Sean Glennon - Tom Brady vs. the NFL: The Case for Footballs Greatest Quarterback

Foreword by Pat Kirwan

I knew Sean Glennon was on to something the first time I talked to him.

I dont mean that I absolutely agree with all of Seans conclusions in this book. Like I told him, I can say for sure that Tom Brady is one of the greatest quarterbacks of all time, and if you put my feet to the fire, I might have to say he is the greatest of all time. But I also happen to have a lot of respect for Peyton Manning. And, of course, you cant even have the conversation without talking about Joe Montana and Bart Starr.

Thats fine. I dont need to agree with Sean a hundred percent, and I dont think he needs me to. What I liked about Sean when I met him wasnt where he was going, it was how he was getting there.

Sean contacted me looking for a quote he could use in his book. He introduced himself as someone who had written some books about the Patriots and said he was writing one about Brady being the greatest quarterback ever. He told me he was a fan of my SiriusXM NFL radio show, Movin the Chains , and a fan of my book, Take Your Eye Off the Ball: How to Watch Football by Knowing Where to Look . He was looking for some kind of comment about Tom that he could share with readers. That seemed easy enough.

But then we started talking, and I asked Sean how he was going about this thing, which led to a conversation about football history. We talked about guys like Montana and Starr. We also talked about Dan Marino and Otto Graham. Sean told me he was comparing Tom to those guys and a bunch of othersand he told me that the way he was doing things wasnt about tearing down any of those other great quarterbacks. He was putting everyones accomplishments out there and leaving most of the decisions to the reader. He was making a case for Brady but doing it in a way that was respectful to those other guys, who had all made huge contributions to the league and the game.

I knew right then that Sean was writing a book that I would want to read and endorse, and I told him so.

But that isnt really what youre interested in. Youre here to read about Tom Brady. So lets talk about Tom.

I think if were going to talk about the guy, we should start by talking about the position he plays. Quarterback is the most important position in all of sports. Its also the toughest to play. A quarterbacks job during the week is as intense as the job of head coach. He knows the game plan before the rest of his teammates show up for their first practice. When hes not practicing, hes watching film, because before he takes his first snap in a game, he has to be prepared for everything that can possibly affect his offense.

Once the game starts, a quarterback has to be able to make smart decisions in fractions of a second, usually with defensive players coming at him at blinding speeds. Between plays, he has to process what hes just seen from the defense. When he gets to the line, he has to read a defense thats doing everything it can to disguise its plans, and then he has to make decisions about changing the playall with the play clock ticking. After the snap, if its a pass play, he has to read the coverage and know where his open man is going to be. And then hes got to get the ball out of his hands and make sure its his guy, not a defensive back, who ends up with it. If its a run, he has to buy that running back the time he needs to hit the hole and pick up yards. And then the whole thing starts again. And again. And again.

If you think any part of that is ever easy, youre fooling yourself.

What it takes to be a great quarterback is to do all of those things and be a leader on the field and in the locker room.

Brady does all of it. His accuracy as a passer is incredible. He has an ability like Ive never seen to put the ball in a place where his receiver is the only guy who can get to it. Thats why he doesnt throw a lot of interceptions.

His recognition of defenses is uncanny. He walks to the line of scrimmage, looks at the defense, and knows at that instant who the ball will go to. Hes smart. He keeps calm under enormous pressure. And he is the natural leader that you need a quarterback to beon the field and off.

The Patriots have a great system, and they can win games in a lot of different ways. But when theyve won championships, its been because of Tom Brady. Bill Belichick certainly knows it.

Belichick can say that every player on the field is as important as the nextactually, Bill has to t alk that way, because thats the philosophy he needs to sell to his guys in the locker roombut hes not kidding anyone. Bill knows that an offense is only as good as its quarterback and the decisions he makes on the field. Belichick isnt going to give the media anything more than, Toms a great player, and were lucky to have him. But make no mistake, he knows he has one of the best of all time and that Brady is the reason his team has a shot at the Super Bowl every year.

Pat Kirwan, senior analyst for NFL.com, cohost of Movin the Chains on SiriusXM NFL Radio, and editorial consultant to The NFL Today on CBS

7. Tom Brady vs. Otto Graham

The Detroit Lions of the mid-1940s were a sorrowfully bad football team. Almost preposterously bad, in fact. They were the kind of bad that makes the Lions of the early 2000s look like a gift from the football gods. Between 1946 and 1949, the Lions won 10 games and lost 37. Their defense gave up an average of nearly 28 points per game. Their offense and defense alike annually ranked worst in the league or very near it. Awful.

Its worth keeping that fact in mind. Because if Otto Graham had elected to play in the NFL after he wrapped up his two-year wartime stint in the coast guard, hed have wound up with the Lions. Detroit selected Graham, who had been a star of both the football and basketball teams at Northwestern University, with the fourth overall pick in the 1944 draft. And while its conceivable that Graham would have made the Lions better, it was no less true then than it is now that an awful football team is rarely just a player away from being great.

But when Graham returned, he didnt opt for the NFL in 1946. He was persuaded by Paul Brown to sign with the Cleveland Browns of the upstart All-America Football Conferenceat a cost to the new team of $7,500 a year for two years, plus a $1,000 bonus.

The decision worked out OK. Graham spent his entire career, 10 seasons in all, as the Browns quarterback. And he played in a championship game in every one of his AAFC seasons. Every single one. Thats four AAFC championships. And the Browns won them all. And when the new league collapsed and the Browns (along with the San Francisco 49ers and the original Baltimore Colts) were absorbed by the NFL, the Browns simply picked up where they left off. Though the perception had been that AAFC teams didnt have the talent to compete with the established squads of the older league, the Browns won it all in 1950, their first season in the NFL. And then they went on to play in the next five NFL Championship Games, winning two more.

In 1950 the Browns went 102 in the regular season. And although Graham, who had been the best passer in the AAFC, did not lead the NFL in any statistical categories, he proved the decisive factor in the Browns 3028 victory over the Los Angeles Rams in the championship game. Graham completed 22 of 33 passes for 298 yards and four touchdowns, throwing just a single interception (for a passer rating of 122.2). And in the final two minutes of regulation, he moved the Browns from their own 32-yard line into position for a game-winning field goal.

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Though the Browns lost in each of their next three trips to the NFL Championship Game, Grahams passing numbers improved. He led the league in passing yards, touchdowns, completions, and attempts in 1952. And in 1953 he not only led in yards, but began a three-year run in which he led in completion percentage.