It will be interesting in a decade when Brady retires to bang his wife full time and decides to spill the beans on all of the spygate shit. Maybe it wasn't that bad, but they did burn the fucking tapes which suggests it was definitely worse than they were letting on, much like the Rice situation. If I had to guess, coach Bellicheat was likely more behind the shenanigans than Brady, though.
Regardless, I think Brady and Manning are about equal in ability and accomplishments and you could easily call either guy the second best of all time without getting laughed out of the room (Montana being the best all time). While Brady has more rings (asterisk and all), Manning has had more consistent long term success and with two teams. QBs almost never repeat early success when they move to another team, let alone going deep in the playoffs. Favre was close until bountygate did him in. Warner got robbed by the refs in his second team run to the Superbowl. Manning got the Broncos there in two years but they were mostly asleep at the wheel once they got there. The thing the Vikes, Cards, and Broncos all had in common was that they were struggling teams that instantly became successful when these guys jumped on board. We probably won't get that comparison with Brady, because he will likely retire once Bellicheck cuts him.
For the record, lifelong Packer fan and my all time list goes like this: Montana, Manning, Brady, Marino, Favre, Aikman, Moon, Young, Stauback, and Elway in that order.
Regardless, I think Brady and Manning are about equal in ability and accomplishments and you could easily call either guy the second best of all time without getting laughed out of the room (Montana being the best all time). While Brady has more rings (asterisk and all), Manning has had more consistent long term success and with two teams. QBs almost never repeat early success when they move to another team, let alone going deep in the playoffs. Favre was close until bountygate did him in. Warner got robbed by the refs in his second team run to the Superbowl. Manning got the Broncos there in two years but they were mostly asleep at the wheel once they got there. The thing the Vikes, Cards, and Broncos all had in common was that they were struggling teams that instantly became successful when these guys jumped on board. We probably won't get that comparison with Brady, because he will likely retire once Bellicheck cuts him.
For the record, lifelong Packer fan and my all time list goes like this: Montana, Manning, Brady, Marino, Favre, Aikman, Moon, Young, Stauback, and Elway in that order.