Plaschke tries so hard to avoid lauding Brady, he rambles on strangely . . . . .

Brady's won three Super Bowls, might win a fourth, lost one playoff game his entire career, executed one of the most clutch drives in the history of the Super Bowl against the Rams, and is as good and as graceful under pressure as anyone since Montana.

I love Unitas. Unitas was my dad's guy, through and through. You want to say he hasn't accomplished as much as Unitas for his era, ok, I'll hear your argument. (But just to be fair, ask yourself what moddern defensive coordinators like Belichick would do against John's goofy throwing motion.)

But to say he's Alex Rodriguez is ridiculous. A-rod is Peyton Manning before last year's Super Bowl win, Simon.

John Unitas Jr. is also an extremely bitter person; talk to him awhile and you'll get an understanding of just how bitter.

 

As Starman noted so eloquently, the basic point of this column is banal. Comparisons of individuals of different eras is useless. For God's sake, don't you think that the All-Pros of yesteryear wouldn't be bigger today if they'd been born later? Don't think they'd work out and take HGH? Bobby Jones comes back from the dead to play Tiger Woods and insists on using hickory-shafted clubs?
Put Brady on the old Colts, he'd be a winner. Suit up Johnny U for today's Pats, they're still 12.5 point favorites for the Super Bowl.

 

Speaking of Brady, anyone else think this is a bit lightweight for a Sunday A1 CP in San Jose:

http://www.mercurynews.com/ci_8092220

 

Brady's lost two playoff games, DD. No that that takes anything away from the points you made. Just clarifying.

 

You're right. Forgot about that Broncos game.

 

Re: Plaschke tries so hard to avoid lauding Brady, he rambles on strangely . . .

Johnny Unitas' career playoff record: 7-6.

 

Transcendent NFL games Unitas and Brady have played in:

Unitas: 1

Brady (who I greatly admire): 0

 

Super Bowls XXXVVI and XXXVIII were chicken liver??

 

The 1958 NFL Championship game put football in the national consciousness; it made the sport viable.

Everyone watches the Super Bowl. But there isn't a Super Bowl without The Greatest Game Ever Played.

 

Re: Plaschke tries so hard to avoid lauding Brady, he rambles on strangely . . .

Brady ain't even close to Montana, I know that.

 

I think Montana is the greatest quarterback of all-time. But when Brady's career is over, he'll be among the pantheon of great QBs.

 

It's sort of unfair to say Brady's not Unitas because Unitas played in a game that made the NFL what it is and Brady didn't. You have to judge Brady in the context of the fact that the NFL already exists and he managed to win three Super Bowls in an era of ultimate parity without a single receiver who was of Pro Bowl quality until this year and with some average running backs. Maybe Brady would have been hitting Raymond Berry right an left had he been 22 years old in 1958. And maybe he would have invented the forward pass had he been born 50 years earlier. It's impossible to say. You can use the '58 game to argue that Unitas is more important than Brady. I don't think anyone would argue that. Unitas is the Baby Ruth of the NFL. But you can't use historical events to saying Unitas is better as an individual player.