Best Quarterback of All Time: Joe Montana or Tom Brady?

New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady has a shot for his fifth Super Bowl championship, which will add fuel to the debate whether or not he is a better signal-caller than San Francisco 49ers great Joe Montana. Niner Noise attempts to put this question to rest once and for all.

There is a very real chance New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady gets his fifth Super Bowl ring as the Pats close in on Super Bowl 50 at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, California.

Ahead of the Patriots await the Denver Broncos and a matchup against longtime rival quarterback Peyton Manning in the AFC Championship game. This storyline has been played out long enough, and with Manning’s best days behind him, this final contest appears to be little more than one last encore between these two future Hall of Famers.

Should New England advance though, the conversation will shift from Brady vs. Manning to Brady vs. San Francisco 49ers great Joe Montana.

It’s nothing new. The Brady vs. Montana debate goes back for a while now.

Montana was the crown jewel of a 49ers team that dominated the 1980s. Brady is the unquestioned centerpiece of a Patriots team showing few signs of letting up since his first crown in Super Bowl XXXVI.

So who should be considered the greatest quarterback of all time?

In reality, it’s a silly argument. There’s no way to compare. Each quarterback played the game in different eras. The context between the two is entirely varied. But the G.O.A.T. argument won’t go away anytime soon. So it begs our attention.

For what it’s worth, Brady was in attendance to watch Montana deliver the famed “Catch” to wide receiver Dwight Clark in the 1982 NFC Championship game versus the Dallas Cowboys — yeah, the one you always see in the NFL commercials and throwback pieces.

Brady, a native of nearby San Mateo and 49ers fan growing up, certainly played with a lot of motivation having watched Montana and Co. dominate the NFL during the decade.

That’s nice and all. But it’s time to stack up the evidence in favor of each quarterback.

The Question

Should the Patriots go onto win Super Bowl 50, it would be ironic Brady surpasses Montana in championship rings in the Bay Area and at the home of the team, Levi’s Stadium, for which he grew up rooting.

Brady would have five. Montana would have four. A casual fan would suggest that gives Brady the edge in our G.O.A.T. argument.

Both also boast of three Super Bowl MVPs to their names. Montana won the award in 1982, 1985 and 1990, whereas Brady received the same accolade in 2002, 2004 and 2015. Brady and Montana also had the benefit of playing under legendary head coaches in their own right, Bill Belichick and Bill Walsh, respectively.

And few fans can question the dominance of each team during those years.

But the answer of who is the all-time best won’t simply boil down to which quarterback has more rings or who was winning over a longer period of time — Brady’s time gap between crowns is longer, by the way — but rather a detailed explanation of the context itself.

The Case for Brady

OK, so there isn’t any doubting Brady as an all-time great. He’ll be a first-ballot Hall of Famer when his time comes, and the fact fans still discuss this sort of question speaks to all the Patriots quarterback has done over his career.

Stop and think about the weapons with which Brady has had on offense in comparison to the ones at Montana’s disposal. Think of Brady’s best receiving targets in last year’s Super Bowl victory over the Seattle Seahawks.

Tight end Rob Gronkowski, wide receiver Julian Edelman and…

Yeah, not bad. But Montana had the likes of wide receivers Jerry Rice, John Taylor and Clark — just as legendary pieces as well. And keep in mind, Montana’s reign took place at time when the NFL employed no salary cap. The 49ers remained good because they could afford to do so. And they retained all the talent they wanted.

And look at how that’s affected pro football teams over the course of the salary cap installation.

So maybe Brady did more with less. Signs always point to the Patriots going that route. Just look at Brady, a sixth-round pick out of the 2000 NFL draft, being catapulted into this discussion.

Eric Wilbur of the Boston Globe made his argument for Brady:

"A fifth Super Bowl title would leapfrog Brady over Terry Bradshaw and, more importantly, Joe Montana, for sole possession among quarterbacks with the most rings in NFL history. But not only would Brady be able to accomplish the field at spanking-new Levi’s Stadium, he’d also get to win it in a city a stone’s throw from his hometown of San Mateo, Calif.He would also best his boyhood idol in the discussion of the best the game has ever seen in NFL’s 2015 host city of San Francisco, where Montana staked his claim as such a generation a generation ago.…Sorry, Joe. You’re outnumbered.Brady is the category that you once had a stranglehold on.So, forgive him and the Patriots if in a year’s time it’s the biggest story line the NFL has ever witnessed. If we know one thing about Brady, it’s that he likes to make his cynics pay.In 52 weeks, it’s time to fork it over, San Francisco."

Yes, no other quarterback has five Super Bowl rings. And the fact Brady would have done so, provided New England seizes the crown in Santa Clara, would put him atop this class.

But not so fast, Mr. Wilbur.

The Case for Montana

Forget about Deflategate, Spygate or Whatevergate you want to throw against Brady and the Patriots. New England isn’t dominant based on cheating alone.

But if you can’t avoid going there, maybe the cheating allegations cancel out the fact the Niners of the 1980s didn’t have to deal with salary cap, cap casualties and whatnot.

Still, the context of how the game was played significantly edges the argument in Montana’s favor.

Back then, defenses could actually hit offensive players. Ronnie Lott earned the accolade of being the meanest safety in football for a reason, right? And the preventative measures taken by the NFL today to protect players’ safety has, in many ways, opened up the door for free-flowing, pass-happy offenses to dominate the game.

Why not take big offensive shots when defenses are handicapped from targeting players?

Broncos defensive lineman Antonio Smith recently offered up a little background regarding Brady and this notion of keeping quarterbacks safe.

“I’ve never seen any quarterback look to the referee right after he gets sacked more than Brady,” Smith said, via the Colorado Springs Gazette (h/t ESPN). “Every time he gets sacked, he looks at the ref like, ‘You see him sack me? Was that supposed to happen? He did it a little hard. Please throw a 15-yard penalty on him. Get him fined.'”

There may, or may not, be footage on this. But it’s hard to recall Montana doing much of the same. Probably, in part, because the game was so much more physical during his time.

And still, Montana got those four rings and three Super Bowl MVP awards.

That’s quite an accomplishment. Isn’t it, Joe?

But we digress. Here’s a stat for you:

• Super Bowl Losses
  • Brady: 2
  • Montana: 0

And Brady likely would have had a third loss if Seahawks head coach Pete Carroll elected to… well, we all remember that play. And 49ers fans are likely happier with the actual result.

It’s no secret which quarterback Clark feels is the G.O.A.T. in this argument:

For the record, Brady has four Super Bowl interceptions compared to Montana’s zero. And Montana’s Super Bowl passer rating? It’s an astounding 127.8.

Brady’s is 95.3.

Bill Bender of the Sporting News offered up, perhaps, the greatest evidence in Montana’s defense:

"Brady beat Kurt Warner, Jake Delhomme, Donovan McNabb and Russell Wilson in his four Super Bowls. Warner is still waiting for his turn to be enshrined in the Hall of Fame, and Wilson has a ways to go.Montana beat John Elway and Dan Marino, two guys who are always hitting from the fringe in the greatest quarterback discussion, by a combined score of 93-26 in two Super Bowls. The five-TD masterpiece in the 55-10 win against Elway-led Denver should still be used in quarterback clinics.He also beat Boomer Esiason, who won the MVP award in 1988, and Ken Anderson, one of the most underrated passers of all time.…Montana finished his own sentences, none moreso than the game-winning drive against the Bengals in Super Bowl XXIII. It’s why “Look, it’s John Candy” is still a thing. It’s why Joe Cool is still the ultimate quarterback icon. It’s why the 10-yard touchdown pass to John Taylor is still the single greatest moment in Super Bowl history."

Microphone drop.

The Conclusion

Again, there isn’t any way to realistically compare the two. It’s impossible — two quarterbacks on entirely different teams, with entirely different talents around them and in two completely different eras.

The only way to adequately end the argument would be to have Brady and Montana face off against each other while each was in his prime and let them battle it out on the biggest of stages. But, the last time we checked, time machines haven’t been invented yet. So that won’t happen.

Still, Montana remains the greatest of all time and for plenty of the right reasons.

The better Super Bowl passer rating, storybook game-winning drives and unblemished NFL championship record all speak to Montana remaining the G.O.A.T.

And this isn’t just a Niner Noise bias.

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Brady possibly winning a fifth Super Bowl would be a great thing for his career, legacy and the NFL as a whole. Records are made to be broken, after all. But this doesn’t change the standings in the comparison.

Montana remains the unquestioned greatest quarterback, especially when one throws Super Bowls into the mix. Brady is an easy No. 2 on the list. And then there’s everyone else.

Hey, at least they both loved the 49ers and saw The Catch, right?

Next: Best Individual Performances in 49ers Playoff History

All statistics, records and accolades courtesy of Pro-Football-Reference.com unless otherwise indicated.