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Who is the greatest NFL player of all time? Many will say Tom Brady; others will say Joe Montana. But even the latter acknowledges the former as such.
At Super Bowl LV, Brady stunned the NFL world by winning his record-breaking seventh Super Bowl title (more than any team) and fifth Super Bowl MVP (first with multiple franchises and in both conferences) with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. On March 3, a month after the game, Montana said on First Take:
“I think Tom has taken his place on the top up there a long time ago. He’s had a tremendous career, he’s fun to watch. Everybody always contests over that, but I think if you look at what Tom has been able to accomplish in his time that he’s played, I think it puts him definitely up there on the top of the list.
“There’s a lot of great guys, as I said, before me, even you go back to Otto Graham, who won 10 or 11 championships. It’s hard to compare them — but if you’re looking at it, yeah, definitely Tom at that point.”
Joe Montana: Dan Marino, not Tom Brady, is the best quarterback of all time
But apparently, while "greatest" refers to accomplishments and accolades, of which Tom Brady obviously has plenty, "best" refers to pure talent - at least if Joe Montana is asked about it; and 910 days after that First Take segment aired, he has a different opinion.
Speaking recently to Men's Health during a tour of Dublin's Guinness Storehouse, Montana named Miami Dolphins legend Dan Marino the best quarterback to have ever graced the gridiron:
"He had a quick release. I had to step into a lot of things to get enough [force] on the ball. He had the perfect torque of his upper body and strength to deliver the ball quickly at a fast release with accuracy. He had the perfect torque of his upper body and strength to deliver the ball quickly at a fast release with accuracy."
He continued:
“Put Marino into today’s game where he gets free release...and his receivers, holy cow, weren't very big. Now these guys are 6'4," 6'5. I think [Marino] is probably one of the most unsung heroes of the game. People don't talk enough about him or realize the numbers that he put up during the times that he put them up."
Comparing Joe Montana vs Tom Brady
Tom Brady truly has a case to be not just the greatest quarterback in NFL history, but its greatest player ever. He holds multiple career positional records - most wins, most completions, most passing yards and touchdowns, and longevity records as well - oldest QB to start and win a Super Bowl and oldest player to be named its MVP, especially.
But Joe Montana does hold some edges over Brady: he was never intercepted, let alone defeated in a Super Bowl, and he has the most touchdown passes in a single post season - 11 in 1989 (the closest Brady came to that record was ten, twice - in 2014 and 2020), making him possibly the better playoffs performer.
But history ultimately prefers bigger winners, and as Montana himself has admitted, the former Patriot and Buccaneer deserves the "GOAT" crown.
