Chiefs Beat 49ers 25-22 in Overtime, Become First Repeat Super Bowl Champions Since 2003-04 Patriots

The careers of great athletes look inevitable in retrospect, even if those careers did not look inevitable from the onset or during critical moments. In 10 years--if not sooner--the Kansas City Chiefs' 25-22 win over the San Francisco 49ers in Super Bowl LVIII to clinch back to back championships will be viewed as just another triumph during the midst of the Chiefs capturing three Super Bowls in a five year span. The Chiefs are the NFL's first repeat champions since the 2003-04 New England Patriots. Kansas City quarterback Patrick Mahomes earned his third Super Bowl MVP, joining Tom Brady (five) and Joe Montana (four) as the only players to win at least three Super Bowl MVPs. Like Brady and Montana, Mahomes has often engineered come from behind scoring drives to reach and then win the Super Bowl; a dropped pass, a tipped ball, or a missed kick could have derailed any of those drives, but after those drives enter the record books they look inevitable, not fragile.

During Super Bowl LVIII there were many moments when a Chiefs' victory seemed far from inevitable. The 49ers were favored in every game that they played during the regular season and the playoffs, and they lived up to that billing for most of the Super Bowl; they scored first in the Super Bowl, taking a 3-0 lead at the 14:48 mark of the second quarter. They did not trail until Mahomes connected with Marquez Valdes-Scanling on a 16 yard touchdown pass that put the Chiefs up 13-10 with 2:28 remaining in the third quarter, and the 49ers quickly countered with a 75 yard drive culminating in a 10 yard touchdown pass from Brock Purdy to Jauan Jennings with 11:22 remaining in the fourth quarter, putting them ahead 16-13; the Chiefs blocked Jake Moody's point after touchdown, which proved to be a pivotal play affecting strategy and play calling for the rest of the game due to the critical difference between leading by four points and only leading by three points. The teams exchanged field goals during the final 5:46, with the Chiefs' Harrison Butker sending the game to overtime by drilling a 29 yarder with :03 remaining in the fourth quarter. The 49ers took the opening kickoff of overtime and drove 66 yards before Moody made a 27 yard field goal to put them up, 22-19. The 49ers were one defensive stop away from dethroning the reigning Super Bowl champions--but Mahomes led the Chiefs on a 13 play, 75 yard drive culminating in his three yard touchdown pass to Mecole Hardman. Mahomes completed all eight of his passes during the game-winning drive as the Chiefs had two third down conversions and one fourth down conversion. Overall, Mahomes went 34-46 for 333 yards, two touchdowns, and one interception while also leading the team in rushing with 66 yards on nine carries.

Anyone who has played sports at any level understands that a great player elevates his team not only because of his individual talent but also because of the confidence that he inspires in the team: when you play alongside a great player, you know that the game is rarely if ever truly out of reach, so you keep plugging away at your job with the understanding that if the game is close at the end then the great player will probably find a way to put the team over the top. Conversely, teams that do not have a great player are more apt to lose confidence or hope, and thus not keep pushing; when things are not going well, it is human nature to get frustrated and lose focus, but great players transcend that aspect of human nature and thus they inspire their teammates to be transcendent as well.

That is not meant to suggest that the 49ers lack great players or that they gave up. Purdy may be a great player in the making, and it is worth noting that he put his team in the lead after each of his final two drives, forcing Mahomes to direct a drive to tie the game and then direct another drive to win the game.

Football is a game of inches, and Chiefs have repeatedly demonstrated the ability to find the inches that they need to win games. Change just a handful of plays, and Mahomes has no Super Bowl wins instead of three, but that is not how football--or life--works. Mahomes has proven his ability to rise to the occasion when it matters most, regardless of how he, his team, or the other team performed prior to the critical moment. In retrospect, this seems inevitable, much like we don't think about the hypothetical ways that Michael Jordan might not have won six NBA titles; those championships seem inevitable in retrospect.

However, just a few months before Jordan led the Chicago Bulls to their first NBA championship, his teammate Bill Cartwright provided this assessment of Jordan (as related on page 249 of Sam Smith's book The Jordan Rules): "He's the greatest athlete I've ever seen. Maybe the greatest athlete ever to play any sport. He can do whatever he wants. It all comes so easy to him. He's just not a basketball player." Many "experts" declared that Jordan was too selfish to ever win a championship; what looks inevitable in retrospect did not seem likely or even possible to many people before it happened. It is fascinating to watch narratives develop and shift over time. Did Michael Jordan's essence as a player change in just a few months, or did he exploit opportunities as those opportunities presented themselves? It took Jordan seven years to reach the NBA Finals for the first time, but after that point he won all six times he reached the NBA Finals. During those championship runs, Jordan's Bulls beat the L.A. Lakers 4-1 in the 1991 NBA Finals after losing game one, they overcame a 2-0 deficit versus the New York Knicks in 1993, they survived a tough seven game series with the Indiana Pacers in 1998, and they beat the Utah Jazz 4-2 in the 1998 NBA Finals after losing game one. In retrospect, all we remember or see is that Jordan went 6-0 in the NBA Finals; the bumps in the road are forgotten, and the prevailing narrative describes a smooth, inevitable path: Jordan's career is summarized by listing the six championships that he won, not the preceding years during which he failed to reach the NBA Finals, and not the playoff series during which his team trailed and could have lost.

Similarly, Mahomes' journey has not always been smooth, but with three Super Bowl wins by the age of 28 he has entered rarefied air, and thus the prevailing narrative compares him with the greatest quarterbacks of all-time. In that conversation, it is important to remember that Tom Brady won seven Super Bowls (including a victory versus Mahomes' Chiefs in Super Bowl LV) and Otto Graham won seven championships in a 10 year AAFC/NFL career. In other words, Mahomes will have to add another haul of Super Bowl rings equal to the career totals of Terry Bradshaw or Joe Montana just to tie Brady or Graham; it should be obvious that this will not be an easy task even for someone as young and great as Mahomes. Football is perhaps the ultimate team sport: the quarterback runs the show on offense and deservedly gets a lot of credit for team wins/team championships, but team wins and team championships are impossible to achieve without the combined efforts of dozens of other players, plus the coaching staff.

Speaking of coaches, remember when Andy Reid was derided as a coach who is not capable of winning the big game? Hall of Fame coaches Don Shula and Tom Landry were both saddled with that label before winning two Super Bowls each, and now Reid is one of just five coaches with at least three Super Bowl wins, though it should be noted that Paul Brown won four AAFC titles plus three NFL titles, while George Halas won five NFL titles, and Vince Lombardi won three NFL titles before capturing two Super Bowl titles. Shula and Landry are revered as winners, and no one talks about their early, painful playoff defeats; in a similar fashion, Reid has transformed the narrative about his career. Just as it may have once looked inevitable that Shula, Landry, and Reid would never win the big one, in retrospect it seems obvious that they were destined to capture multiple championships.

Next season, Mahomes, Reid, and the Chiefs have an opportunity to win an unprecedented third straight Super Bowl--and if they accomplish that feat, no one will remember how close that game was.

Tom Brady Ends an Unprecedented Career on His Terms

Tom Brady, who just announced his retirement from the NFL after 22 seasons, won more Super Bowls (seven) than any single NFL franchise. If NFL titles from the pre-Super Bowl era are counted--and they should be--there are still only three franchises that won more championships than Brady: Green Bay Packers (13), Chicago Bears (nine), and New York Giants (eight). If AAFC titles are included--and they should be--then the Cleveland Browns are tied with the Giants. 

Speaking of the Browns, Brady is often described as the greatest quarterback ever based on how many championships his teams won, but Browns quarterback Otto Graham played 10 seasons (four in the AAFC followed by six in the NFL) and his teams appeared in the championship game 10 times, winning seven titles. Graham passed for 174 touchdowns, and he scored 44 rushing touchdowns; he led the league in passer rating (retroactively calculated, as passer ratings had not been created yet) five times, and his 112.1 passer rating in 1946 stood as the single season professional record until Joe Montana broke the mark in 1989. Graham ranked first in career passer rating for over 40 years until Montana surpassed him. I do not put much stock in passer ratings, but it is notable that Graham's passer ratings were so high that it took decades before anyone broke his single season and career records.

The rules, playing styles, and playing conditions of the 1940s and 1950s are so different from the rules, playing styles, and playing conditions of the 2000s that it is not meaningful to compare Graham's individual statistics with Brady's individual statistics, but to the extent that winning championships is an important metric for quarterbacks Brady and Graham are on equal footing. To the extent that being an efficient passer is an important metric for quarterbacks, Graham stood further ahead of his peers (and even succeeding generations of quarterbacks) than Brady.

Brady spent the first 20 years of his career in New England, leading the Patriots to six Super Bowl wins in nine appearances, including the 2001, 2003 and 2004 seasons as the Patriots captured three Super Bowl titles in a four year span, a feat matched by only the Dallas Cowboys in the 1992-93 and 1995 seasons. The 2007 Patriots became the first (and still only) NFL team to go 16-0 in the regular season, but their bid for a perfect season fell short due to a Super Bowl loss to the New York Giants.

Other than an ACL injury that forced Brady to miss almost the entire 2008 season, he was remarkably durable, and he rarely sat out a play. Brady was not fast, but he had an uncanny ability to shift around in the pocket so that he avoided absorbing big hits. The only other quarterback that I have seen who was not fast but had a similar pocket agility was Dan Marino (prior to the Achilles injury that he suffered late in his career); Marino rarely scrambled, but he would move away from pressure to avoid the big hit and get rid of the ball. 

The final act of Brady's career took place in Tampa Bay, where he continued to play at a high level and set records while leading the Buccaneers to the second Super Bowl title in franchise history. Brady is not the first Super Bowl-winning quarterback to win a title with a second team--Peyton Manning won one Super Bowl with Indianapolis and one Super Bowl with Denver--but Brady won a Super Bowl in his first year with his new team, and Brady played at an elite level throughout the season and the playoff run, while Manning won in his fourth season in Denver as a caretaker quarterback who threw more interceptions than touchdowns during the regular season.

Brady was remarkably effective in high pressure situations throughout his career, conducting numerous game-winning drives. In his last game, he almost led Tampa Bay to victory after trailing 27-3 in the Divisional Playoff game versus the L.A. Rams, who survived and will now represent the NFC in the Super Bowl after defeating the San Francisco 49ers in the NFC Championship.

It is unfortunate that instead of appreciating the greatness that Brady displayed in Tampa Bay there are many commentators who feel obligated to treat the Buccaneers' title run as some kind of indictment not just of New England not making sure that Brady finished his career with the Patriots but of Bill Belichick's entire coaching career. Brady winning a Super Bowl in Tampa Bay has no connection with Belichick's legacy; Belichick was a great defensive coordinator for two New York Giants Super Bowl teams, in his first head coaching job he led the Cleveland Browns to their only playoff victory in the 1990-2019 time period, and in his second head coaching job he guided the New England Patriots to a record-setting six Super Bowl titles. Belichick's record more than speaks for itself, and he is not required to "validate" his Super Bowl wins by winning a Super Bowl with a different quarterback. Think about how foolish it would sound to say that Chuck Noll had to "validate" his four Super Bowl wins by winning a Super Bowl without Terry Bradshaw. No one says that because it is nonsense, so commentators should stop saying nonsense about Belichick; their resentment at his brief press conference answers to their ridiculous questions should not impact how they describe his legacy.

Is Brady the greatest quarterback of all-time? Brady has to be on the short list of greatest quarterbacks. He holds all of the important "counting" records, from Super Bowl titles (seven) to career playoff wins (35) to career playoff passing yards (13,049) to career playoff touchdowns (86) to career regular season wins (243) to career regular season passing yards (84,250) to career regular season passing touchdowns (624). He excelled in the biggest moments, he was incredibly durable, and he won big even when he did not have big name players at the "skill" positions. 

Graham's name is too often left out of this conversation, probably because he played so long ago and because he played the first four years of his career in the AAFC, but he led the Cleveland Browns to the NFL title in his first NFL season (1950), disproving any notion that the Browns' four consecutive AAFC championships were less valuable than NFL championships. Graham won three NFL championships in just six NFL seasons, and he was a big threat not only as a passer but also as a runner. He and Peyton Manning share the quarterback record for most All-Pro First Team selections (seven; four of Graham's selections were in the AAFC, but those four are included in ProFootballReference.com's list, as they should be). Brady earned three All-Pro First Team selections in his 22 season career. The quarterback position is often stacked with a lot of talent, so it is unusual for a quarterback to earn more than three All-Pro First Team selections. Dan Marino, Joe Montana, Steve Young, and Brett Favre join Brady on the list of quarterbacks who received the honor three times.

Graham is the all-time leader in winning percentage among starting quarterbacks, and he is the all-time leader in yards per attempt, which is remarkable considering that he played in an era when the rules did not favor the passing game. Brady ranks second in winning percentage, but he barely cracks the top 30 in yards per attempt; in general, Brady ranks number one in almost every "total" statistic, but he is not at or sometimes even near the top in percentage statistics. Brady deserves credit for playing such a long time at a very high level, but his peak value in a given season or game may not have been the highest ever.

Johnny Unitas held the records for career passing yards and career passing touchdowns when he retired. He earned All-Pro First Team honors five times, trailing only Graham and Manning at the quarterback position. Unitas' Baltimore Colts won three NFL titles in the pre-Super Bowl era, and they added a fourth title in Super Bowl V. In 2004, The Sporting News ranked Unitas as the greatest NFL quarterback of all-time, ahead of Joe Montana.

Montana tied Bradshaw's record by winning four Super Bowls, a mark that stood until Brady broke it. Montana was the modern day Graham, an efficient passer who also had mobility that enabled him to be a threat to roll out and either pass or run depending on how the defense reacted.

Unitas and Montana were probably the consensus choices as the two greatest quarterbacks of all-time prior to Brady's emergence, although there is no objective reason for Graham to be ranked below them. It is fair to say that Graham was the best quarterback of the 1940s/1950s, Unitas was the best quarterback of the 1960s, Montana was the best quarterback of the 1980s, and Brady was the best quarterback of the 2000s. The 1970s and 1990s are more difficult to assess. Bradshaw won the most championships in the 1970s, but Roger Staubach was a more efficient passer and better runner than Bradshaw while winning two Super Bowls. Dan Fouts was the most prolific passer of the late 1970s/early 1980s, but he never played in a Super Bowl. Dan Marino was the most prolific passer of the mid-1980s/early 1990s, but he only played in one Super Bowl, losing to Montana. Troy Aikman won three Super Bowls in the 1990s, but he was not individually productive enough to be ranked among the very best. Brett Favre set many career passing records during the 1990s, but he was not as efficient as several of his predecessors, and he only won one Super Bowl.

If championships matter the most, why would Brady's seven in 22 years rank higher than Graham's seven in 10 years? If Graham had played an 11th season and won his eighth title would he be considered hands down the greatest quarterback of all-time? If not, why not?

However, if durability while maintaining a high level of play is the tiebreaker/decisive factor, then Brady lapped the field: no quarterback has played so well for so long, even if there may be a few quarterbacks who played better over shorter time periods.

Passer ratings are so skewed by the rules changes from the past 40 years or so (and other factors beyond the scope of this article) that they do not impact my rankings (they are only useful for comparing players who competed in the same era, but they are worthless for comparisons across eras). For the record, Brady's career passer rating is eighth all-time on the all-time list, just ahead of Tony Romo and just behind Kirk Cousins. With all due respect to Romo and Cousins, they do not belong in the greatest quarterback of all-time conversation--and passer ratings do not belong in the conversation, either.

The case for calling Brady the greatest quarterback of all-time is strong, but not definitive. However, it should be clear that--contrary to assertions by Dan Shaughnessy--Brady is not the greatest athlete in Boston history. Shaughnessy, who covered the Boston Celtics in the 1980s, should know better. As great as Brady was, he did not come close to matching what Bill Russell accomplished: Russell led the Boston Celtics to 11 championships in 13 seasons, including a run of eight championships in a row. A football team has 11 players on the field at a time, and it has been decades since players regularly played offense and defense (Deion Sanders being the notable exception), but a basketball team has just five players on the court at a time, and all five players play both offense and defense. Russell's direct impact on team success was greater than Brady's; that is not a shot at Brady, but just a statement of fact recognizing the difference between being a great basketball player and being a great football player. Bill Russell is the greatest winner/champion in the history of major North American team sports, and he is without question the greatest athlete in Boston history.

Brady's career is unprecedented in many ways: he went from being the 199th pick in the draft to being the NFL's greatest winner during the Super Bowl era, and he played at a high level for 22 years. It was  a treat to watch him play, and it will be interesting to see what he does now that his playing days are over.

Refuting False Narratives About the Legacies of Tom Brady and Bill Belichick

Tom Brady has publicly announced that he plans to leave the New England Patriots via free agency, though he has yet to announce where he is going. Not surprisingly, Brady's statement has unleashed a wave of commentary about his legacy, and Bill Belichick's legacy, as well as a reexamination of previous all-time greats who could have played their entire careers for one team but elected to see if the grass was greener elsewhere--with Joe Montana, Michael Jordan, and Peyton Manning being perhaps the three most prominent examples.

Both Belichick and Brady have more than secured their individual legacies. Belichick was a key contributor to two Super Bowl champions as an assistant coach before winning six Super Bowls as New England's head coach. Any short list of the greatest football coaches of all-time must include his name, and nothing that happens in the rest of his career will change or diminish that. Belichick is the second oldest head coach in the NFL now, and he is tied with several others as the eighth oldest head coach in NFL history. A career is judged by the overall body of work, with an emphasis on what happened in the prime years; Belichick's career is not going to be defined by what happens in his final seasons. Of course, if he wins Super Bowls as an elder statesman coach that could potentially add to his already established legacy, but no sensible person is going to hold it against Belichick if he does not win another Super Bowl. Don Shula, Chuck Noll, and Tom Landry are three of the greatest coaches of all-time, and their careers ended long after their final Super Bowl victory with no damage done to their legacies.

Brady is a six-time Super Bowl champion quarterback who is nearing the end of his career. If he wins another Super Bowl, he can add to his legacy, but few quarterbacks have even played as long as Brady, let alone won championships at his age; if Brady does not win another Super Bowl, it does not hurt his legacy any more than Joe Montana's time as a Kansas City Chief did.

Speaking of which, without looking it up do you even remember how long Montana played in Kansas City, what statistics he posted, and how the team performed? Unless you are an NFL addict with a great memory or you are lying, the honest answer is "No."

Before revisiting the end of Montana's career, it is worth briefly mentioning Joe Namath, whose name is sometimes brought up in this context. While it may have been painful at the time for NFL fans to watch him finish his career as an L.A. Ram, Namath secured his legacy by leading the New York Jets to victory in Super Bowl III. Nothing that happened after that caused long-term damage to Namath's legacy. He will always be remembered as a triumphant Jet, and no one spends much time thinking about his brief time as a stumbling Ram.

Back to Montana, who spent two years as a Chief, making the Pro Bowl in 1993 (his first season with the team) and compiling a 17-8 regular season record (he missed seven games due to injury) in 1993-94. Montana led the Chiefs to the 1993 AFC Championship Game, but the Chiefs lost 30-13, and Montana was knocked out of the game with a concussion in the third quarter. Montana quarterbacked the Chiefs to a 9-7 record and a loss in the Wild Card round in 1994 before he retired at 38. Those two seasons are a solid postscript to a Hall of Fame career, but they had no impact on the legacy that Montana had already forged by winning four Super Bowls as a San Francisco 49er.

Consider an example from a different sport. Michael Jordan had already retired and come back once as a Chicago Bull before he came out of retirement in 2001 to play for the Washington Wizards. Jordan never averaged less than 28 ppg in a full season with the Bulls, and he never averaged more than 23 ppg in his two seasons with the Wizards. Jordan led the Bulls to six titles in six NBA Finals appearances, and he was not able to take the Wizards to the playoffs even once. No, Jordan the Wizard did not accomplish as much as Jordan the Bull, but Jordan the Wizard added some clips to his career highlight reel, and did not harm Jordan's legacy at all.

Brady and Manning spent much of their careers battling for individual honors and Super Bowl titles. Manning won one Super Bowl in 13 seasons as a Colt before finishing his career as a Denver Bronco. Manning earned three Pro Bowl selections as a Bronco while also making the All-Pro First Team twice, and winning another Super Bowl title. Interestingly, his two playoff runs that ended in Super Bowl wins are two of his four worst postseasons statistically (based on the NFL's passer rating system). Winning a second Super Bowl--albeit while no longer a star player (he had nine passing touchdowns and 17 interceptions in his final regular season before the Broncos won the Super Bowl)--perhaps added a bit to Manning's legacy, but certainly no one dwells on how limited a player Manning was by that time, nor would any rational commentator have held it against Manning if his Bronco years had not been capped off with a championship.

Supposedly, next season is going to represent some kind of referendum in a made up Belichick versus Brady competition: Can Brady win without Belichick? Can Belichick win without Brady? Will neither one win?

This is nonsense. If there were to be a genuine, meaningful Belichick versus Brady competition then we would need to pit them against each other when both were in their primes, and we would need to supply them with comparable supporting casts. Give prime Brady a different coach and a solid supporting cast, and how much would he win? How much Brady wins as a past his prime quarterback can only tell us so much.

The other side of the question is how much would prime Belichick win with a different quarterback and a solid supporting cast? 

Actually, we did get a glimpse of that during the 2008 season that Brady missed with an ACL injury, and we saw the Patriots go 11-5 with Matt Cassel as the starting quarterback. Cassel left the Patriots after that season, and went 26-40 as a starter during the rest of his career. During his first head coaching job, Belichick inherited a 3-13 Cleveland team and in four years he turned them into an 11-5 squad that won a playoff game (which is the last playoff game that the Browns have won). So, we do have some evidence about what Belichick can do as a coach without Brady.

All that we know for sure is that the Belichick-Brady tandem is the greatest coach-quarterback duo in NFL history (throw in the AAFC years, and you could make an argument for Paul Brown-Otto Graham, who won seven championships and made 10 championship game appearances in 10 seasons together). Whether or not either of them win any more Super Bowls in the final years of their respective careers does not change the significance of what they accomplished together, nor "prove" that one was more integral to their shared success than the other.

Manning's Late Interception Clinches Saints' First Super Bowl Win

Indianapolis Colts' quarterback Peyton Manning just won his record fourth regular season AP MVP award but in the most important game of the year he took a back seat to New Orleans' Saints quarterback Drew Brees, who tied a Super Bowl record with 32 completions en route to leading the Saints to a 31-17 victory. Brees posted an astounding 82.1 completion percentage, compiling 288 yards and two touchdowns with no interceptions on 39 attempts, which adds up to a 114.5 passer rating; in contrast, although Manning had more yards than Brees (333 yards on 31 completions in 45 attempts for an 88.5 passer rating) he only had one touchdown pass and he threw the "pick six" that will be remembered as the game's defining moment: the Saints were clinging to a 24-17 lead when Tracy Porter nabbed Manning's pass to Reggie Wayne and raced 74 yards to put the Saints up by two touchdowns with 3:12 remaining. Porter also picked off Minnesota's Brett Favre near the end of regulation in the NFC Championship Game, enabling the Saints to eventually triumph in overtime.

The final score does not accurately convey the reality that this was one of the most competitive and closely contested Super Bowls ever; if not for Manning's costly error, the game likely would have been decided in the final seconds or perhaps even required the first overtime in Super Bowl history. Super Bowl MVP Brees and his Saints deserve credit for their poise, efficiency and courage. Coach Sean Payton made several bold play calls, most notably eschewing a short field goal attempt to try to score a touchdown on fourth and goal late in the first half (the Saints did not score but they stopped the Colts and managed to kick a field goal just before halftime) and then successfully employing an onside kick on the opening kickoff of the second half, the first such "surprise" onside kick (i.e., one done prior to the fourth quarter) in Super Bowl history. New England Coach Bill Belichick was widely criticized about his failed fourth down gamble versus the Colts in a regular season game but in retrospect it seems that Belichick was simply ahead of the curve (as usual): great coaches like Belichick and Payton understand that against Manning's Colts it is important to (1) score touchdowns and (2) keep the ball out of Manning's hands as much as possible, even if this involves "risky" ploys such as going for it on fourth down and/or utilizing an onside kick.

Manning's record-setting regular season career statistics and his MVP performance in Indianapolis' 29-17 victory over the Chicago Bears in Super Bowl XLI establish him as one of the top 10 quarterbacks in NFL history--but, much as I don't understand the rush to crown Roger Federer as the greatest tennis player ever (a subject that I am still debating with several people in the comments section of this 2009 BEST post), I don't understand the apparent rush to crown Manning as the greatest NFL quarterback ever; even if the Colts had won this Super Bowl I don't think that Manning would have merited that title and the Colts' loss--with Manning's interception playing a pivotal role in the final outcome--simply highlights the fact that despite all of Manning's regular season glory he has not been an exceptional postseason quarterback: Manning owns a mediocre 9-9 career playoff record with 28 touchdowns and 19 interceptions. Manning is 2-1 in the AFC Championship Game (five touchdowns, five interceptions) and 1-1 in the Super Bowl (two touchdowns, two interceptions). On six different occasions, Manning's Colts have lost their first playoff game, including years in which the Colts were 13-3 (1999), 14-2 (2005), 13-3 (2007) and 12-4 (2008).

In 2004, 2005, 2007, 2008 and 2009 Manning made only token appearances in the final regular season game because the Colts were locked into their playoff seed. I have always found it offensive that the Colts used those final regular season games to set regular season milestones for certain players and preserve Manning's consecutive games played streak before essentially throwing those games (yes, I know that the Colts went 2-3 in those games but their attitude was that the result didn't matter at all, which is philosophically equivalent to throwing the games) even though the outcomes could potentially affect playoff seeding for other teams; their actions made a mockery of the league's competitive balance and the full prices charged for tickets to such games. If the most important thing is to win the Super Bowl then why risk having Manning play even one down or why force feed the ball to certain receivers so that they can attain personal single season goals? Manning and/or his receivers could certainly be injured during such plays.

The Colts started this season 14-0 before clinching home field advantage throughout the AFC Playoffs and deciding to curtail the playing time of several starters in the final two regular season games. I find it very interesting that their own fans lustily booed in response to this and that one fan displayed a sign that said "16-0 Matters to Us," a response to the Colts' statement that a perfect regular season record is meaningless; like that fan, I think that it is disgraceful to treat the regular season with such disdain and I much prefer the way that the 2007 New England Patriots marched to an unprecedented 16-0 record and the way that the 1995-96 Chicago Bulls raced to an NBA record 72 wins in 82 games (yes, the rigors of the NFL season differ from those of an NBA season but the principle is the same: greatness is something meaningful and worth pursuing).

Furthermore, it is bizarre that the Colts act as if throwing these games is part of some supposedly tried and true method to improve their chances to achieve their ultimate goal of winning the Super Bowl, because the reality is that Manning's only Super Bowl victory came after a season in which the Colts had to play every regular season game full tilt due to their position in the standings. The Colts not only have never won a Super Bowl after resting Manning in the final regular season game but three of the five times that they did this they lost their very first playoff game! I can't prove that resting Manning caused the Colts to lose those playoff games or that it had anything to do with their Super Bowl loss this year but it is certainly fair to say that resting Manning has not helped the Colts because they have yet to win a single Super Bowl after doing so.

One of the most interesting spectacles about this postseason was watching various media members who seemingly could not decide whether they should anoint Favre or Manning as the greatest quarterback ever. Both quarterbacks would likely be on the consensus list of the top 10 quarterbacks ever but if I had to select one of those 10 quarterbacks to win a playoff game or a Super Bowl with my life on the line I would not choose Favre or Manning. Favre went 1-1 in the Super Bowl (five touchdowns, one interception) and 13-11 in postseason play overall (44 touchdowns, 30 interceptions). He is just 4-8 in his last 12 playoff games and the last two times he reached the NFC Championship Game he threw an interception on his team's final offensive possession. If the executioner's sword is dangling over my head then I don't want my life depending on the result of Favre rolling out, chucking the ball as hard as he can and hoping for the best; that may be exciting to watch, it may result in setting a lot of regular season records but it does not produce many championships.

In contrast, Joe Montana went 4-0 in the Super Bowl (11 touchdowns, 0 interceptions) and 16-7 in postseason play overall (45 touchdowns, 21 interceptions); Tom Brady is 3-1 in the Super Bowl (seven touchdowns, one interception) and 14-4 in postseason play overall (28 touchdowns, 15 interceptions). Objectively speaking, it is not possible to realistically compare the statistics of pre-1979 quarterbacks with those of post-1979 quarterbacks due to the drastic rules changes that transformed the NFL into a pass-oriented league but any discussion about the greatest quarterback ever must include Johnny Unitas and Otto Graham. Unitas led the Baltimore Colts to two NFL championships in the 1950s followed by a third NFL title in 1968 (the Colts then famously lost to the AFL Champion New York Jets in Super Bowl III); he also threw the Colts' only touchdown in their Super Bowl IV win over Dallas. Graham led the Browns to the league championship game in each of his 10 pro seasons, winning four AAFC titles and three NFL championships.

Whatever reasonable standard one uses, I simply don't see how anyone can state with confidence that Favre or Manning is a greater quarterback than Graham, Unitas, Montana or Brady. For that matter, Roger Staubach led the Dallas Cowboys to two Super Bowl wins and had the highest regular season career passer rating in NFL history before 1979, while strong-armed Terry Bradshaw may not have been the most efficient regular season passer but he went 4-0 in the Super Bowl while posting a 112.8 passer rating (the third best career Super Bowl passer rating behind Montana's eye-popping 127.8 and Jim Plunkett's 122.8, which Plunkett earned while leading the Raiders to a pair of Super Bowl wins). Furthermore, if you want to talk about "pure" passing ability then Sonny Jurgenson and Dan Marino have to be included in the discussion even though Jurgenson never won an NFL title as a starter and Marino lost to Montana in his only Super Bowl appearance.

Instead of even attempting to communicate some of the information listed above as historical context for a discussion about who might be the greatest quarterback ever we are subjected to pregame shows that insist that one more Super Bowl win would cement Favre or Manning's place as the greatest quarterback ever followed by postgame shows that try to absolve Favre or Manning of responsibility for their team's respective losses even though both players literally threw away their team's chances to win. Favre is still lauded for being a courageous gunslinger--but when a 40 year old quarterback is that talented and that durable but has only won one championship despite having several golden opportunities it is worth wondering if it is noble or foolish that he has gone from being a dark haired gunslinger to being a gray haired gunslinger without ever changing his ways. Similarly, Manning is rightfully praised for his intelligence and his ability to outsmart opposing defenses yet he has been much less successful demonstrating those traits in the postseason than he has in the regular season.

Apparently, Favre and Manning are so well-liked that many people cannot be objective about how to rank them historically in the quarterback pantheon. This is very similar to the glaring flaws that I have observed about how NBA players and teams are compared. Two of my greatest passions about sports are analyzing how/why games are won and lost and critiquing the poor research techniques, idiotic questions, ludicrous biases and substandard writing skills displayed by far too many members of the media. For instance, ESPN's NFL Countdown show is entertaining and often informative but the panel's biases can be jarringly distracting: why does NFL Countdown treat Marvin Harrison--who quite possibly shot a man to death in broad daylight--and Ray Lewis--who was charged with obstruction of justice in an unsolved double murder for which he was initially the prime suspect--as model citizens with impeccable character while simultaneously demonizing Terrell Owens, whose only "crime" is flamboyance, a trait that is considered harmless or even entertaining when displayed by other players? Why is Favre portrayed as some kind of folk hero even though he repeatedly feuds with coaches/management, makes reckless plays in crucial moments and flouts the importance of practice? Allen Iverson is forever dogged by one out of context quote pertaining to practice--Iverson was not questioning the importance of practice but rather asking why a whole press conference was being devoted to the subject--but Favre gets a free pass for annually acting as if he should be above having to attend training camp.

One thing that we can all be grateful about is that no matter how much the media spins things the media is powerless to change the actual results: despite all of the overblown hype, Manning is still a .500 postseason quarterback with one Super Bowl win and Favre apparently has ended two separate retirements with interceptions in the NFC Championship Game. Manning and Favre are two of the greatest quarterbacks ever and they both deserve praise for their remarkable combination of durability and productivity--but that does not mean that the media should portray them as flawless demigods.

Favre Era Ends Quietly

There will not be a farewell tour. There will not be a ceremony. Brett Favre played the game his way and now he has decided to leave the game on his terms, announcing his retirement in a voice mail message to ESPN's Chris Mortenson. "I know I can still play, but it's like I told my wife, I'm just tired mentally. I'm just tired," Favre told Mortenson. Favre added that the only way for him to consider the 2008 season a success would be to win a Super Bowl, concluding "...the odds of that, they're tough. Those are big shoes for me to fill, and I guess it was a challenge I wasn't up for."

Some writers have already suggested that Favre is making a mistake and that he will miss the game. Obviously, he will miss the game--the cliche says that athletes die twice--but no one can play forever, so a player who is fortunate enough to not have to retire due to injuries must decide when he thinks it is the best time to leave the game. Favre's stated reasons are actually very logical. He has already won a Super Bowl and he owns virtually every meaningful individual passing record, so he is right that anything short of winning a second Super Bowl would render another season a failure. He is also right that the odds of any one team winning the Super Bowl are not great. We just saw an 18-0 team that has won three Super Bowls lose in the big game and, as Favre reportedly said, there is no assurance that the Cinderella Packers from last year will not follow up that performance the way that the Bears and Saints played after doing so well in 2006. This is actually an excellent time for Favre to quit: he is coming off of one of the best seasons of his career, largely erasing the memory of his subpar statistics in recent seasons. In fact, by retiring now, Favre actually set two more records: he has posted the most yards (4155) and most touchdowns (28) for any NFL quarterback in his final season.

The obvious and inevitable question now--and one that has been discussed with increasing frequency as Favre placed his stamp in the record book--is where Favre ranks in the pantheon of pro football quarterbacks. A few months ago--in a post titled Past Versus Present: Comparing Brett Favre and Dan Marino--I concluded that Brett Favre and Dan Marino are very evenly matched: "Favre has constructed a more weighty overall body of work, highlighted by a Super Bowl win, three AP MVPs and a laundry list of career records. However, in terms of peak value--which quarterback reached the highest level based on his performance during his best seasons--I would take Marino circa 1983-86, particularly the 1984 edition, in a narrow decision over Favre's great peak value run from 1994-97."

I recently did a series of articles titled "NBA Pantheon: An Examination of Greatness" (you can find Part V here and there are links to the previous parts within that article). My general philosophy about sports pantheons borrows from something that I once heard the great Walter Payton say during a radio interview: he suggested that rather than ranking the greatest running backs of all-time we should simply savor and enjoy the unique traits of each of the worthy candidates. "Greatest quarterback of all-time" is a mythical title but it is possible to list several players who clearly deserve consideration for the quarterback pantheon; my short list would include (in chronological order) Otto Graham, Johnny Unitas, Joe Montana, Dan Marino, John Elway, Steve Young, Brett Favre, Peyton Manning and Tom Brady.

Graham led the Cleveland Browns to 10 championship games in his 10 seasons, winning seven titles; he was not only a great passer but also a very mobile quarterback who was a major running threat. The NFL does not issue an "official" MVP award; Favre, Unitas and Jim Brown are the only three-time winners of the AP MVP award--an honor that was not given out during Graham's career--but Graham won three UPI NFL MVPs and he also won two MVPs (one of them shared) in the All-America Football Conference (AAFC).

Unitas set career records for passing yards, completions and touchdowns. Those marks have since been broken in the now pass-happy NFL but Unitas has one record that some have compared to Joe DiMaggio's 56 game hitting streak: Unitas threw at least one touchdown pass in 47 straight games. Unitas played most of his career in the pre-Super Bowl era, winning three NFL titles; he also played in two Super Bowls, losing to Joe Namath's Jets in Super Bowl III and beating the Cowboys 16-13 in Super Bowl V. As a pure pocket passer he still ranks with anyone who has ever played.

Montana matched Terry Bradshaw by winning four Super Bowl championships. He retired with the highest passer rating in NFL history and he still ranks fourth. The twin hallmarks of Montana's game were accuracy and the ability to deliver in the clutch.

Marino may have had the quickest release of any passer in NFL history. He was not a scrambler but before he injured his Achilles he had the uncanny ability to move around the pocket in a three foot radius and avoid a sack. Like Unitas, he retired as the career leader in passing yards, completions and touchdowns. Marino never won a Super Bowl title and he only made it to the big game once. If he had won a championship he would rank higher on a lot of people's lists.

Elway spent most of his career with a paradoxical reputation: he holds the record for fourth quarter comebacks (47) yet he came up empty in his first three Super Bowl appearances. He seemed to be destined to be known as a great individual performer who never won the big game but then he capped off his career with back to back Super Bowl wins in his final two seasons. For most of his career, Elway was not a particularly efficient passer--he ranks just 43rd in career passer rating, which is not exceptional considering the pass-friendly era in which he played--but those two championships and his many memorable comeback victories ensure his place in NFL history.

Young will always be somewhat hidden in Montana's shadow but he is the highest rated passer in NFL history. That is remarkable because for quite some time he was considered to be a running back playing quarterback; Young rushed for 4239 yards, second among quarterbacks to Randall Cunningham, and he is one of the greatest all-around athletes to play the quarterback position. Young got the proverbial "monkey" off of his back by throwing a record six touchdown passes in a 49-26 victory in Super Bowl XXIX, winning MVP honors. That season he set a regular season record for passer rating (since broken).

Favre currently owns the career records for passing yards (61,655), touchdowns (442) and completions (5377)--but his most remarkable record is that he made 253 consecutive regular season starts (the number balloons to 275 if you include playoff games). Favre' s longevity enabled him to post the most wins by a quarterback (160); that longevity plus a gunslinger mentality also resulted in Favre throwing the most career interceptions (288). He was not as efficient as Montana or Young and he did not win as many championships as several other members of this pantheon but his durability and overall production are quite remarkable.

Manning and Brady are of course still adding to their legacies. Manning got his "monkey" off of his back by winning a Super Bowl two years ago and it looks like he has a shot to break Favre's career records. Brady has won three Super Bowls in four appearances and last season he put together one of the most remarkable single season passing performances ever. Brady is very reminiscent of Montana in terms of accuracy and clutch play but last season's assault on the record book proved that he can also put up huge raw numbers like Marino and Manning.