Brady or Montana? Brady or Montana? Who is better?
My e-mail inbox has been bombarded with messages the past few
weeks comparing 49ers Hall of Famer Joe Montana with future Hall of
Famer Tom Brady.
These discussions have significantly spiked now that Brady is
going for his fourth Super Bowl title this Sunday
– the same amount of wins that Montana put up during his
legendary career with the San Francisco 49ers. Funny, Terry
Bradshaw also won four but nobody mentions him…
Brady or Montana? Brady or Montana? Who is better?
My e-mail inbox has been bombarded with messages the past few weeks comparing 49ers Hall of Famer Joe Montana with future Hall of Famer Tom Brady.
These discussions have significantly spiked now that Brady is going for his fourth Super Bowl title this Sunday – the same amount of wins that Montana put up during his legendary career with the San Francisco 49ers. Funny, Terry Bradshaw also won four but nobody mentions him…
Maybe it’s because the Bay Area can lay claim to both of these great quarterbacks. Brady is from here. He grew up in San Mateo and attended Serra High School – the same school that Barry Bonds graduated from. He also grew up idolizing Montana and wanting to play for the 49ers.
Montana, on the other hand, is from Pennsylvania but has made his home in Northern California’s Napa Valley for decades.
If you ask Montana, he’d say Brady was the best, and vice versa if you ask Brady. I say stop debating until Brady actually eclipses Joe’s numbers. Right now, Joe Montana is the best, period.
If Brady wins the Bowl this Sunday, the two are tied in Super Bowl wins. Tie does not mean one is better than the other. Brady, however, will have won his four Bowls by the age of 30. Montana was 33 when he won his fourth – and Brady could play another decade.
If Brady ends up winning five or six, well then a serious case can be made in his favor. But until then I’m sticking with Joe Cool.
If you take a snapshot of their career statistics right now, it appears that Brady has the edge in regular season games while Montana put up far more impressive numbers in the playoffs – the games that really count.
In the Super Bowl, for instance, Montana put up immortal-like numbers, completing 83-of-122 passes (68 percent) for 1,142 yards with 11 touchdowns and no interceptions. His quarterback rating was 127.8.
In his three Super Bowl appearances, Brady was 71-of-108 for 735 yards with 6 touchdowns and 1 interception. His current QB rating in the big game is an even 100.
Brady does have a stronger arm and seems to be much better at throwing the long bomb. Then again, Bill Walsh’s West Coast offense was built around short outlet passes, hitting the tight end, etc, and didn’t call for “Hail Mary”-type throws. Brady also seems to have an advantage in up-front personnel in that the Patriots offensive line has given him plenty of time to find his receivers – a luxury Montana didn’t have early on.
Montana had to scramble, run and throw on the run better, especially in the early Super Bowl seasons of 1981 and 1984.
In two of his four Super Bowls, Montana also went head-to-head – and beat – two Hall of Famers in Dan Marino and John Elway. And he beat them by 38-16 and 55-10 margins, respectively. He also beat Boomer Esiason and Ken Anderson.
Brady beat Jake Delhomme, Donovan McNabb and Kurt Warner. In this group Warner should make the Hall and that’s it.
In Montana’s Super Bowl wins the Niners outscored their opponents 139-63. In Brady’s three wins that margin is 76-67. In other words, every one of those games that the Pats won could have gone the other way, easily.
Montana has three Super Bowl MVP awards. Brady has two. In the one game that Montana didn’t win the MVP award these were his numbers: 23-of-36, 357 yards passing 2 TDs and zero picks. Jerry Rice was given the MVP that year after plenty of debate.
In Brady’s first MVP effort, he won the award with just 145 total passing yards and 1 TD. Kurt Warner, the losing QB that year, was 28-of-44 for 365 yards 1 TD and 2 picks.
Need I say more? I don’t think so. The numbers speak for themselves until proven otherwise. Joe is still The Man when it comes to The Bowl and overall greatness…
