This will be a surprise to many, and you may want to sit down before reading this: The NFL is 96 years old. You are all saying, “Wait a second, aren’t there only 51 Super Bowls?” That is correct. There were 45 years where the NFL existed, played football games, and named champions. So, when the articles start to flood the internet about Tom Brady being the first quarterback to win five Super Bowls, the information is technically correct, but highly misleading.
Why The Difference?
Well, the Super Bowl Era is a serious thing. It refers to a period where the NFL and the much younger AFL merged to create a much larger league. As anyone who follows sports can tell you, expansion does not always improve the product. Generally speaking, when you add new teams you dilute the product by adding a lot of players who were not good enough to play in your league just a year earlier. The merger was different because it brought two functioning leagues together with players and full teams. Still, it would be a mistake to ignore the earlier seasons of a more competitive NFL.
Imagine if the name World Series only applied to those played after 1960. Fair idea since the expansion leading into the 1961 season and the increased games changed much of the game. Okay, then say we all just referred to those prior World Series games as Major League Baseball Championships. Difference would be purely academic. Imagine then, that we kept talking about how the Yankees only had nine World Series wins. Or that the Cardinals had five World Series. It would be crazy. That is exactly what we do with the NFL.
What Gets Missed?
Well, broadcasters get to down play a lot of teams. No one talks about the Detroit Lions and Cleveland Browns each won three championship through the 1950s. The Chicago Bears won four championships in the 1940s. Yet the narrative remains that the Bears have just that one Super Bowl and the Lions and Browns have never even played in the Super Bowl. Here are the four teams with the most championships in NFL history: Green Bay Packers (13), Chicago Bears (9), New York Giants (8) and Cleveland Browns (8).
On discussion board posts about the greatest teams, the greatness of teams like Detroit and Cleveland often gets ignored. Fair to point out Cleveland has more championships than New England.
Back to Brady and NFL History
Brady is a truly special talent. The narrative coming in was that Brady was one of only three quarterbacks to win four Super Bowls. That is factually accurate, but misleading. Arnie Herber won four NFL Championships. Herber led the Team of the Decade with the 1930s Green Bay Packers. In the very next decade, Sid Luckman led the Bears to four NFL championships.
Then the new claim that Tom Brady is the first quarterback to win five Super Bowls. Again, factually correct, but misleading. Bart Starr was the quarterback for the 1960s Green Bay Packers during the greatest run of any team in NFL history. Over a period of eight season, Starr’s Packers played in six championship games and won five of them. Five championships in a seven year span is something never matched in NFL history. Starr led the team to three straight NFL Championships. That is a feat only once matched in NFL history… and matched by the Green Bay Packers (1929-1931).
In speaking of Tom Brady, pundits should do so by placing him in the light of the history of the entire NFL. He is not diminished by being the second quarterback to play on five NFL championship teams. Also, before announcers start throwing around the GOAT (Greatest of All Time ) title, maybe they could actually compare him to All Time.
