Tom Brady, A Different Kind of GOAT

Tom Brady rarely makes spectacular plays. But he has mastered the craft of quarterbacking.

As a 20+ year football fan and Cheesehead (with Wisconsin roots), I used to get super excited by football players like Brett Favre, whom some fans called “The Gunslinger.”

With Favre, you never knew what was going to happen–and that was a big part of the fun. But that grew old quickly because … well … you never knew what was going to happen. One minute he was leading the Vikings to a 14-2 season with (according to him) the best team ever assembled (Adrian Peterson, Sydney Rice, and Percy Harvin). The next thing, he was….

I concluded that exciting is exciting when you’re young.

Back then, I hated Tom Brady. He was boring and predictable. There was nothing exciting in his throws, and I thought he was utterly dull to watch. But the older I got, the more I learned to appreciate quality. Tom Brady–as I came to view him–was the Mercedes of NFL QBs.

But I also realized that even the best car in the world ages over time, losing some of its early appeal. That didn’t happen with Brady. He maintained his predictably good play. I marveled over that.

After all these years–nearly twenty, to be specific–Brady’s consistency is nothing short of amazing. And even more telling is that Tom Brady isn’t the most talented QB in the league–neither now nor when he was younger. Aaron Rodgers, for instance, is a much more spectacular passer, and even Brady agrees with that assessment. “He’s a unique player,” Brady says. “He can get the ball in places that nobody else can.”

Courtesy: ESPN

Stats-wise, Brady and Rodgers have had roughly comparable careers: QB Rating–Rodgers, 103.1, Brady’s 97.6, and TD/INT Ratio–Rodgers, 4:1, and Brady, 3:1. But Brady wins in the regular season, the Playoffs, and the Super Bowl–and he has done that, year after year, for nearly two decades. Part of the reason is that Brady plays in an incomparable system–Belichick’s system–where he’s a perfect fit.

And, make no mistake about it, fit contributes mightily to outcomes. Take the Eagles’ Nick Foles and Carson Wentz. Arguably Wentz is the more skillful quarterback, but Foles steps in and wins big games. Foles, who ‘clicks’ with his teammates, has intangible qualities (the “It‘ Factor, it’s called) that go beyond stats.

If that’s right, then there IS something to be said about fitting into a system vis-a-vis being the very best at whatever it is you do (in this case, throwing the ball). If Brady is the NFL QB GOAT, it’s not because he’s the best pure passer or the most spectacular quarterback. He’s neither. It’s because Brady is competent, is a good fit in an excellent system, and runs that system to near perfection.

Malcolm Gladwell sheds light on what I’m asserting here. In his book, Outliers, Gladwell explains why the smartest people aren’t always the most successful people. Even though there’s a threshold of intelligence you need to be successful, having additional intelligence doesn’t mean that you’ll be ‘that much more’ successful.

Put simply, Tom Brady is a master at his craft. And that, my friends, is absolutely thrilling.

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David Sherman is a freelance author who is studying to pass his medical licensing boards.  He aspires to work with athletes, develop academic talent in high school students, and fight disability injustice everywhere.