BY JACOB GUNNER
Out of 1,969 players in the National Football League, only 106 of them will have the opportunity to compete for the Lombardi trophy awarded to the winner of the Super Bowl.
For New England Patriots quarterback, Tom Brady, this will not be his first time competing on the big stage.
When the Patriots face off against the Atlanta Falcons on February 5th at 6:30 PM, Brady will be starting in his record-setting 7th Super Bowl- a stat unparalleled by any other player.
Brady has won four of the six Super Bowls he’s played in so far, tying him with likes of Terry Bradshaw (Pittsburgh) and Joe Montana (San Francisco) for the most wins by a starting quarterback. Out of his four wins, he has been named Super Bowl Most Valuable Player (MVP) three times, a record that he shares with Joe Montana.
But are his illustrious post-season achievements enough to consider him to be the Greatest of All Time (GOAT)? “Absolutely,” says Senior, Hayden Seeger. “His stats are unparalleled. Everything he does is the best.”
“Who else could be the GOAT? He’s taken his team to seven Super Bowls,” adds Senior Riley Gullino.
While his caliber of play is not disputed, Brady’s ethics have been the subject of criticism throughout his career.
The Patriots were left without their star QB for the start of the 2016 season as Brady served a four-game suspension after he was accused of deflating footballs in order to make it easier for his receivers to catch the ball in cold and snowy conditions in the 2015 AFC championship game against the Indianapolis Colts
Whether or not this tarnished his career is up for debate.
“He’s probably the best QB in the game right now, but I wouldn’t say that he’s the GOAT because he’s a cheater,” says Junior, Luis Hernandes. “He’s one of those people who are annoyingly successful at everything,” he adds.
“It really doesn’t affect his career. It was never really proven that he deflated the footballs,” says Seeger.