The Tom Brady-Peyton Manning rivalry is so good that someday it will deserve its own wing in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
New England and Indianapolis have established themselves as two of the great teams of their time. Over the past few years, they’ve won more consistently than just about any teams in history. Both teams, for example, are a league-best 33-7 since 2007.
But in a sporting culture driven by personal battles, and in a game ruled by quarterbacks, it’s Tom Brady vs. Peyton Manning that sets apart the Patriots-Colts battles of the 21st century, and it’s Brady-Manning that will capture mega-ratings for NBC Sunday night.
In fact, Brady vs. Manning is more than just a showdown of the game’s two marquee players.
It is The Greatest Quarterback Rivalry in NFL History.
Steve Young-Troy Aikman dominated the QB wars of the 1990s. One was a prolific stat monster and still is the highest-rated passer in history. The other was a three-time champion at the helm of America’s Team. They squared off in a series of memorable postseason battles from 1992 to 1994. The winner went on to win the Super Bowl each year.
But that was about it for Young-Aikman. It was too short-lived to live up the standards of Brady-Manning.
Dan Marino-Joe Montana was the great rivalry of the 1980s — the two were universally proclaimed as the best quarterbacks of their time. Heated debates about who was better would have chewed up cell phone arguments and Internet chat board debates — had, you know, cell phones and chat boards existed way back in the 1980s. (The 1980s were funny: A nerd could launch global thermonuclear war from a tic-tac-toe game in his bedroom, but you needed a cast-iron typewriter to "text" your girlfriend.)
But as far as an on-field rivalry is concerned, Marino-Montana wasn’t much. The two faced each other just twice in the regular season, once in 1983 and again in 1993, when Montana played for the Chiefs. The Hall of Famers met only twice in the postseason: The 49ers routed the Dolphins 38-16 in Super Bowl XIX, and in Montana's final game, on Dec. 31, 1994, the Dolphins beat the Chiefs 27-17 in the AFC wild card playoff. (Editor's note: This item has been updated to include the second postseason meeting.)
Marino-Montana made for great debates, but not much else. Up with People produced more memorable on-field moments than Marino-Montana.
Terry Bradshaw-Roger Staubach ruled the 1970s. Each led dynastic powers, each won multiple Super Bowls and each landed in the Hall of Fame. But, like Marino-Montana, the two rarely faced each other. Bradshaw got the better of Staubach in their two epic Super Bowl showdowns, games that everybody remembers.
But the two faced each other just twice in the regular season, once in 1977 and once in 1979. Pittsburgh won all four meetings. It’s hard to build a great rivalry around four meetings in a decade.
Bart Starr-John Unitas featured the two best quarterbacks of their era, and the mere mention of their names evokes images of the NFL’s muddy, hard-hitting, coming-of-age decade of the 1960s. Both entered the NFL in 1956 and their teams met twice each year through 1966 as rivals in the NFL’s old Western Conference. But the two never met once in the postseason. Unitas blew the one opportunity we had to witness history: He was injured and missed the 1965 Colts-Packers Western Conference tiebreaker game.
You can go all the way back to Otto Graham vs. Norm Van Brocklin or Sid Luckman vs. Sammy Baugh, and you’ll discover that none matched up with the Brady-Manning epic that will write its 11th chapter Sunday night in Indianapolis.
Here are nine reasons why Brady-Manning is The Greatest Quarterback Rivalry in NFL History.
1. Brady and Manning square off almost every year. While Bradshaw-Staubach or Marino-Montana rarely had meetings on the field, Brady and Manning faced each other twice in 2001 when the Colts and Patriots still were division rivals and have met again in the regular season in '03, '04, '05, '06, '07 and here in
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