Getty A New York Giants' Hall of Famer has blasted Tom Brady's legacy.
Tom Brady may be the undisputed GOAT in the eyes of many, but Lawrence Taylor is having none of it. Taylor, perhaps the greatest player to ever suit up for the New York Giants, believes Joe Montana is still a better quarterback because TB12 “got all the rules on his side.”
Speaking on an edition of the I Am Athlete podcast, Taylor said: “Joe Montana is still my man. Still my man. You say greatest quarterbacks ever, I’m still with Joe Montana. I’m not going with Tom Brady. … Listen, Tom Brady got all the rules on his side. You can’t touch him. You can’t touch him. If you hit him, if you breathe on him, they’re gonna throw a flag.”
Joe Montana > Tom Brady
‘the greatest quarterback ever? i’m still with Joe Montana. Tom Brady got all the rules on his side.’ — Lawrence Taylor (@LT_56)
While Taylor waged frequent wars against Montana during their playing days, LT never got to go against Brady. Nonetheless, the three-time NFL Defensive Player of the Year admitted he would’ve made things tough on Brady: “I don’t understand how he drops back eight yards, and he sits in a little cocoon, and they’re not sending people at him. Why is the defense not sending people? Man, let me tell you something. … If I’m playing, I’m hitting him every play. Even if I had to just pat him on the ass, I was right there beside you, brother.”
Brady announced his retirement on Wednesday, February 1 after 23 seasons in the NFL. Taylor’s assertion Brady wasn’t subjected to the same physical punishment as other QBs is one of the few criticisms that stuck to the former New England Patriots and Tampa Bay Buccaneers star.
Familiar Criticism Dogged Tom Brady’s Career
Preferential treatment from referees is an accusation Brady often faced. It showed up during his final season when the Bucs beat NFC South rivals the Atlanta Falcons 21-15 in Week 5.
The game turned on a controversial roughing the passer call after Falcons’ nose tackle Grady Jarrett appeared to sack Brady cleanly. This dubious call was highlighted by CBS Sports’ Jonathan Jones:
Buccaneers QB Tom Brady has been fined $11,139 for kicking at Falcons DL Grady Jarrett, source confirms. ESPN first reported. Jarrett was flagged for roughing the passer on this play.
As Jones also pointed out, Brady was later fined for his own reaction toward Jarrett, but the 15-yard penalty in the former’s favor did little to change the narrative about Brady being a protected species.
It was a view held by longtime Baltimore Ravens pass-rusher Terrell Suggs, whose animosity toward Brady began after a disputed roughing call in a game against the Patriots in 2009.
Moments like these likely fueled Taylor’s belief Brady couldn’t be hit. The statistics suggest otherwise, with the player famously drafted 199th overall in 2000 retiring having been sacked by more players than any other quarterback in league history:
Following that sack by Justin Madubuike of the @Ravens, 385 different players have recorded at least a half sack on Tom Brady in the regular season, breaking a tie with Ben Roethlisberger for the most since individual sacks became an official stat in 1982.
Brady was hunted during an era when the NFL doubled down on protecting quarterbacks. The 2022 season was a particularly clear example, when “there was an average of 2.91 Roughing the Passer penalties per team league wide,” according to NFLPenalties.com, with the Giants accruing a league-high eight flags.
The league even indicated to ESPN’s Adam Schefter there would be “no backing down on enforcing rules that are in place to protect the health and safety of players, including quarterbacks, who by rule are considered defenseless players when they are in a passing posture.”
Regardless of how many hits he took or flags he generated, Brady owns a compelling and complex legacy, similar to Montana. Both would-be GOATS have painful memories of battling the Giants.
Joe Montana and Tom Brady Shared the Same Nemesis
Brady’s seven Super Bowl wins and 10 appearances are without equal in football’s modern era. He’d like to have nine Lombardi Trophies, but the Giants put paid to that dream by beating the Patriots in Super Bowls XLII and XLVI.
On both occasions, Brady was pummeled by a talented and relentless front four. He took five sacks and numerous other hits when Michael Strahan and co. beat the 18-0 Pats 17-14 in 2008 in Glendale, Arizona, site of this season’s Super Bowl.
Four years later, Jason Pierre-Paul and Justin Tuck took turns laying waste to Brady when the Giants won 21-17. Brady had plenty of bad memories from facing the Giants, just like Montana.
Joe Cool won four Super Bowls with the San Francisco 49ers, beating LT and the Giants in the playoffs en route to the first two. Emphatic postseason victories in the 1985 and ’86 seasons evened the score for Big Blue, with Taylor getting his hands on the ultimate prize in the latter year.
The Giants returned to the big game during the 1990 season after ending the Niners’ hopes of a three-peat. A 15-13 win at Candlestick Park in one of the great NFC Championship Games proved to be Montana’s last meaningful game as the 49ers’ QB1.
Leonard Marshall’s unforgettable hit, after pressure from Taylor, knocked No. 16 out of football for the best part of two seasons:
Flashback Friday: Leonard Marshall recounts the famous hit on Joe Montana
Watch: t.co/9gKxsIbCw4
Collisions like this one weren’t commonly flagged during Taylor and Montana’s era. Things have changed since, but many quarterbacks playing during Brady’s era have benefited from more stringent application of the roughing rule.
It’s tough on defensive game-wreckers trying to emulate LT, but it also makes it easier to accurately judge the greatness of quarterbacks in the context of the era in which they played.