football ThoughtNew England and Tom Brady are both on the cusp of immortality. Unlike a lot of the pure stats types like my buddies over at Football Outsiders, I think Brady is obviously the best quarterback and player of his generation. It's hard to argue with 9-0 in the postseason. He's absolutely pushed himself forward more rapidly and even younger than the guys he's competing against for the greatest player of all time. Joe Montana and Johnny Unitas are probably the most common candidates raised among quarterbacks. Montana won 16 playoff games as a starting QB, the most of all time. Unitas' playoff wins are not comparable to Montana's due to the vastly increased postseason schedule, but in the only thing that matters, Montana led his team to victory in 4 NFL championship games (all Super Bowls), while Unitas won 3 (two pre Super Bowl NFL title games) and lost 1 (the 1964 title game as a starter).
Brady's really close on the championship list:
Starr (5)
Luckman (4)
Bradshaw (4)
Montana (4)
Graham (3) (Note)
Aikman (3)
Brady (3)
(Note 1: Graham won 4 AAFC Championship games before the Browns joined the NFL. Given that after joining the NFL they subsequently played in six consecutive NFL championship games (going 3-3), it is certainly arguable that Graham would have won more NFL titles had he joined the NFL after WWII instead of the AAFC. The problem with this argument is Graham had much better stats in the AAFC than in the NFL, indicating quite strongly that AAFC defenses were much less difficult to thrown against than the NFL's. Still, Graham was a terrific player with a very strong argument to make as best ever.
