Yes but Brady went to a stacked TB team. If he had gone to a team devoid of talent and won then his case would be much stronger. The “he won a ring without Bill” argument works because of the team he went to. He was awful in that playoffs and consistently got bailed out by his defense. Then he was able to face a KC team (in Tampa of course) who were starting backups across the Oline. Not trashing Brady, but a lot of his mystique is a product of those around him and not just him.
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Bill Russell won 11 championships vs 6 for MJ but no one (other than fringe Boston sports lunatics) considers Russell to be the GOAT over MJ.
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It was a team failure but Shanahan soiled his diapers.

He refused to run the football and kill the clock when they had a big lead. Very similar to how he blew LIV to us.
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It's kind of weird for a guy that is known to have a strong running game in his philosophy & system. Chokejob is probably the best way to describe it.
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My stepdad always insisted Johnny Unitas was the best ever. Now he hardly gets included in anyone's best-of lists because only the lol olds ever saw him play.

Someday there will be a new hotness, and kids will roll your their eyes and say let's get you to bed grandpa when you try to talk about MJ.
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The older players tend to fall off theses lists I think because at some point people question how they would even fair in todays leagues , watching 80s sports you wonder if some of them would even make the pros these days , size /speed/commitment etc.. getting to the pros is much harder.

When the NFL is full of cyborgs it’s going to be pretty hard even for Brady to stay in the GOAT conversation, Pat should be fine because of his alien DNA.
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Unitas is a good example. About the only one who seemed to avoid this fate as the decades went along is Babe Ruth. He really was bigger than the sport. Michael Jordan is probably the closest we have seen to Babe Ruth status in team sports lately. The popularity of Jordan’s shoe brand will probably keep his name from being forgotten so easily over time like with Unitas and others.
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Yeah but Belichick is a sub .500 coach over TEN seasons without Brady. TEN.
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Every SB team is stacked. No one can do it by themselves.

Brady helped make it stacked due to his leadership and ability to recruit players. That shouldn't be held against him.
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Brady was a manager with a great defense for years. Even Teddy Bruschi said so. Also the mass Bill cheating got him 3. He got a lot better but he is not the best at anything. Montana was better in SBs. Manning was better in regular seasons. He has longevity andbis an all time great but anyone with eye can see Mahomes is by far the better player. Brady cant touch Mahomes in many areas. Down double digit wins nobody is better for one.
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Some of the blame definitely does fall on the offense.

Shanahan refused to call a run heavy gameplan and Matt Ryan was snapping the ball the entire second half with 10-15 seconds left on the play clock.

Funny thing is, despite all of that, they still most likely win if Ryan doesn’t take that horrid 3rd down sack late in the game. He throws that ball away or Shanny calls a run, they probably convert the field goal and I don’t think NE had enough time to recover from being down 11 with that little time remaining.

The Falcons could have easily won that game and totally changed the narrative. Matt Ryan instantly becomes an easy Hall of Famer and Julio Jones’ insane catch gets immortalized instead of forgotten completely. Instead they completely duffed it and now they’re forever known for having the greatest Super Bowl collapse in league history, while that win pretty much sealed Brady’s legacy as the GOAT in most people’s minds.

It really is absurd how close Brady was to losing this Super Bowl and the 2014 Seahawks Bowl, though I don’t use that argument much because he was also basically one 50/50 play away from winning 2007 & 2011 against the Giants and 2017 against the Eagles.
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Yup
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I also seem to remember Jacksonville getting REALLY fucked by the refs when they played the Patriots in the 2017? AFC championship game too, but nobody ever brings that one up. I need to go back and watch that again.
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Jags ran a fumble back that would have put the game away that was inexplicably blown dead. Play could not be challenged because of the phantom whistle. One of the worst screw jobs in NFL history. Jags would have led 27 to 10 in 4th but instead went 3 and out and NE scored back to back TDs to win.
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Agreed. The pre Patriots years are what they are. The post Brady years are a product of Belechick the GM being awful. Ultimately they needed each other.
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