When Tom Brady defeated the LA Rams in Super Bowl 53, it was his record 6th Super Bowl in nine tries and solidified his legacy as The GOAT in the eyes of most football fans. The gutty win over Jared Goff and the high-flying Rams offense was merely a formality to Brady’s official anointment.
We used to constantly hear about how Brady game-managed some of those wins and others could be attributed to classic late-game collapses and missed opportunities by the opposing team. It was used as a knock on his overall legacy, but those criticisms are long gone now. Brady’s an icon. A king. The narrative is that Brady earned those titles. Everything else is just sour grapes.
His legend has grown with every playoff victory. At this point, you’d think he never lost in a Super Bowl.
But he has lost. Three times.Twice to Eli Manning and the Giants.
MAN IDGAF ELI MANNING HAS TOM BRADYS NUMBER, IF ELI FOUND A WAY TO THE SUPERBOWL HED BEAT BRADY AGAIN https://t.co/hcRQCkcaa8
— Emany Cardoso (@em4ny) September 21, 2019
Manning is the only QB to truly crack the Patriots impenetrable dynastic code. So inevitably as Brady’s legend and Hall of Fame credentials grow, so should those of Manning.
If Bradys wins are official, then Eli Manning’s Super Bowl victories are super bad and the official stamp of his greatness.
He’s the one quarterback that didn’t give a damn about the headlines, The Killer Bs and the underdog tag. The Belichick and Brady mystique did numbers on Super Bowl QB after QB from Kurt Warner to Donovan McNabb to Russell Wilson to Matt Ryan to Brady’s latest victim, young Goff.
But it meant nothing to the younger Manning brother. Didn’t faze him. He stared down the greatest team in history — an 18-0 squad one step from immortality — and out-clutched Brady on the biggest stage in the world. Then he did it again, just in case football history was going to try some shit like start an anti-NY hater campaign regarding Eli’s obvious Hall of Fame worthiness.
Good Morning America on Twitter
Eli Manning has some advice from personal experience on how to take down Tom Brady and the New England Patriots. https://t.co/13cHCJw1J0 #SuperBowl
Eli smacked Brady in the mouth twice and not only took home Lombardi Trophies, but did it with unforgettable and dramatic heroics. He epitomized greatness in Super Bowls XLII and XLVI. Eli had a solid coach in Tom Coughlin. But he didn’t have the greatest coach of all-time to fall back on when games got tight.
Brady’s first three Super Bowl wins were by a field goal. The last three were dramatic, late-game victories over the Seahawks, Falcons, and Rams. He earned every one of those victories, regardless of how Brady haters say he’s nothing more than a lucky cheater. On the flip side, Brady Nation says he walks on water, can heal the blind and is the Michael Jordan of the NFL.
If that’s the case, then Manning is something like a phenomenon as well.
If not for Manning upsetting an undefeated Patriots squad in 2007 and then a heavily-favored team in 2012, we’d be lauding Tom Brady’s 8-1 Super Bowl record, which would probably make him the supreme king of team sports. Then, comparisons to Jordan wouldn’t seem so laughable to tempered thinkers and unhitched Pats haters like our own Rob Parker.
It’s truly amazing what Brady is still accomplishing at 42 years of age. The Patriots are 3-0 and once again Super Bowl favorites. He’s defying the laws of modern medicine and he’s done it without the use of performance enhancers. Skirting the rules a touch (Spygate, Deflategate) and being emphatically better in the big moments made him one of the colossal winners of all-time.
The Brady and Belichick accolade meter is mind-boggling and supports claims that they are the best 1-2 punch to ever bless a gridiron.
ClutchPoints on Twitter
Bill Belichick and Tom Brady can double the all-time playoff wins record by a QB-coach combo if they beat the Eagles in Super Bowl LII #GoPats https://t.co/ofupv3oMnp
Therefore discussions about Eli Mannings HOF worthiness are ludicrous. Few players in the history of the game have come up bigger than Manning in Super Bowls. In addition to his postseason prominence, we know he has the stats.
SportsBlogNewYork on Twitter
Eli Manning career stats in a Giants uniform: 50,625 yards (7th all-time) 334 touchdowns (8th) 2 Super Bowl wins over the Patriots 2 Super Bowl MVPs 210 consecutive starts (2nd all-time for QBs) Future Hall of Famer Thank you Eli
He didn’t miss a game in his entire 16-year career until he was benched for one game in 2017 by former Giants coach Bob McAdoo. He rebounded to throw for 4,299 yards in 2018 before being permanently benched for rookie Daniel Jones in Week 3, marking the end of his illustrious reign as Giants QB.
Despite some less than latter years, Eli remained among the most valuable players in the game because he never got hurt.
The Giants organization understands what Manning means to the Big Blue franchise and pro football in New York. He has not only altered the course of NFL history several times, he has inflicted two damaging blemishes on a Patriots record that is as flawless as it gets.
No matter how you slice it, when we look back at the dominance of Brady, we will see that his only kryptonite was Eli. He was the one quarterback that Brady couldn’t outperform on the big stage. Nick Foles beat Brady, but he didn’t outperform him. Brady threw for a career playoff-high 505 yards with 3 TDs and no picks. The Eagles were just destined to win.
Those losses hurt Pats fans and analysts who salivate over Brady on national podcats, Twitter and cable sports debate shows. It rocks the narrative just a bit. It surely doesn’t take away from Brady’s legacy as the possible GOAT, but it illuminates the truth;
Manning is the most clutch SB quarterback of all-time.
Giants 2008 Super Bowl, final drive ( This Means WAR!!!)
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Manning magic will always rule the day when the Pats play in a Super Bowl and every title New England wins is a reminder of just how incredible Manning’s Super Bowl success against them truly is. He went up against the immovable object twice and dropped major Ls on Brady & Belichick.
As long as the Pats keep winning, Mannings a first-ballot Hall of Famer and the greatest king slayer of our time.
