Tom Brady's biggest opponent during his NFL career was all-time greatness, and he once again came out on top
CBSN
Brady's career accomplishments were even more legendary considering the circumstances
The argument that many of the best quarterbacks to ever play the game could make about their relatively modest returns in the postseason is that they shared the misfortune of competing against Tom Brady. But that misses the point.
One of the many things that stands out to me, now that Brady has called it a career, is that he was able to accomplish what he did, when he did it. Yes, it came during an era of offensive explosion in the passing game, but Brady was hardly the only quarterback to benefit from it. Of all the staggering things to reflect upon, with THE GOAT stepping away at age 44, what resonates most loudly for me is that he managed to almost double his hero, Joe Montana, in the Lombardi Trophy department, during the salary cap era, amid rampant parity, and did so despite having to go up against a golden generation of quarterback contemporaries.
For him to be that much better than anyone else who ever played the game is stupendous enough. For him to have outdistanced them all while having to face Peyton Manning and Aaron Rodgers and Drew Brees and Ben Roethlisberger and Kurt Warner, Brett Favre and Eli Manning and Philip Rivers -- in their prime -- throughout his remarkable two-decade career strikes me as even more awe inspiring. He faced what might be the toughest field of other QBs of any era, at a time when the onus on the passing game to score big was imperative, and he was infinitely more successful winning when it counted the most than anyone who ever came before him, or ever will come after him.
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