by Justin McKinney, Staff Writer
While the Patriots had a great time this past Sunday against the L.A. Rams, blowing them out 26-10, and while it’s true the Patriots defense played some of their best football in weeks, it was all made more or less irrelevant by the fact that Tom Brady has sealed his fate as the greatest quarterback in NFL history.
While Brady already owned the NFL playoff victory record as well as tied for most Super Bowl wins as quarterback and most Super Bowl starts, it was not enough for Brady. On Sunday Brady passed Peyton Manning as the winningest quarterback in league history as he captured his 201st victory of his career. Not only that, but Brady did it around 60 less games than Manning did it.
In what has been a storybook return from a bogus suspension it seems as Brady shows no signs of slowing down either as the 39 year-old leads the league in passer rating, averages two touchdowns per game, the third most yards thrown per game, and has only thrown one interception in 300 attempts. At Brady’s current rate he’d finish the season just under 4,000 yards and throw 30 touchdowns with only a single interception; keep in mind he sat the first four games on the year.
What Brady is doing is something I never would have thought humanly possible; Brady is a freak. While he is notorious around the league for taking fantastic care of himself and I believe it with the way he plays, to an extent I think it is his heart that is what gives him an edge over the rest of the NFL. He spent his suspension studying film and finding any way he could throw a football in a practice type setting in order to keep his game up.
I have even heard stories of his wife, Giselle Bundchen, waking up in the middle of night to an empty bed and then finding Brady in his study watching game film.It’s worth noting that the majority of the times Bunchen claimed it happened Brady was suspended. The simple fact is that Brady is probably the greatest competitor in pro-sports since Michael Jordan, and I think on Sunday every football fan got to see that set in stone as he became the winningest quarterback of all-time.
While many will argue that Manning had better regular season stats, the fact is Brady’s are very comparable in that Manning has only thrown to date 90 more touchdown passes than Brady and Brady still has about three seasons left in him, if he throws 30 touchdowns in each of those seasons, which seems very plausible, Manning’s record falls. Not to mention Manning only has half of Brady’s Super Bowl rings, one of them being last season’s Super Bowl were Manning was about as important as Trent Dilfer was to the 2000 Super Bowl winning Ravens; to put it bluntly he wasn’t.
Whether you are a Patriots fan or not, you cannot deny greatness when in stares you right in the face and spits at you, which is exactly what Brady has been doing his entire career but especially this season. Congrats on 201 Tom and here is to many more!