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What is Versus?
SportsWriters has created Versus. A new way to compare and debate articles written by two sports writers with clashing views. SportsWriters identifies a hot topic and locates two writers (typically from different markets) who have expressed an opinion on that topic, and have written an article with supporting arguments.
The result is a thought provoking opinion match up.
Everything is up for debate with Versus!
February 18, 2021
Versus
Tom Brady’s achievements are incredible but is he really an elite athlete? Shalise Manza Young of Yahoo Sports and Scott McDonald of Newsweek share their opinions on the topic.
It's time to insert Brady's name among the greatest athletes in sports history. That means putting Brady's name on the Pantheon of sports legends that include Michael Jordan, Michael Phelps, Babe Ruth, Wayne Gretzky, Muhammed Ali and Jesse Owens.
For my money, “greatest athlete” is more of an individual pursuit and offers a clearer-cut answer on greatness. When no one else is there to bail you out, do you rise to the occasion? By that standard, American decathlete Ashton Eaton is the greatest athlete ever.
Tom Brady left a winning organization that he helped build, and he went to a losing franchise at the beginning of a pandemic. Though they had no offseason training and no preseason games to learn the offense, Brady and the Bucs went 11-5 in the regular season and had a long road to just make the Super Bowl.
Football isn't always necessarily about who is the strongest and fastest athlete. As an NFL quarterback, it also comes down to who is the smartest. Brady is as smart an athlete it gets.
If Brady never wins another championship, or even gets back to the big game, he went from a sixth-round draft pick to become the greatest football player in history. Now, his name should be mentioned among the greatest athletes in sports history.
Jim Brown was a better athlete than Brady, considered by some to be not just the greatest running back ever but also the greatest lacrosse player, and even averaged 15 points per game for Syracuse’s basketball team as a sophomore.
Brady may have changed the culture in Tampa Bay, but in Super Bowl LV he didn’t do it alone, and he was the first to say as much. The season was a team effort, and the Buccaneers’ defense that kept the Bucs in most games.
Brady has surpassed his boyhood idol, Joe Montana, as the greatest quarterback ever and is one of the most accomplished team-sport players of the modern era. But for all of his victories, greatest athlete isn’t an argument Brady can win.
66%
34%
I don't think it's too hard to argue that he's not the most athletically gifted, but he does a great combination of anticipation, smarts, arm talent and accuracy.
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