With the New England Patriots winning their sixth Super Bowl over the span of nine appearances since 2002, many debates have long been settled in the NFL arena.
First, are the Patriots the best dynasty the NFL has ever seen? Yes without a doubt.
Second, is Tom Brady the best quarterback to ever set foot on a football field? Yes, in fact this debate was probably settled three Super Bowls ago.
With all that said it seems like the next big question I’m seeing make its way across social media is if you had to choose between Brady and Bill Belichick who would you go with?
Now before I get to that question I would to preface by saying that both are great in their own respects and their success from here on out is probably entirely dependent on each other. Especially considering where they’re at in their careers. That’s why this is sort of a silly question to ask but worth addressing, notably too since the Super Bowl happened just last night.
But as far as the question goes I think you have to look at some very pronounced facts.
For instance, Bill Belichick was a head coach for six seasons in the NFL prior to Tom Brady being named the starting quarterback. During that span, Belichick compiled a record of 41-55 with only one single winning season. Sure five of those six seasons were with the Cleveland Browns but it’s not like Belichick immediately found his grove in New England when he landed there since his first season he was with the Pats yielded a 5-11 finish.
Lets also take a look at what landed Brady the starting role with the Patriots. We must not forget that Brady wasn’t given the starting job because it was apparent Belichick had some great inside knowledge on the young kid from the University of Michigan that he had to start him at the beginning of the 2001 season. Not to mention I’m sure Belichick didn’t envision greatness to come with Brady that Drew Bledsoe was on some short leash while the rookie was cocked and ready to go. No, Belichick went with Bledsoe to start the season who ended up getting injured in week two only to have Brady be named the starter for week three after the veteran still had some internal bleeding. Essentially it was Brady who eventually forced Belichick’s hand to keep him as a starter after the former Michigan QB was finally able to find his game in week five when he led the Patriots to two scoring drives on the road against the San Diego Chargers to force overtime and eventually win the game. From there New England went on to win 11 of the 14 games Brady started including six straight to earn themselves a week one bye in the playoffs and an eventual Super Bowl title against the Rams.
Again though at this point both Brady and Belichick are so synonymous with each other we’ll never have that conclusive evidence that will completely sway the debate in one direction or the other. I mean in all fairness to Belichick, was just 39 years old when he took over head coaching duties for the Browns in 1991 and 48 when he took over the Patriots in 2000. And it’s not like Brady was some standout player at the University of Michigan that had NFL teams lining up to see his pro day. Six quarterbacks were taken ahead him before the Patriots finally called his number with the 199th overall pick.
Bottom line, we’ll probably never see Brady play in an NFL game where Belichick wasn’t his head coach and quite frankly, we’ll probably never see Belichick coach a season where Tom Brady wasn’t the quarterback within the Patriots organization.
Perhaps the biggest, under-appreciated figure in all of this is Robert Kraft who was able to get the egos and greatness of these two guys to mesh and work together for all these years.
But if I had to choose one over the other it’s going to be Brady all day long.
