Best Quarterback of All Time and Tax Advice

[Before I get to the QBs, just want my loyal reader to know that Elliot Spitzer, Governor of NY, was exposed as involved with a prostitution ring in what was originally an IRS investigation.  So you say?  Well, if you recall, BALCO (Steroids) and the subsequent fallout -- Bonds, Clemens -- also began and was led by the IRS.  So with Tax time around the corner, you may want to reconsider claiming either a $2000 taxi receipt from Emperor VIP Cabs, or you Florida pharmacy prescription as "Business Expenses."] 

 Brett Fav-ruh’s retirement has promoted a lot of the Best QB of All Time debate.  So needless to say, Yes MSG has to jump in.  Before I do, however, I entreat you to read the posting below this with the Yes MSG posting regarding the New York Times.  Comes with a nice graphic.

WRT the debate, understand that I am only talking about 1970s Quarterback (none of whom made the short list) and later.  I don’t know enough and did not see Starr, Baugh, Luckman, etc.  

For the 70s, you have two candidates — Staubach and Bradshaw, but they never really make it into the experts’ arguments for greatest of all time, so I am not going to buck the trend here.  Bradshaw was obviously super talented, but his rep suffers from the all all-time greats he was surrounded by — Webster, Harris, Stallworth, Swann, Greene, Greenwood, Holmes, Lambert, Ham, Schell and Blount.  Staubach a somewhat similar conundrum.

So here are our candidates:

Montana / Elway / Marino / Favre / Aikman / Manning / Brady (No, Giants fans, Simms, Hostetler and Eli don’t make it)

The key is what is the criteria?  Team success like Superbowls is important but is dependent on lots of factors.  Ability to play in a variety of offenses is important too.  Records mean something.  Leadership/competitiveness, which is hard to quantify so going with gut feel.  Lastly, fear.  Do they instill fear in the opposing team?  As an example to use Phil Simms — did he scare anyone?  No.  They all schemed for Lawrence Taylor.  

In reverse order, meaning that I would take this QB last of the bunch to the one I would take overall first if starting a franchise tomorrow.

Marino – Obviously had the records, and the quickest release known to man, but have a hard time getting over the fact that he should have been more successful.  He can blame Shula for not building a good Defense of developing a running game in all Marino’s years.  Considering Shula lots SBIII to Joe Willie as well, perhaps he is the overrated one.  Nevertheless, Marino could make all the throws, avoid sacks, but could not run and just loses out on that leadership thing for me.  He is the Karl Malone of the NFL.

Aikman – I think I undervalue Aikman considering he had Emmitt and the Playmaker and a great D (thanks to the Niners trading them Charles Haley, and Minnesota trading for Herschel for cents on the dollar).  He was accurate and could manage a game, and think he had better leadership than Dan.

Manning – He studies hard, can make all the throws, is a total student of the game.  Seems like a more all around talent than the two below even if lower on the leadership scale.  His postseason has had some disastrous moments, but a lot of guys have had them too.  I know his receiving corp and RBs have been stellar, but I think he makes those guys as much as they make him. You have to scheme for Peyton.  Plus, not a bad actor.

Brady – Stellar record and his latest season was ridiculous.  However, as a counterpoint, he threw tons of jump balls that Randy Moss went and got.  Any other receiver and those are INTs and people are saying Brady is Favre — forcing it.  He also played poorly in the SB and the last two years playoff losses to IND and DEN, respectively, throwing costly interceptions.  Nevertheless, as cool as they come, more athletic than suspected, and winner of 3 Superbowls, not always with the best talent.  The only big question mark is how much did SpyGate set him up (unknowingly) for success in those 3 3-point SB victories.  Does tarnish it a bit.

Top Three among Montana / Elway / Favre

Favre – Holds all the records. Probably could have played in any system.  Fiery competitor.  Just cannot get over some of the boneheaded plays over the years.  That which made him great — gunslinger mentality — made him vulnerable too.  The tradeoff was definitely worth it for Packers fans, but it is what keeps him out of the Top Two.  Admittedly, did not have the great cast around him recently, but he did when he won in his early days. (Update, turns out his laast decade performance was pretty poor in the playoffs — more INTs than TDs; rating in the 70s; fewer cumulative playoff wins from 1998 to 2008 than Eli Manning (Eli!) this year alone.  I think were I to do this exercise again in a few years, Favre will have dropped.  But I don’t get paid enough to bother revisiting my first draft now.)

Montana - Not the passer the others are.  But IMHO, the most competitive, all the way back to his Notre Dame days.  Incredibly accurate,  and elusive, and the best leader of the bunch (followed by Brady).  His 1981 team had a bunch of no names, albeit Ronnie Lott as a rookie, and he did play with the best WR of all time later in his career — Rice.  But he carried many of those teams by force of will, getting rings for guys who had good reps but nothing to show for it. Fred Dean does not make the HOF without Montana.  Plus, he took a crap KC squad to the AFC Championship after the Niners unceremoniously dumped him.  In 4 Superbowls, 11 TDs and 0 INTs.  Nuff said.

Elway – I wanted to put Montana first as I am biased, but Elway did get a variety of Bronco teams to 5 Superbowls and raised his game in the upset of the Pack back in 1997.  He could make any throw (I remember backup QB Kubiak saying that each time in practice he had to roll out right and throw 30 yards downfield across his body, that he would fall down on purpose as he knew only John could make that throw , and he could run for yards when necessary.  Any team drafting today would have to take him.  I put him behind Montana as a leader, and maybe Marino as a pure passer, but he rates so high on the other stuff that any passing game, etc he would have excelled in.

Let the argument begin.