I'll take Bradshaw over Brady any day.

Gee, I had no idea that not sticking up for Dan Marino was the equivalent of not sticking up for the Pittsburgh Steelers. I'm confused, you can rip some opposition QBs and be a fan in good standing, but you rip others and your open to question.

 

No reason to pick on anyone specifically or not. It's a damn near fact even outside of imagination. Had Marino donned the B&G Pitt would've wrecked house! Sorry, but the off and on "Miami Pound Machine" and Bernie Parmalee were not a supporting cast. Yes they had pieces here and there but he had no consistent supporting cast outside of his wideouts.

 

And the only reason why we couldn't beat Kelly or Elway then, was because we didn't have the arm to supplement our rosters

 

Hmm. More along these lines:

70s: Bradshaw, Staubach, Tarkenton
80s: Montana, Elway, Marino
90s: Favre, Aikman, Young
00s: Brady, P. Manning, Roethlisberger
10s: Brees, Rodgers, Wilson

 

So let's play Hot Tub Time Machine and go back...

1983, the Steelers RBs were Walter Abercombie and Rich Erenberg. Stallworth would have had a few seasons with Marino (that would have been Gold). Maybe (just MAYBE) the Steelers win Super Bowl XIX. They were the only team to defeat the 49ers that season.

But then what?

Every Steelers draft gets altered. It's unlikely that Woddson and dawson come to the Steelers. It's unlikley that Barry Foster comes to the Steelers. It's unlikely that Kirkland, Lloyd, and Brown ever play LB in Pittsburgh.

And Jerome Bettis? Probably not. Hines ward? Again, probably not.

The Marino question is fun to ponder, BUT...How the Steelers have fared, post 1983, in the long-run? Much better than Miami. I'll take it.

 

Something has to be said for Brady making it to six Super Bowls, even if he lost two. No one has ever had as much success in such a long span. Bradshaws hot stretch lasted only 5-6 compared to Brady's 13, so far.

 

Of course time and outcomes would alter.... But not how the B&G do business. Leads me to believe that we would've been and wrecked house

 

Bradshaw stats weren't that impressive considering all the ints, but like he said he could play in the big games when it counted the most.

 

Bradshaw had a better arm than any of them.

 

The thing that made Bradshaw great was his performance at critical times in big games. When he had to come up with a big play in the Super Bowl, he delivered EVERY.SINGLE.TIME!!! Super Bowl IX was pretty much Franco and the Steel Curtain but Bradshaw did throw a TD pass to Larry Brown I believe. But in Super Bowls X, XIII and XIV there were critical times in each of those games that Bradshaw picked the team up on his shoulders and carried it! To me, that's what differentiates Terry from Ben. Ben will hold all of the statistical passing records for the Steelers but if I had to have one of them to win the Super Bowl, give me Bradshaw EVERY.SINGLE.TIME!

 

Absolutely! Without question! I'd take Bradshaw over any other quarterback who's ever played in the Super Bowl and that also includes Joe Montana!

 

He was $$$!

 

Bradshaw was surrounded by great players both on offense and defense, they had a strong team and that team was not a one man show, here is a good reflection on Bradshaw's career...

[TABLE="class: mceVisualAid, width: 150, align: left"]
[TR]
[TD="width: 100%"]"Imagine yourself sitting on top of a great thoroughbred horse. You sit up there and you just feel that power. That's what it was like playing quarterback on this team. It was a great ride."
-- Bradshaw on the Steelers[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]







http://www.steelers.com/history/three-rivers/terry-bradshaw.html

 

I'll leave this here to stir up the puddle again.
http://www.coldhardfootballfacts.com/content/there-goes-tom-brady-the-best-who-ever-lived/33040/

 

What do you want us to say - gee of course it must be so, Brady is the best. We all know that is difficult to compare different eras, but QB is probably one position where because it isn't largely about braun and size that you can get a perspective for how players may perform across generations.

I still think Brady (and others like Brees) largely benefit from rules that make quarterbacking today much simpler than what it used to be - especially being able to throw the ball no more than 5 yards past the line of scrimmage and continually be rewarded for it. Sure defenses are more complex (though I generally even argue that as the best defense over the past few seasons has been Seattle and they actually play a pretty vanilla style defense), but defensive players hands are also tied. Now to Brady's credit he thrives and is probably as efficient a qb can be with the way the game is played today.

And in terms of today's game - I do think guys like Marino, Elway, Bradshaw etc. could do well and still be great qb's - though I acknowledge maybe not as good as Brady.

That then brings me to how I think Brady would perform during their eras where even without the Blount rule, defenses in pass coverage had far more leverage in terms of pawing and touching receivers. I could be very wrong, but I just don't think those wide open passing lanes that are 5 yards out would be there the way they are now because they would be pressured more which would force Brady to throw the ball downfield more which he really does not do that well. I guess to try to put it in perspective my gut feeling is something like this.

Brady's era probably ..... Brady >> Marino, Bradshaw, Elway

Bradshaw's era my guess Bradshaw, Staubach >>>>>> Brady

 

I could live with that summary. I think Brady is competitive enough he would have done better even in an earlier era but you can certainly make a good case against that.

 

That being said, our "skill players" were garbage during Marino's tenure in the NFL. It's not like we had a Marks brothers set of WRs. I believe our only decent WR in that era was Lou Lipps.

 

I'm talking about his clutch performances at crucial times in Super Bowls. When he had to deliver the goods, he did and he did it in a big way. I realize he had great talent around him, but Mean Joe Green didn't stand in and get drilled in the helmet while throwing a perfect pass to Lynn Swann in Super Bowl X against the favored Cowboys. Jack Lambert didn't hit Swann and Stallworth with crucial TD passes in Super Bowl XIII, also against a tough Cowboys team. Mike Webster didn't hit Stallworth with, not one, but two perfect bombs, one for a beautiful TD just over the outstretched hands of the DB to seal the deal in Super Bowl XIV against a gutsy Rams team.

People like to talk about how great the team surrounding Bradshaw was and it was no doubt a great team, but Bradshaw was a big part of what made it so great and that gets overlooked far too often!