The 10 men who helped shape the legacies of Brady and Manning

One of the reasons so many people love football is because it's the ultimate team game. No player can win or lose a game, much less a championship, on his own. That's why the notion that a quarterback owns his win-loss record is severely flawed.

There's a convenient way to compare the legacies of Tom Brady and Peyton Manning, who will meet for the 17th time in Sunday's AFC championship game: One is a clutch playoff winner, while the other has the statistics but not the incredible playoff success to match it. It's Bill Russell vs. Wilt Chamberlain all over again.

Anyone who cares about the issue and has put time into thinking about it understands there's more nuance than that. Brady has four Super Bowls to Manning's one, but again, no one player is solely responsible for a win or loss in football. Many people have helped shape the legacies of Brady and Manning, for better or worse.

A reasonable argument can be made that Brady and Manning are the top two quarterbacks in NFL history. Who you rank higher on your list likely has a lot to do with these 10 men (OK, there's more than 10 listed because we combined some; this list could be 50 deep, really). Think about how much differently we'd view Manning and Brady in a historical context if not for the ups or downs of these folks:

 

Bill Belichick: Nothing against Jim Mora, Tony Dungy, Jim Caldwell, John Fox or Gary Kubiak, who have been Manning's NFL coaches, but Brady caught a great break playing for perhaps the greatest coach of all time his entire career. There's a good argument that Belichick has benefited from coaching perhaps the greatest quarterback of all time, of course.

Not only has Belichick helped Brady, he has been a thorn in Manning's side his entire career. So much is made of Brady and Manning facing off 16 times, but the real battle has always been Manning against Belichick, a defensive genius. Manning said before the AFC championship game two years ago that Belichick would go down as the greatest coach ever.

Brady is given credit for an 11-5 record in his career meetings against Manning. It's probably more accurate to say Belichick has an 11-5 record against Manning. Belichick has been a big reason Manning has just one Super Bowl title. It's also fair to wonder if that record would be reversed if Manning had Belichick as his coach for his entire career. He is one of the rare men who has significantly impacted the legacies of both Brady and Manning.

 

Wes Welker and Randy Moss: To categorize Manning as the guy with the stats and Brady as the guy with the Super Bowls isn't fair. Manning has a Super Bowl ring. And Brady has ridiculous stats.

But 2007 was the turning point for Brady going from a very good quarterback with multiple championship rings to a consistent fixture as a league leader in most passing categories. Before 2007, Brady had one 4,000-yard season, never threw more than 28 touchdowns in a season or had a passer rating above 93. Starting in 2007 (and not counting his 2008 season that was mostly lost due to injury), Brady has had fewer than 4,000 yards only once, fewer than 28 touchdowns only once, and has posted just one rating of less than 96. In 2007 Brady put up one of two 50-touchdown seasons ever, and in 2011 he put up a 5,235-yard season that ranks third all time.

Of course, in 2007 the Patriots added Moss, on anyone's list of the greatest receivers ever, and Welker, who literally created the slot receiver position as we know it today. Now everybody wants a Welker-type receiver to play that spot. The Patriots lost to the Colts and Manning in the 2006 AFC title game, in part because the Patriots had very little at receiver. By getting Moss and Welker, Brady went to a new level in his career and hasn't looked back.

(Of course, we can also say Welker shaped Brady's legacy in a different way; if he held on to Brady's pass with four minutes left on second-and-11 in Super Bowl XLVI, Brady likely already has his fifth ring.)

 

Eli Manning: It's kind of crazy that Peyton's little brother has had such an effect on Brady's legacy. Brady has started six Super Bowls, the most ever for any player. He has won four, tied for the most among any quarterback. But just imagine if Eli Manning hadn't beaten him twice in the Super Bowl.

If Brady was sitting on a spotless 6-0 Super Bowl record, we wouldn't compare him to Peyton Manning or any other quarterback any more. We'd be comparing him to Michael Jordan, Babe Ruth and Wayne Gretzky as the greatest athlete ever from a team sport. People love championships and perfect records in the title round. Although that standard doesn't always make sense, if Brady had been a winner in all six of his Super Bowls, just think about how he'd be viewed now. Brady would be almost unanimously considered the greatest quarterback ever. Both of the Giants' game-winning Super Bowl touchdowns over the Patriots came in the last minute, by the way.

 

Mike Vanderjagt and Adam Vinatieri: Brady is the name associated with all the Patriots' Super Bowls, but he owes a lot to Vinatieri. Everyone remembers Vinatieri's Super Bowl game-winning kicks, but don't forget his two unbelievable playoffs kicks in the snow against the Oakland Raiders in the infamous "Tuck Rule" game. That win led to the Patriots' first Super Bowl title. If Vinatieri wasn't so clutch, our view of Brady as Mr. Clutch would change.

Ask Manning about that. Mike Vanderjagt was in position to tie a divisional round game at the end of the 2005 season against the Pittsburgh Steelers, and he missed wide right. Had the Colts won that, I'd bet heavily they'd have gone on to beat the Denver Broncos and Seattle Seahawks and Manning would have two rings right now. And it's also worth noting that Vanderjagt ripping Manning after the 2002 season for not being fiery enough (which led to Manning's famous "idiot kicker" interview at the Pro Bowl) and that probably helped shape the narrative about Manning's career in a small way.

 

Tracy Porter: Championships aren't the be-all, end-all when talking about greatness and legacies. The 2007 Patriots are the greatest team I've seen and they lost in the Super Bowl. But I'm in a very small minority. Most people look at the number of championships and work backward from there.

One more Manning championship and he'd be viewed differently. Two more and it would be night and day. Manning had a golden opportunity against the New Orleans Saints at the end of the 2009 season to get another ring, but Porter wasn't having it.

With a little more than three minutes left in Super Bowl XLIV and the Colts at New Orleans' 31-yard line trailing 24-17, Porter made the signature play of an underrated all-time great game. He undercut Reggie Wayne's route, picked off Manning and returned it 74 yards for a touchdown. Manning deserves blame for making that mistake, but it goes to show how one play can entirely change a legacy.

 

Rahim Moore: This is a great example of Manning's legacy not being entirely in his hands. He was on the sideline with a 35-28 lead as the Ravens faced third-and-3 with 41 seconds left at their own 30. And somehow, Jacoby Jones got behind Moore, the Broncos' safety, and Joe Flacco hit him for a 70-yard touchdown. It's one of the biggest miracle plays in playoff history. The Broncos lost in double overtime.

Maybe Denver would have lost the following week to New England, or to San Francisco in the Super Bowl. But it's also possible that the Broncos, the No. 1 seed in the AFC that season, would have won a championship if Moore had stayed deep. It's a good example of nobody's legacy being entirely determined on their own, especially when we weigh wins and championships so heavily.

 

Bernard Pollard: Pollard has to be on this list. The then-Kansas City Chiefs safety's hit on Brady's knee in the 2008 season opener tore Brady's ACL.

The 2008 season is remembered as the year Matt Cassel went 11-5. Really, that was a five-game downgrade from 2007, when the Patriots were 16-0. The Patriots were much worse with Cassel, and the 11 wins shows how great that team was around Cassel.

Brady was at his peak in those years. There's no doubt that the Patriots would have been closer to 16 wins than 11 that season with Brady. The Steelers, who went on to win that season's Super Bowl, won at New England that regular season, something that doesn't happens with a healthy Brady. The season flipped on that one result; the Patriots would have been AFC East champs and had a better seed than Pittsburgh. You'd have a hard time convincing me that Brady and the Patriots wouldn't have cruised through the AFC playoffs and also beaten the Arizona Cardinals, who were 9-7 that season, in the Super Bowl.

It's easy to argue that Pollard cost Brady a championship season in his prime, and we all know how every championship changes a legacy.

 

John Elway: Manning could have retired after the 2011 season and walked into the Hall of Fame. But we'll look back on his time with the Broncos as a key part of his NFL journey.

No established great quarterback has ever had a better run with a second team than Manning has with Denver. Manning won an MVP in 2013 with the greatest single-season performance in NFL history. He won a conference championship and has a chance to get another with a win Sunday. He has been a part of four division winners in four years. He has added 17,112 yards and 140 touchdowns to his career totals.

None of this is possible without Elway having faith that Manning could make a full recovery from multiple neck surgeries in 2011. Also credit Elway for being a great free-agent closer and landing Manning when other teams were after him. And Elway has put a stellar team around Manning.

Rob Gronkowski:

It's hard to assign a percentage to how much playing with Brady makes Gronkowski as great as he is. But it's arguable that the Patriots of the last few years have employed the greatest coach, quarterback and tight end of all time.

Gronkowski is the most dominant tight end ever. The people who argue against that will cite longevity, but it's clear that nobody else at that position in NFL history has had the combination of skills or the production Gronkowski has had. He's the best, hands down.

Brady was 33 when Gronkowski arrived in 2010. Moss was fading and lasted just four games with New England that season before he was traded to the Minnesota Vikings. So right as many quarterbacks show signs of wearing down, Brady went from one of the greatest receivers ever to the most dominant tight end ever. Brady would have had a great career no matter who was around him, but the Patriots drafting Gronkowski was a break that helped Brady go from one of the greats to arguably the greatest ever in his mid- to late-30s.

 

Each other: We've been comparing the legacies of these great quarterbacks for at least 10 years now. Like Russell and Chamberlain, or Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier, there's no question they have elevated each other through competition. They have also elevated their legacies by having an all-time rival in the same era.

Whether you prefer Manning or Brady, it's clear the competition has been good for them both. And it has been good for the rest of us who have watched through the years.