Tom Brady won seven Super Bowls during his time with the New England Patriots and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and many regard him as the best quarterback to ever play in the NFL.
However, Pro Football Hall of Famer and Fox Sports analyst Terry Bradshaw questions that assertion, pointing to a Cleveland Browns player from the early days of the NFL as a player who could claim to be the GOAT (Greatest of All Time).
Bradshaw appeared on the “Nothing Left Unsaid” podcast with Tim and Troy Green, which was released on Wednesday. Bradshaw laid out his logic, arguing that Otto Graham has a case to be the best to ever play the position, alongside Joe Montana. Bradshaw also thinks he should be in the conversation.
“People always say, ‘Tom Brady is the greatest quarterback to ever play,’” Bradshaw said. “OK. Is he really? Otto Graham might be the greatest quarterback to ever play. How many titles did Otto win? Ten? Look it up. Tom lost three. I was 4-0. Montana was 4-0, and Brady was 7-3. Seven minus three is four. Four, four, four, that’s how I look at it. People are something else. We always want to know who’s the best, don’t we?”
Before the Super Bowl era, Graham won seven championships with the Browns, including four straight (1946-49) with the All-American Football Conference. After the leagues merged, the Browns won three more championships, including in Graham’s final season in 1955. By comparison, Montana won four Super Bowls with the San Francisco 49ers.
Bradshaw also did some self-reflection, saying that if he were playing today, he likely would have been cut because he was not intellectually or emotionally ready when he entered the league.
“If Terry Bradshaw that you know today went into the NFL, or if you take me from the ’70s and put that Terry Bradshaw in the NFL today, I would not have made it,” Bradshaw said. “I’d have been cut. I’d have been out of the league by my third year. That’s how bad I was playing. That’s how up and down my career went.”
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