Tuesday, February 9, 2021

🏈🏈 Joe Montana Still Seems a Lot More Likable Than Tom Brady 🏈🏈

 11. Joe Montana

Photo courtesy of Korye Logan's Flickr page - 11. Joe Montana: https://www.flickr.com/photos/mrloggy/5176199483/in/photolist-8TpnLF-eJGt9r-eR75Jo-deZHNV-hguimd-gZKwmg-4Qr9i-gZJucv-9o5Vn-gZJybm-ic11Xz-cDc8Nd-bu26ht-7LjirG-bu2PTp-bu1mZv-bu1GEH-bRPwHP-bu1ePi-bu1ny6-byLdpY-bCUMYA-bu1mhX-cDc8Lb-gZKuGe-gZKxXH-gZKtbZ-4oqrRy-bu1My4-98UsvD-ejgLbF-gZJuYS-ejnoVY-gZJvzS-ejgP34-gZJAbU-dCxf37-bu1eoH-bu1Nv6-bRPuFM-bu1T8k-bu1SEt-bu1LYn-bu1SoB-bu1m8a-bu1kMx-bCUMdC-bu1FKi-bMD1sH-ijSiF
Creative Commons License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/






For a long time, there were many football fans who held out against recognizing Tom Brady as the new, truly "greatest of all time" (GOAT) quarterback in football history. They rejected these notions, perhaps understandably, after the dream perfect season of 2007 for Tom Brady personally, and New England's dream season as a team, ended with a very rude awakening, as they were defeated in the final minute of the Super Bowl, obviously the biggest game of all. They held out after Brady and Company lost a second Super Bowl against the same Giants a few years later. And even after Brady orchestrated a fourth quarter comeback from a 10-point deficit against the best defense in the league to win a fourth Super Bowl, many were still holding out. 

Those hold-outs, however, were fewer and farther between after Brady orchestrated an incredible comeback from down 28-3 and came back to win. It was and still is the greatest comeback in Super Bowl history, and one of the greatest comebacks in NFL history. Also, it set Brady apart from any other quarterback, as he earned his fifth Super Bowl championship ring in what was his seventh overall appearance, both clearly records. Many felt that the loss to Philadelphia the next season detracted from his impressive list of accomplishments, but another Super Bowl ring, his sixth with New England, became a reality the following season. With that win, the Patriots accomplished what seemed like an impossibility before it actually happened: one team winning "Team of the Decade" honors in two consecutive decades. And that the helm in both decades was Tom Brady.

Still, there are a lot of people who held out, claiming that Brady was a so-called "system quarterback," and that he could not possibly win without Bill Belichick, or New England's particular offensive system. But all of those arguments finally went out the window when Brady's experiment with his new team, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, resulted in yet another astonishing Super Bowl win at the end of this season. Now, this man has reached an astonishing ten career Super Bowls, which is exactly double of the next closest guy on the list as John Elway held the record previously with five. And in terms of Super Bowl wins, Brady's seven is three more than the next two closest competitors, Terry Bradshaw and Joe Montana, both of whom had four. An eighth Super Bowl ring is not out of the question, and that would mean that Brady alone would have matched those two quarterbacks combined, if he manages the feat. But the fact that he now has won Super Bowls with two different teams, in two different conferences, sets him apart beyond a shadow of a doubt, in terms of his on the field accomplishments. 

Consider this: Brady was the youngest quarterback at the time to have won a Super Bowl, and he remains one of the youngest ever to do it. Almost two decades later, he now has the record as the oldest player ever to win a Super Bowl at any position. He has won multiple Super Bowls in his twenties (XXVI, XXVIII, and XXXIX), his thirties (XLIX and LI) and forties (LIII and LV). He now stands as the only quarterback to have won Super Bowl rings in three different decades, and what makes this more impressive is that his impressive streak began in the beginning of one decade (the 2000's), through the entirety of another decade (the 2010's) and now into that third decade (the 2020's). Again, another Super Bowl ring is not impossible, which would make him the only quarterback to win multiple Super Bowl in each of three decades. In other words, his list of accomplishments is ridiculous, seemingly impossible. It would have been difficult to imagine such a thing as a work of fiction, yet this is the reality for Tom Brady.

Mention this possibility to some, and they groan. Why? Because a lot of people are sick and tired of Tom Brady. Some just tire of seeing the same face win over and over and over again, but it goes beyond this, as well. From almost the first, he has often been dismissed as a pretty boy, as arrogant, and as a prima donna. More recently, many have taken exception to his apparent support of Donald Trump, as a MAGA hat sent to him by Donald Trump was in his locker room back during the 2016 season, when Trump was running for the White House (and unfortunately, on his way to winning it). Trump himself made a big deal of it, as he tends to do, suggesting that this was proof that Brady was a strong supporter, which he may actually be. Truth is, I don't know how strongly or not Brady supported Trump back then, or how this presumed support would either have wavered or strengthened over the past four years. 

Now, far be it from me to make excuses for anyone who supports Donald Trump. My brother mentioned this recently in comments after my blog entry yesterday, saying this of those who support, or even tolerate, Trump and his excesses:

"Trump sickens me on a visceral level. Everything he says and does reveals his arrogance, neediness, shamelessness and self-indulgence. I'm not even exaggerating – literally everything."

No arguments from me, because I cannot argue. Having spent the past five years blasting those Americans who somehow failed to see all of these evils - yes, I am using the word evil here, and not lightly, either - that Trump embodies is inexcusable, period. And yes, Tom Brady seems to be one of those people. When asked about the MAGA hat, Brady laughed and asked what the big deal was. Given that Trump at the time was known as a transparent scam artist and narcissist and a promoter of xenophobia and division, not a unifier but a divider (and this was before he was actually elected), Brady should have been aware of all of this. Especially since many of his teammates surely sympathized with Colin Kaepernick and the Black Lives Matter movement, which was already making headlines at that time following numerous high-profile shootings of unarmed black men by some obviously corrupt and/or brutal law enforcement officers. 

My admiration, if that is what you want to consider it, for Brady are strictly for what he has managed on the field. Nobody has enjoyed anywhere near the level of success that we have seen from this man at the NFL's most pressured position. A quarterback will get the blame often for things that go wrong on the field for his team, even though football is a team sport. Some even criticize Patrick Mahomes in this last Super Bowl, even though it was that leaky offensive line that time and again allowed a relentless Tampa Bay pass rush to pressure Mahomes, to the point where he apparently ran for 497 yards total, just to avoid the defenders. So Brady is clearly doing something right.

Also, his teammates really seem to like him. He brings out the best in them, and he does so not by being arrogant and full of himself, like a prima donna. Rather, he is able to get the most from his teammates, to get them to believe that they, too, can achieve great things. Not just his offensive teammates, either, but his defensive teammates seem to believe in him, and yes, to love him. So again, he is doing something right, clearly. 

As mentioned earlier, I do not know Brady's political positions. I do not believe that he is as blindly pro-Trump as Trump himself would tend to try and convince people of. Trump always believes that people love and adore him and everything that he does more than they do in reality. Brady rarely has ever outright discussed his political leanings. I remember he was part of George W. Bush's drug task force at one point, and he also spoke once of enjoying Bill Clinton's biography. And yes, he had a friendship with Trump. And while he never made a point of separating himself from this friendship with Trump, he also admitted that it was uncomfortable being identified so closely with Trump, who has never stopped claiming that his friendship with Brady is more than it likely really is. Brady, for his part, never outright expressed approval of Trump, nor for Hillary Clinton or Joe Biden, for that matter. 

So, I do not know if Brady is a Trump supporter or not, or if he used to be, and no longer is. Frankly, I am not sure that anybody knows that, other than Tom Brady, and maybe those closest to him. 

Yet, I will say this (and it is not the first time I am saying this): Joe Montana is a whole lot easier to like than Tom Brady. 

No, I do not believe that Brady is nearly as arrogant as some of his critics claim him to be. I remember this first popping up around the time of the undefeated season in 2007, yet during the press conferences leading up to the game, he seemed downright humble, and only too aware of the possibility that his team could lose. And I sure do not believe that he is a prima donna, because he has taken some vicious hits, overcome injuries, and lasted basically two decades at the highest level of one of the most physically demanding sports, and his drive to keep winning is still clearly very much intact. Brady still drew the ire of many, as he was voted as the most hated quarterback in the league, at a time when Ben Roelisberger and Michael Vick - both monsters who both deserved prison time, and neither of who should have ever had the privilege of stepping on a professional football field to make millions, as far as I am concerned - were still playing. Say what you will about Brady, but I think that is ridiculous. To my knowledge, Brady never raped women or killed dogs for sport, or did anything remotely as monstrous as those two classless jackasses did. 

Still, there is something about him that makes him a lot harder to digest than Montana. When I hear Montana talk, he seems like a mellow, laid back guy, and not somebody who is full of himself or thinks that he is better than everyone else. He just seems down to earth, in a way that Brady, frankly, is not. Brady seems to like the attention he receives a whole lot. The fact that he is rubbing elbows with celebrities, unfortunately including Trump years before Trump ran for the White House, is one unfortunate side effect. Montana probably does on some level, as well. But Montana keeps as low a profile as he can, given how much attention he received. It was hard not to admire him, even as I could not stand the team that he played for (the 49ers), who also had some other guys who seemed admirable off the field (like Jerry Rice, Bill Walsh, and Ronnie Lott). 

Montana seemed more like a regular guy, someone who most people could relate to. He never seemed to lose his humble roots. By contrast, Brady seemed to like his celebrity status. I already mentioned his rubbing elbows with other celebrities, but he also posed for photographs, showing that he was only too aware of his own looks. And he sure loved strolling down red carpets with his superstar model girlfriend and wife. Also, he charges kids for his autograph, which seems kind of low for a guy who seems to think so highly of himself.

Once, Montana said of the controversy surrounding Brady's MAGA hat in his locker room, that he himself tried to keep his mouth shut when it came to politics. I don't know what Brady's political leanings are, but I do know that he was hardly condemning Trump at a time when, frankly, more people should have been doing exactly that. Some athletes seemed to have mixed messages, like Brett Favre, who at one point said that he admired Kapernick's bravery and conviction for BLM, yet weeks later, played a high profile round of golf with then President Trump. 

By contrast, I have no idea what Joe Montana thinks, or what his political leanings are. He keeps quiet, and is quite aware of the potential pitfalls of revealing his political leanings and loyalties, one way or the other. 

So while I have basically ended my own ongoing debate on this blog as to who is better, Brady or Montana, largely because I believe this has been answered, I still maintain that Montana is far easier to like. His on the field accomplishments occurred largely during my childhood, which is true for many people, and lends his legacy a kind of magic. Also, again, even though I could not stand the San Francisco 49ers after a while, it was hard not to admire what he actually did, and how he did it. I remember "The Catch" and that time when he burned the Giants in 1988 with a long bomb to Jerry Rice in a game that the 49ers has seemed destined to lose. Or, most famously, his "Cool Joe" persona coming out at the end of Super Bowl XXIII, when he stayed calm and collected, even pointing out a celebrity in the stands like John Candy, and then gracefully leading his team down the field to the winning touchdown score. I might not have enjoyed seeing the 49ers win, yet somehow, on some level, I felt glad for Montana, and admired the way he talked about it immediately after the game, and ever since, to boot. When he talked about it, you did not get the impression that he is taken with himself, or some big, dumb jock who can barely put two syllables together. Brady can put more than two syllables together, but my suspicion is that secretly, he likely is quite taken with himself. It kind of bleeds through, subtly, with a lot of the things that he says, and how he generally carries himself off the field. 

Montana remains more down to earth, and he just seemed to earn his status as "Joe Cool."

Here is further proof: Montana was investing fairly heavily in the marijuana business, which really seems to be taking off as more and more states are legalizing, or at least seriously thinking about it.






Here are the articles that I used in writing this particular blog entry:


Tom Brady and Donald Trump: Revisiting the 'uncomfortable' friendship between Bucs QB, ex-president by ZacAl-Khateeb, February 7, 2021:    

Former 49ers QB Joe Montana, partners invest $75M in marijuana business By Jessica Kleinschmidt January 27, 2019 1:53 PM

https://www.nbcsports.com/bayarea/49ers/former-49ers-qb-joe-montana-partners-invest-75m-marijuana-business




Where Joe Montana Kicks Back The ex-quarterback's Sonoma retreat goes on the market for $49 million By Juliet Chung Updated Nov. 6, 2009 12:01 a.m. ET

https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052748703740004574513473606656990
Posted by at
Labels:

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)