Brady’s Legacy is Still Intact

Super Bowl XLVI is in the books, and the Giants came out victorious by a score of 21-17.  The Patriots last minute gamble to try to march down the field fell short after the Giants were able to engineer the go ahead touchdown in the final four minutes.

Tom Brady got the ball back in his hands with under a minute to go, and 1 timeout, with a chance to win the game, but the Patriots weren’t able to march down the field.

The next thing some people will start to ask is, “Does this tarnish Tom Brady’s legacy?”  I suppose it is a reasonable question, but the short answer is, “No.”

Certainly, winning another Super Bowl would have enhanced the legend.  And if he HAD been able to march down against all odds in those final seconds, it would have made for a great story.  But a career is about more than the Super Bowl.  Does the fact that Peyton Manning only has 1 Super Bowl victory in 2 attempts tarnish his legacy?  Does the fact that Dan Marino, one of the greatest passers of all time, is 0-1 in Super Bowls tarnish his?

Sure, you judge the great ones by their championships.  It’s one of the ways to separate great players.  Michael Jordan’s six championships are one of the things that define his career, but basketball is a different sport.  There are only five players on the court, who play both offense and defense.  One player has a much bigger impact.

Football has 11 players on offense and 11 on defense.  The fact that Brady has made it to five Super Bowls, tying him with John Elway for the most all time by a quarterback, is part of his legacy, but you can’t lessen what he accomplished due to the fact that he is now 3-2 in Super Bowls instead of 4-1.

And even in Super Bowl XLVI, getting a shot with a minute left to march your team down the field isn’t the same as taking the last shot in a basketball game, down by 1 point.  You are relying on the whole team, and fighting against the complete defense of the opponent.  There were some key drops of catchable balls in the last few minutes that could easily have turned the game the Patriots way.  And the defense was unable to get a stop in the final four minutes, which was another key factor in the loss.

Ultimately, Brady was 27 of 41 for 276 yards with 2 TDs and 1 INT.  The one interception was a poorly advised throw, but other than that – he played a solid game.  He even broke Joe Montana’s Super Bowl record for most consecutive completions when he connected on 16 passes in a row.

Whether Brady wins another Super Bowl in his career or not, his legacy is intact.  He will go down as one of the all time great quarterbacks in the league.  Inevitably, as fans love to argue and try to rank the great ones, the Super Bowl record will come up, along with every other statistic that a fan can pull out to try to win an argument, but as far as damaging his legacy – let’s be real.

And besides, there are still only two starting quarterbacks to ever win more than 3 Super Bowls – Joe Montana with the San Francisco 49ers in the 1980s and Terry Bradshaw with the Pittsburgh Steelers in the 1970s, and Brady’s 3 wins ties him with Troy Aikaman.  That’s pretty elite company to be in, no matter how you slice it.