Clint Lamb
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The Tampa Bay Buccaneers are Super Bowl champions after beating the Kansas City Chiefs 31-9 on Sunday night. It’s the franchise’s first since 2003, but this is No. 7 for 43-year-old quarterback Tom Brady.
At this point, the topic up for debate has changed.
We can all agree that Brady is the greatest quarterback of all time. That has been accepted for some time. For a short period, the discussion began to shift towards him being the greatest NFL player of all time. But that label still might not be far enough.
As OutKick owner Clay Travis pointed out on Twitter following the game, it’s time to open up the discussion for Brady being the best professional athlete of all time, regardless of sport.
With his seventh Super Bowl win, Tom Brady is officially the greatest pro sports athlete of all time. I don’t think there’s an argument for anyone else any longer.
— Clay Travis (@ClayTravis) February 8, 2021
Brady has been in double-digit (10) Super Bowls, and he’s now won 70 percent of them. The passing records, the All-Pro honors, the MVP awards … all of that factors in. But those seven rings are the main driving force in any debate.
The man has more Super Bowl wins than all 32 franchises in the NFL. One guy. That is bonkers, folks.
Many believed the young gun Patrick Mahomes, the reigning Super Bowl LIV MVP, would outduel the old man. Those people were clearly wrong, and the statistics from Super Bowl LV certainly back it up. Brady was named MVP of the game, while Mahomes didn’t score a touchdown.
- Brady: 21/29 (72.4%), 201 yards, 3 TD, 0 INT
- Mahomes: 26/49 (53.1%), 303 total yards, 0 TD, 2 INT
Yes, players such as Leonard Fournette, Rob Gronkowski and Antonio Brown made a huge difference for the Buccaneers, but Brady was the X-factor in all of it. He is the one who attracted those guys to Tampa Bay in the first place.
Brady took a team under .500 in 2019 to a Super Bowl victory in 2020. Simply incredible.
We also won’t forget to mention the outstanding job done by the defense. Whether it was Devin White, Shaq Barrett, Antoine Winfield Jr. or several others, this was a unit that had Kansas City’s number. Outstanding performance.
Follow Clint Lamb on Twitter @ClintRLamb.
Not one mention of Michael Jordan? I’m a massive Tom Brady fan but it’s hard to beat perfection.
Jordan got spanked by the Bad Boys numerous times.
Not exactly perfect…
In the NBA Finals or nah? Last we checked, he’s 6-0, so yes, EXACTLY PERFECT.
By the way, Jordan SWEPT those Bad Boys on the way to his first title and ended their run (and they ran off like sore losers before the clock hit 0.0 and didn’t want to shake hands like MJ did when they sent him home in the postseason).
No dude. They beat his brains out for years prior… he was so scared of them.
Good times
We need to define the criteria a lot more clearly. If it’s just titles obviously. If it’s greatest “athlete” no way. I might call him the most successful pro athlete of all time.
Brady is the god of football and of sports. Jordan is #2 behind Brady
Where was Mahomes idiot brother tonight?
maybe he was smart enough to shut the f*** up
Chiefs fan here who loves Mahomes.
But all hail the GOAT.
Seven rings don’t lie, he’s in Bill Russell territory.
He’s the greatest team sport athlete in my opinion, it’s not a debate I’d say.
Jim Thorpe is still number one!!! 😎
Tonight was my first true “I’m getting old” moment: I did not understand that halftime show.
Gen Z, please explain to this old Millennial what I just watched.
Some sort of love for a totalitarian time with masked dancers. A lot of back and red colors that are liked by totalitarian regimes
Check out a website called ‘Vigilant Citizen’ in a couple of days…they break down what really goes on in a halftime show every year.
My Wife loves garbage hip hop and even she thought it was terrible. She asked me if they were wearing underwear on their heads. Time to retire the half time show or bring in really good college marching band.
Bring in the the “Best Damn Band in the Land!” tOSU
Better than Bill Russell? Won 2 NCAA titles (San Francisco) back-to-back, then 11 titles with the Boston Celtics. That is phenomenal. Brady is the GOAT in the NFL and one of sports best winners but the greatest pro-athlete?
As much as I loathe the current NBA (most of the athletes and management) and do not follow at all now, I agree Russell is the best team sport athlete ever. He could do (and did) whatever it took to win. Mostly, it was rebounding and defense but when needed to, he would score and/or pass as the situation required. There was also an Olympic gold medal in there but in those days, they didn’t need Russell. It was always a USA blowout.
Yeah he passed Jordan with this one.
Give the man his due. He’s #1.
Brady is great, but the best thing he did was select a team loaded with potential and help recruit even more elite talent to that team. Is Brady SB champion right now with New England’s 2020 roster? Of course not.
Football is the ultimate team game, and the Chiefs were simply too hamstrung without their starting tackles. Happy for Tom, but let’s not get crazy here. If you switched the QB’s last night, Tampa still wins the game. In fact it would have been even more lopsided because that Chiefs turnstile O-Line would have gotten Brady beat up far worse than Mahomes who could at least run for his life out there.
43 years old, first year in a different division, 7 rings. I’ve got to give him major props.
Appreciate all the info on these comments regarding the game and the halftime as as with every NFL game this year I chose to sit it out and spent this one reading Clay’s “Republicans Buy Sneakers Too” book. It’s a fantastic read!