New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft believes that Tom Brady is the greatest quarterback in NFL history. But it doesn’t stop there.
In an interview with ESPN’s Mike Reiss, Kraft called Brady the greatest player of all time.
“Definitely the greatest player of all time — not just quarterback in my opinion,” Kraft said. “Because he’s such a leader in the locker room. For someone double the age of some of the players to be able to lead like that, and connect like that, and have the work ethic that he has, and at the same time so pleasant to be around — I’m really the luckiest guy in the world.”
Obviously Kraft’s opinion isn’t exactly unbiased. That, however, doesn’t mean that he’s wrong.
Brady was drafted in 2000 and became New England’s starter the following year. He’s seemingly gotten better in the nearly two decades since becoming the starter. Meanwhile, most of the other great players that came into the league at roughly the same time as Brady have long since retired. If longevity is the goal, Brady is awfully hard to top.
He’s also hard to top if winning is the goal. Brady has led the Patriots to eight AFC Championships and five Super Bowl wins. Charles Haley is the only other player with five championships. Brady will also start in his eighth straight Conference Championship Game on Sunday — only adding to his own record.
Football is obviously a very specialized game. That makes it very hard to compare great players at different positions. It’s also a real challenge to compare players from different eras, even if they played the same position.
But Kraft’s opinion that Brady is the best player in NFL history can’t draw much of an argument.