Is Tom Brady Really the GOAT?

There is an English spread called Marmite and the saying goes “you either love it or you hate it”, and this is Tom Brady to a tee. Some people, mainly New England Patriots and Tampa Bay Buccaneers fans, love him and the rest just love to hate him. 

There has been one question associated with the quarterback for quite some time now, is he really “the Greatest of All Time?” and I am here to tell you that statistically speaking the answer is yes. 

The 43-year-old veteran not only holds the title for most Super Bowl wins (7), which is more than any franchise in the NFL (New England & the Pittsburgh Steelers have won 6), he also holds the record for the most MVP awards (5). 

His Super Bowl LV victory against the Kansas City Chiefs, in which he threw for 201 yards and three touchdowns, sees him join Bill Russell (Boston Celtics) and Joe DiMaggio, Mickey Mantle and Yogi Berra (New York Yankees) as the only players in the four major American sports to win seven Championships and three MVP awards. 

The fight for the title of GOAT usually comes down to Brady or Peyton Manning, and until Sunday night there was one thing Manning had done that Brady had not – win the ultimate prize with two different teams. Not one to be outdone though the Tampa playmaker joined the retired quarterback in that achievement this year and one upped Manning by becoming the only quarterback to win a Super Bowl in both conferences and the first NFL player to win a title in three different decades (2000s, 2010s, 2020s). 

So whilst his career has been entangled with many controversies like Deflategate and the cheating scandal that concluded the New England Patriots had filmed their opponents’ training sessions, there really is no arguing that Thomas Edward Patrick Brady Jr is the GOAT of football.