When the New England Patriots defeated Jacksonville on Saturday, they came one step closer to being inevitably crowned "The Greatest Team of All Time" by all the pundits in the sports world. The logic is simple: if they finish with the best record ever, and they break all the records, then they must be better than anybody who has ever played. As a fan of the record-setting '95-96 Chicago Bulls, it pains me to say this, but that logic is incredibly simplistic and short-sided. It still shocks me that people don't grasp the concept of relative dominance among sports teams. The Patriots, with their amazing point differential and record breaking offense, are the most dominant team ever relative to the league that they played in. If the Pats played in the '70s against Noll's Steelers, Shula's Dolphins, or Madden's Raiders, there's no guarantee that they would even come out of the AFC, much less go undefeated. Clearly, we're watching a dominant team, but should they be considered greater than the '85 Bears just because they have one less loss on their record?
The larger issue is that with today's 24-7 news cycle, it's not enough to just say that we're watching a great football team. We have to hear hours of debate about where this team ranks in history, whether Tom Brady is the greatest QB of all time, and whether Bill Belichick is, in fact, the devil. The Brady debate is the perfect illustration of the reactionary nature of today's media. Before the season, you would have a hard time finding any expert calling Brady a better
quarterback than Peyton Manning. Peyton had finally filled the one glaring hole in his resume by winning the Super Bowl last year, making everyone forget his history of big-game failures. Brady, who already had three Super Bowl victories to his name prior to Manning's breakthrough, was highly regarded but largely ignored. This was despite the fact that he had the likes of Reche Caldwell and Jabar Gaffney as his primary receivers, and was simply the result of him not winning the most recent Super Bowl. After his receiving corps was drastically improved in the offseason, Brady had a record setting year, and suddenly he's not only regarded higher than Manning, but also every other quarterback who has ever played the game. At this rate, we're one more New York Giants victory away from Eli being the greatest Manning of all time. So while I have the utmost respect for Brady, there's no way we can call him the best ever just after his 30th birthday. There's nothing wrong with waiting until his career is over before figuring out his (and Peyton's) place in history.
Technorati Tags: sports NFL New+England+Patriots Tom+Brady Peyton+Manning
No comments:
Post a Comment