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By: Keith Dobkowski, NFL News Writer
February 1, 2005
Being placed in comparison with your childhood sports hero is an
accomplishment all by itself. If your sports hero happens to be
the greatest to ever play the game, it becomes that much more of
an accomplishment.
On Sunday, Tom Brady hopes to join a very limited club of three
quarterbacks that have led their team to at least three Super
Bowl championships. Leading the way is Joe Montana who won
four Super Bowls in nine seasons. Like many of Brady’s
generation, it was Joe who was poster-ized on our walls and
emulated in our driveways. Brady had that poster and now is
emulating in football’s biggest game.
Among all the stories leading into this week’s game, weather,
Jacksonville, Terrell Owens, Freddie Mitchell, Bill Belichick, it is
Brady’s legacy and hall of fame credentials will be sealed with a
victory on Sunday. So is this comparison fair to Brady and in the
same respect is it disrespectful to Joe?
Asking Brady about his childhood hero, "He is the best of all time,"
Brady said. "Joe Montana was everything. He threw the ball
great. He managed the game great. He made his other players
great. I think as a quarterback you have to emulate some of
those things. There will never be another Joe Montana. Can guys
do some of those things? Dan Marino could throw it great. John
Elway could improvise great. Do I think I have any of those great
qualities? I am working at it. I am working to try to become that,
but it is going to take a lot more playoff games and a lot more
Super Bowl wins to ever mention those two names in the same
sentence."
Neither quarterback was highly rated coming out of College, as
Brady was the seventh QB taken, drafted in the sixth round.
Montana was the fourth QB taken overall but lasted until the last
pick of the third round. Both have obviously made every team in
the league feel foolish for leaving these quarterbacks on the
board so long.
Brady has only played four seasons as a starter and is playing in
a league that is watered down due to the salary cap, free agency
and expansion. While Montana played during the time of
dynasties where every Super Bowl winning team during Montana’
s tenure won a minimum of two Super Bowls except the 1985
Chicago Bears. And the ’85 Bears should have won a few.
Brady’s lack of longevity and the parity that has swept across the
league make regular season statistics hard to compare to
Montana who thrived for a decade and a half against some of the
NFL all-time great teams.
So to understand these two great players is to look at their Super
Bowl successes.
Brady has won two Super Bowls and is on the verge of winning
his third. In the two victories Brady has thrown four touchdowns
and one interception. He has completed just under 60% of his
passes. In both games the Patriots got the ball late with the
game tied. Brady led drives in each that set up the winning field
goal as time expired. It is Brady’s ability to lead with the game on
the line that has welcomed this comparison to Montana.
However, due to circumstances, Brady has never dealt with a
deficit at the end of a Super Bowl game. Both of Brady’s game
winning drives were fairly short and the pressure was clearly
higher on Adam Vinatieri to make long field goals.
Montana is the only quarterback to win a Super Bowl on a last
second pass. In 1989 with three minutes remaining in the Super
Bowl Montana entered the game on his own 8-yard line trailing
the Cincinnati Bengals 16-13. Montana led a drive that covered
all 92 yards and finished with a 10-yard touchdown pass to John
Taylor with 37 seconds remaining and gave the Niners a 20-16
victory. Montana threw 11 touchdowns in his four Super Bowls
without ever throwing an interception. Furthermore, Montana
completed over 72% of his Super Bowl passes.
In the end, Brady is a great quarterback on the verge of his third
Super Bowl victory. This weekend Brady may join the likes of Troy
Aikman as a three-time winner. However, at this point Brady has
only won two Super Bowls. He has completed less than 60% of
his Super Bowl passes and has already thrown one more
interception that Joe Montana. Brady has never led a must score
drive, but rather has had the safety of overtime to fall back on.
This is not a slap of Brady’s face, but rather an answer to the
second part our above question…
And the answer is: Brady is no Joe Montana.
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