Tom Brady’s days as the greatest quarterback in NFL history could be numbered.
The league’s only seven-time Super Bowl champion has a comfortable lead over just about every other player in that category. Yes, Hall of Famer Charles Haley got five rings with the San Francisco 49ers and Dallas Cowboys, but he’s been retired since 1999 and the feared pass rusher never played quarterback.
However, according to one of Brady’s former New England Patriots teammates, there is one signal caller with a chance to rival Tom’s perceived status as the ‘greatest of all time’: 29-year-old Kansas City Chiefs legend Patrick Mahomes.
‘I’ve always said, Tom’s got seven Super Bowls and until somebody knocks – does something that he hasn’t, he’s still the man, right?’ Retired Patriots and Colts kicker Adam Vinatieri told TMZ. ‘But this, we’re getting to something that even the great Tom Brady… has not done.’
With a Super Bowl LIX win over the Philadelphia Eagles on February 9 in New Orleans, Mahomes will have four titles to his name. What’s more, he and his Chiefs teammates will become the first team win three consecutive NFL titles since the Green Bay Packers did so from 1965 to 1967. And although the Packers did win the first two Super Bowls at the end of the ’66 and ’67 seasons, no NFL time has captured three straight Lombardi Trophies in the Super Bowl era.
For comparison, Tom Brady was already 37 by the time he won his fourth Super Bowl in 2014. Of course, he would miraculously win three Lombardy Trophies in his 40s, the last of which came as a member of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers against Mahomes and the Chiefs.
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Of course, not everyone sees Brady as the greatest quarterback of all time in spite of his seven Super Bowl wins.
Brady’s idol, Joe Montana, thinks Miami Dolphins legend Dan Marino is the ‘best’ quarterback ever.
In a 2023 interview with Men’s Health, the four-time Super Bowl champion argued that Marino is the game’s best pure quarterback, and had he played in today’s pass-happy NFL, it would be his name lining the league record books instead of Brady’s.
What’s more, the NFL works to protect quarterbacks these days, which is something that Marino and Montana did not benefit from during their careers.
‘Put Marino into today’s game where he gets free release … and his receivers, holy cow, weren’t very big,’ Montana said of Marino, who terrorized NFL defenses with a pair of 5-foot-9 receivers, Mark Clayton and Mark Duper. ‘Now these guys are 6-4, 6-5. I think [Marino] is probably one of the most unsung heroes of the game. People don’t talk enough about him or realize the numbers that he put up during the times that he put them up.’
Brady, a 47-year-old California native, grew up cheering for the San Francisco 49ers, who won four Super Bowls with Montana at the helm before the Hall of Famer was traded to Kansas City in 1993.
Of course, Marino’s resume includes just one Super Bowl berth – a loss to Montana’s 49ers in January of 1985.
But much of that can be blamed on Marino’s teams, which frequently ranked near the bottom of the NFL in defense.
On the other hand, Brady retired with the most wins (251), completions (7,753), and touchdown passes (649), while ranking second in NFL history in quarterback rating (97.2).
Brady’s idol, Joe Montana (right), thinks Dan Marino (left) is the ‘best’ quarterback ever
New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady shakes hands with the Kansas City Chiefs’ Patrick Mahomes after the Chief defeated the Patriots, 23-16, in December of 2019
Marino, 61, has comparable numbers. He retired at 38 in 1999 with a 147-93 regular-season record, 59.4-percent completion mark, 420 touchdowns, 252 interceptions, 4,967 completions, and 61,361 passing yards.
But to many – the 68-year-old Montana included – there has never been a better purse passer than Marino, whose arm strength remains legendary, even by today’s standards.
‘He had a quick release,’ Montana said of Marino, whom he defeated in Super Bowl XIX. ‘I had to step into a lot of things to get enough [force] on the ball. He had the perfect torque of his upper body and strength to deliver the ball quickly at a fast release with accuracy.’
Montana did add a slight wrinkle to his argument, explaining that Marino is the ‘best’ quarterback ever, rather than simply the ‘greatest.’
To Montana, a distinction exists between the two because the ‘greatest’ quarterback should have the best achievements, which Marino clearly doesn’t have from the standpoint of team success.
As for the modern NFL, Montana saw just one player who could retire as the greatest QB ever: Mahomes.
‘The things he does and is able to do are so different than what any other quarterback does who’s out there,’ Montana said.
