{"id":12076,"date":"2017-02-06T21:54:28","date_gmt":"2017-02-07T02:54:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonprofootball.com\/?p=12076"},"modified":"2017-02-06T21:54:28","modified_gmt":"2017-02-07T02:54:28","slug":"brady-second-quarterback-with-five-championships","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/2017\/02\/06\/brady-second-quarterback-with-five-championships\/","title":{"rendered":"Brady Second Quarterback With Five Championships"},"content":{"rendered":"

This will be a surprise to many, and you may want to sit down before reading this: The NFL is 96 years old.\u00a0You are all saying,\u00a0“Wait a second, aren’t there only 51 Super Bowls?”\u00a0 That is correct.\u00a0There were 45 years where the NFL existed, played football games, and named champions.\u00a0So, when the articles start to flood the internet about Tom Brady<\/a> being the first quarterback to win five Super Bowls, the information is technically correct, but highly misleading.<\/p>\n

Why The Difference?<\/h4>\n

Well, the Super Bowl Era is a serious thing.\u00a0It 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.\u00a0 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.\u00a0The merger was different because it brought two functioning leagues together with players and full teams.\u00a0Still, it would be a mistake to ignore the earlier seasons of a more competitive NFL.<\/p>\n

Imagine if the name World Series only applied to those played after 1960.\u00a0Fair idea since the expansion leading into the 1961 season and the increased games changed much of the game.\u00a0Okay, then say we all just referred to those prior World Series games as Major League Baseball Championships.\u00a0Difference would be purely academic.\u00a0 Imagine then, that we kept talking about how the Yankees only had nine World Series wins.\u00a0Or that the Cardinals had five World Series. It would be crazy. That is exactly what we do with the NFL.<\/p>\n

What\u00a0Gets Missed?<\/h4>\n

Well,\u00a0broadcasters 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.\u00a0The 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\u00a0in the\u00a0Super 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).<\/p>\n

On\u00a0discussion board posts\u00a0about the greatest teams, the greatness of teams like Detroit and Cleveland often gets ignored.\u00a0Fair to point out Cleveland has more championships than New England.<\/p>\n

Back to Brady and NFL History<\/h4>\n

Brady is a truly special talent. The narrative coming in was that Brady was one of only three quarterbacks to win four Super Bowls.\u00a0That is factually accurate, but misleading.\u00a0Arnie Herber<\/a> won four NFL Championships.\u00a0Herber led the Team of the Decade with the 1930s Green Bay Packers.\u00a0In the very next decade, Sid Luckman<\/a> led the Bears to four NFL championships.<\/p>\n

Then the new claim that Tom Brady is the first quarterback to win five Super Bowls. Again, factually correct, but misleading. Bart Starr<\/a> was the quarterback for the 1960s Green Bay Packers during the greatest run of any team in NFL history.\u00a0Over a period of eight season, Starr’s Packers played in six championship games and won five of them.\u00a0Five championships in a seven year span is something never matched in NFL history.\u00a0Starr 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).<\/p>\n

In speaking of\u00a0Tom Brady,\u00a0pundits 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\u00a0announcers start throwing around the GOAT (Greatest of All Time ) title, maybe\u00a0they could actually compare him to All Time.<\/p>\n

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Embed from Getty Images<\/a><\/div>\n