Playoffs? PLAYOFFS? Yes, NFL Playoffs

[jimmy olsen]

I don't have anything against him, except for hyperbole from fools like Valmy and Grey Fox.

How is it hyperbole to label Peyton Manning potentially one of the greatest of all time?

Valmy I understand you being from Texas, that i need to use small words, but if you quote rest of my post you answer your own question.

Yeah calling a 4 time NFL MVP, 5 time first team all pro, 10 time pro bowl selection, Super Bowl MVP with a 95+ career QB rating with a whole shit load of NFL records as possible among the greatest of all time is hyerbole.  Oh wait...not it isn't it is simply common sense.

Since my very point was that he needs to win a few Super Bowls to solidify that position, accusing me of hyperbole since he has not won enough Super Bowls is agreeing with me not saying something 'despite my hyperbole'.

He's an overrated hack. A HACK!

[Sophie Scholl]

See Kat?  Concede the point.  Tim is agreeing with you now.

[katmai]

Uh his claim isn't the same as mine.

Dumbass.

[CountDeMoney]

You just can't hate a quarterback that makes commercials like this.  Even if he's got horseshoes on his helmet.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SjO_0VDpJvc&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y3UKI0ciMRY&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YGmX6m78zDM&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vSCALpmxnLE&feature=related

And of course, the greatest United Way commercial of all time: http://www.rawmeat.com/link.php?id=11341

[Grey Fox]

I don't have anything against him, except for hyperbole from fools like Valmy and Grey Fox.

How is it hyperbole to label Peyton Manning potentially one of the greatest of all time?

Valmy I understand you being from Texas, that i need to use small words, but if you quote rest of my post you answer your own question.

Yeah calling a 4 time NFL MVP, 5 time first team all pro, 10 time pro bowl selection, Super Bowl MVP with a 95+ career QB rating with a whole shit load of NFL records as possible among the greatest of all time is hyerbole.  Oh wait...not it isn't it is simply common sense.

Since my very point was that he needs to win a few Super Bowls to solidify that position, accusing me of hyperbole since he has not won enough Super Bowls is agreeing with me not saying something 'despite my hyperbole'.

He's an overrated hack. A HACK!

His name isn't Tom Brady.

[CountDeMoney]

Sunday's sudden-death battle between the New Orleans Saints and Minnesota Vikings averaged an audience of 57.9 million viewers -- making it the most watched NFC championship game ever on Fox.

It was the second largest audience for any championship game on TV behind only the 1982 Dallas Cowboys and San Francisco 49ers battle.

The audience peaked at a near-Super-Bowl level of 65.2 million viewers from 9:30 to 10 p.m.

Overall, the 2010 playoffs were also the most watched ever on Fox.

Outside of Super Bowls, Sunday's game was TV's most-watched program since the finale of "Seinfeld" in 1998.

[Neil]

And most of those watchers went home happy when Brett Favre lost.

[Sophie Scholl]

Uh his claim isn't the same as mine.

Dumbass.

It is in his own magical Tainted way.

[Alcibiades]

And of course, the greatest United Way commercial of all time: http://www.rawmeat.com/link.php?id=11341

Awesome, I've been looking for that one for a while.

[katmai]

I'm sure timmay will love this article, but I'm posting it for Valmy the Manning lover

Premature to close the door on Brady
Michael Silver

By Michael Silver, Yahoo! Sports 9 hours, 15 minutes ago


MIAMI – The question we're supposed to be answering, according to a growing chorus of people in my business, is whether the Indianapolis Colts' Peyton Manning(notes), pending Sunday's Super Bowl XLIV performance against the New Orleans Saints, is the greatest quarterback in football history.

And here I was all this time, believing that there's still a legitimate debate as to who is the best quarterback of this era.

So I tracked down the man who, in my not-so-humble opinion, is the greatest of all time and asked him if he agreed that New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady(notes) was being prematurely run over and kicked to the side of the road by the Short Attention Span Overstatement Society.

"Yeah, I think it's too early," former San Francisco 49ers and Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Joe Montana said Thursday. "This is [Manning's] second Super Bowl, and now they're saying if he wins he's the greatest. Tom's sitting there with three [rings] and he's been in four. I think it's hard to pick one person."

I'm with Montana. No matter how awesome Manning is on Sunday, I won't even be ready to declare that he's unequivocally the best of his time. I still think it's a two-man discussion, and it won't be settled until Manning and Brady are retired and getting asked about the great quarterbacks of the next era and beyond.

I understand the hyperbole when it comes to assessing Manning's greatness. At 33, he is a master at the top of his game. He just won his second consecutive and record fourth overall league MVP award. He already ranks insanely high on the career lists in most significant passing categories, and given his Favresque durability, it's likely he will own most of the important records by the time he retires.

He's also uniquely involved in his team's offensive scheme, a shrewd and ultra-prepared maestro with unparalleled responsibility to adjust routes and strategies at the line of scrimmage. As future Hall of Fame halfback Marshall Faulk(notes), who played with Manning in Indy in 1998, said earlier this week, "You'll always throw the Patriots' greatness as a team in when you're talking about Brady. With Peyton, you'll say he was the team."

That, as with other testimonials to Manning's greatness, is very hard to dispute. The guy is amazing, and he is likely to keep getting better, which is scary.

Brady, however, is only 32. He plays for a great coach and the best-run organization in pro sports. Three years from now, if Brady is in possession of another Super Bowl ring – or rings – this could be a very different conversation.

Don't believe me? Consider how much has changed during the past three years.

Until Manning and the Colts defeated the Chicago Bears in Super Bowl XLI, he was Dan Marino – a prolific passer who, for all his incredible consistency and statistical feats, hadn't been coronated as a champion. Worse, Manning's teams had a reputation for consistently falling short in big games, often as a favored team. He'd played his share of postseason stinkers, and the can't-win-the-big-one stigma which began during his stellar collegiate career at Tennessee grew larger and larger.

Then, with one Super Bowl victory, Manning erased all that. Brady remained the quintessential winner, but now Manning had his ring along with the gaudy numbers, a tough combination to beat.

The Patriots responded by getting Randy Moss(notes) and Wes Welker(notes) and unleashing Brady in a way we'd never seen before. Suddenly, Brady was Manningesque. Not only did he lead the Pats to the first 16-0 regular season in league history, but he also put up perhaps the most impressive statistical season of all time en route to his first MVP trophy.

Brady threw 50 touchdown passes, breaking Manning's single-season record from three years earlier. He completed 398 of 578 passes for 4,806 yards (the third-highest total of all time) and threw only eight interceptions, for a passer rating of 117.2 (second-best in NFL history).

Oh, and he rallied the Patriots to a fourth-quarter lead over the Giants in Super Bowl XLII and was 35 seconds away from a fourth championship before David Tyree(notes), Plaxico Burress(notes) and company snatched it away.

Now, two years later, Brady is an afterthought while Manning is being touted as the greatest of all time? That seems a little extreme for my tastes.

Code Select Expand


Manning vs. Brady
Player Career stats Accolades
Peyton Manning 50,128 yds, 366 TDs 4 MVPs, 1 Super Bowl
Tom Brady 30,844 yds, 225 TDs 1 MVP, 3 Super Bowls

Montana, with his four rings, three Super Bowl MVP performances, 11-0 touchdowns to interception differential in those games and penchant for classic comebacks and magical moments, remains the gold standard in my opinion. Yet as gratifying as it may be to receive that type of reverence, the man gets uncomfortable when he hears such talk.

"It's great for people to think of you that way, but it's almost unfair to compare between eras," Montana said. "Look at today's era – it's so much easier to throw the ball.

"Look at the way they're protecting quarterbacks compared to guys like Bart Starr or all the way back to Sammy Baugh. And look at the rules for receivers. Hell, that wasn't bump-and-run coverage back then; that was grab-and-hold. They'd kick and fight you to keep you from getting the ball. You'd get arrested for that today."

It's human nature to try to compare between eras, to declare greatness in historical terms. Football fans of this generation are blessed to have two passers, Manning and Brady, who are worthy of inclusion into the conversation about the best of all time.

To me, that conversation starts with Montana and includes Johnny Unitas, Otto Graham and John Elway. However, I'm just one guy, and I never had the privilege of watching Unitas in his prime or Graham at all or any of the other great quarterbacks who thrived before I was born.

As for the debate about who's the best of this era, I prefer to think of Brady and Manning as Magic Johnson and Larry Bird: Two outstanding originals who pushed one another to exceptional achievements, and who finished their NBA careers in The Conversation.

You know what that means, right? Somewhere out there, the NFL's answer to Michael Jordan is getting ready to obliterate all who came before and hijack the argument.

[Neil]

There is no conversation.  Manning is better than Brady, no doubt.

[Strix]

There is no conversation.  Manning is better than Brady, no doubt.

It goes without saying. You take Manning off the Colts and they would be lucky to go 8-8. You take Brady off the Patriots and Cassels leads them to an 11-5 record.