Tom Brady and Peyton Manning, or Peyton Manning and Tom Brady – putting one ahead of the other, even in a literal sense, is an exercise in futility – are the perfect rivals.
They’re both striving to be the best quarterback that’s ever played, and in the end, they both might be.
Their teams meet for the 16th time today, but it could be for the 50th time and no one would complain of having enough. The rivalry is that spectacular – not just the best in the NFL, but one of the very best across all sports.
And that rivalry, for as great as it is on the field, is nothing without all the factors that exist outside of the final scores, statistics and Super Bowl rings.
On one side, there’s Manning – the son of a former NFL quarterback, middle sibling of three brothers, a college football star, first overall draft pick and immediate starter for the Indianapolis Colts. He was practically destined for greatness since birth and his success isn’t all that surprising.
As a quarterback, he might as well be a cyborg. Humans shouldn’t be capable of doing the things he does, like dissecting opposing defences at the line of scrimmage and audibling to maybe the one play out of 10 that will be the perfect counter.
Now at the Denver Broncos, he studies film religiously and knows the most detailed tendencies of not only his own receivers, but of the defensive backs lined up against them.
Then there’s Brady, a part-time starter in college, a sixth round draft pick and initially fourth-stringer for the New England Patriots. He’s had to prove people wrong time and time again, doing that to the umpteenth level.
If you had to boil down Brady to one word, it would undoubtedly be ‘winner’. He won the Super Bowl in his first season as a starter and then claimed two more in the next three years. He holds the highest winning percentage all-time for a quarterback. He’s married to a sup-ermodel. You get it, he wins. A lot.
But guess what? Manning is also a winner. And Brady’s intelligence and football IQ are unquestionable. They’re not that different in the qualities they possess. How they make the game look, however, is what exaggerates their legend.
Manning is a human calculator, like Matt Damon in Good Will Hunting. He drops back in the pocket with both hands on the ball, feet constantly in motion to best position himself, looking like the most hyper-aware player to ever strap on a helmet.
When he’s driving down the field, it’s open heart surgery. If you squint hard enough while it’s happening, you can see the Matrix digital code trickling.
Brady, meanwhile, is the coolest kid you knew in high school. When he drops back, he looks like he’s taking a stroll through the park. Nothing is rushed, as if his body language is saying ‘relax, I’m completing this pass’, and he does. When he’s carving up defences, it’s like a composer writing a symph-ony. It’s art in its purest form.
Style aside, the debate of which quarterback is better seems neccessary, but impossible to quantify.
Manning has the stats, but he’s done it with better weapons. Brady has the Super Bowls, but he’s played on better overall teams.
Today’s game won’t tilt the balance one way or the other, but hopefully there’s plenty more chapters left to be written.
Tom Brady and Peyton Manning, or Peyton Manning and Tom Brady. It’s impossible to choose.
