Brady Vs. Manning

Who's better? Recently Sportscenter tackled who deserves more money and I would like to elaborate on the debate and maybe something I say may finally help you chose or maybe you won't agree, regardless this is some greater perspective on Tom Brady versus Peyton Manning.

Tom Brady

6'4" 225 lbs

Peyton Manning

6'5" 230 lbs

College Successes
Both players attended prolific football schools during their college primes, but Manning was significantly more hyped when he finished with Tennessee. Brady attended Michigan and only played in 31 games and started 25 of those in 5 years. His final year was his best though as he had 20 TDs and 5 INTs and had his best game of his career in his last game. In the FedEx Orange Bowl vs Alabama he went 34-46 with 369 yards and 4 TDs. Manning on the other hand was putting up great numbers every year as he started 45 games for the Vols. In his final year he won numerous awards and was an All-American, while leading Tennessee to a 11-1* season that ended with a loss to Nebraska in the Orange Bowl. Overall though the edge still goes to Manning.

Other Talents Growing Up
This category may seem unfair but I wanted to touch on it regardless. Back in high school Tom Brady was a 2-sport superstar, excelling in baseball and football, he was actually drafted by the Montreal Expos in the 18th Round as a catcher but chose to go to Michigan instead. Manning's hardest choice was Ole Miss or Tennessee. Edge Brady.

NFL Statistics
Peyton Manning is a statistical machine, there is no doubt about it. He already is 4th in yards, 3rd in touchdowns, 5th in passer rating and 4th in completion percentage. He is on pace to hold every major quarterback statistical category. He also hold the 2nd highest single season total for TDs with 49. Brady on the other hand does not have as complete a resume though impressive none the less. He's been trying his hardest to make up for lost time though, he currently is 21st in TDs, 7th in passer rating, 31st in yards and 9th in completion percentage. He also has the greatest statistical single season for a quarterback on his resume, in 2007 he had 50 TDs, 8 INTs, 4806 yards, a 69% completion percentage and a passer rating of an astonishing 117.2. Overall though Manning's sheer consistently gives him the call here. Edge Manning.

The Last 3-4 Years
As quarterbacks age their statistics usually start to either round off or spike (if you're Brett Favre). Manning has gotten better at winning, but his statistics are starting to come down a little bit. Don't get me wrong they are still incredible but the quick snapshot of averages for the last 3 years is:
30-TDs
14-INTs
97-QB Rating
261-Y/G
66%-Comp %

For Brady it's this:
34-TDs**
11-INTS
100-QB Rating
264-Y/G
64%- Comp %

Brady has actually continually improved over the last 3 years as Manning has hit a slight decline. Edge Brady.

Winning
Peyton Manning is a winner. In every level of football he has had incredible regular season records and he continually leads the colts to great seasons. Over his NFL career he is 131-61 in the regular season which is an incredible 68% winning percentage. Tom Brady makes that look mediocre. He has played in 127 games and has won 97 of them. For you folks at home not good at math that's a 76% winning percentage in the regular season. This guy wins almost 8 out of every 10 games he starts, for a career! What puts Brady way over the top in this category though is the playoff winning, Manning's career record in the playoffs is 9-9 with one ring, while Brady's is 14-4 with 3 rings. No contest, Big edge Brady.

Awards
Tom Brady has one regular season MVP, 2 Superbowl MVPs one offensive player of the year award and is a 5-time pro-bowler. Peyton Manning has 4 MVP trophies, which is the most all-time and 1 Superbowl MVP, oh yeah and by the way he also has 10 pro-bowl appearances. Edge Manning.

Extra-Curricular Activities
Tom Brady has a super-model wife, a child, and is constantly picked as one of the most attractive men in sports. Peyton Manning on the other hand is just hilarious, enough said. Edge Manning.


So when all is said and done Manning got the edge in one more category than Brady, but then comes the difficult part in deciding which player you'd rather have. What do you weigh more? Statistics or Winning? If you're answer is winning, which should be expected, than that big edge Brady has in that particular category should be the largest deciding factor. If you were going to start a franchise today and needed a quarterback...who would you chose? My choice, Tom Brady, but there is no wrong answer.



*This includes the SEC Championship game victory over Auburn.
** This includes the year after Brady's injury not 2008.

The Year of the Bad Call

I am not a professional coach nor player therefore anything I say about bad calls will not cost me 1/100th of my paycheck.



Just now as I watch the World Cup Semi-Finals, I witnessed a game-tying goal get taken away from England. Why, you ask? A foul...nope, an offsides call...nope. Hmmm, well what could it have been? It was that classic, forgivable case of THE REFEREE DIDN'T SEE IT...not even a joke, it hit the top crossbar landed in the goal about 2 yards in then bounced up and the goalie grabbed it. Everyone thinks it's a goal, the announcers say its a goal, the England coach pumps his fist after it goes in, but the referee does nothing and let's the game continue like nothing happened. That's just great. So in a 2-1 game where that goal would've been the equalizer, England faced a 1 goal deficit going into the half in a do-or-die World Cup game.

As I turned over to Sportscenter to see the highlights from last nights MLB action, I noticed another great blunder. The Tigers were playing the Braves and Johnny Damon was at the plate for the Tigers in a game which they were losing 3-4 and there were 2 outs and 2 strikes. Damon took a pitch that was way outside and what did the umpire do...Yup you guessed it, he called it a strike. The game ends, everyone is baffled and the Tigers are victims once again of a terrible game-changing call.



Bad calls happen all the time and everyone in sports is aware of this, but is it just me or do the calls this year seem to be more prominent? A perfect game was ruined, the world cup is full of question marks, the NBA is considering changing what the letters stand for to No Bumping Allowed. Ok that last one I made up, but it's ridiculous how much control these refs and umps have over these games and what's even more ridiculous is how many of them abuse their power. For every good referee there's at least 4 Joe Crawfords.

Players, coaches, and owners aren't allowed to make comments or else they get a toy hammer brought down on them (we all know those fines are hilariously low) and commissioners seem to refuse to do anything about it. I feel like a lot of these leagues need to clean house and get new referees and they should also all utilize replay in all facets of the game that could be determinants of a win or loss. What's the point of playing a game hard and doing everything right, if it's going to be stomped on and wasted by some power happy or ignorant referee.

We have Iphones, Itouches, and Ipads that all work quickly and bring technology places we couldn't have even imagined 10 years ago and you're telling me they can't get replay to be quick and accurate. Let's get Steve Jobs to invent Ireplay, or better yet Iwannaknowwhoactuallywouldvewonthisgame and we should be all set.

The All-Annoying Teams!

There are some players in the NBA that just friggen annoy the crap out of me. They have something about them that just bugs me and forces me to dislike them. It's either their personality, their look or how they play the game that makes me root against them.




All-Annoying Team
Starters

Pg. Delonte West - This guy likes to ride around like he's Blade with guns on a motorcycle...

Sg. Sasha Vujacic - He vowed to never wear green after the Celtics smoked the Lakers in 08'...What a tool!

Sf. Lebron James - He is ultra-talented, but an ultra crybaby and he never ever ever gets fouls called on him, it's sickening the way David Stern wants to make him MJ.

Pf. Anderson Varejao - Just look at this guy!

C. Dwight Howard - I used to like Dwight, before I realized how much a of a punk he is, he fouls, elbows and plays dirty and the worse part, idiots like Jeff Van Gundy have the nerve to defend him by saying everything he does is inadvertent!

Bench

1.Pau Gasol - AKA the Geico Caveman, The sad thing, I wanted him on the Celtics at one point.

2.Joakim Noah - This was close between Varejao and Noah they both are pretty equal in my eyes, Noah is obviously more talented, but he could possibly be one of the ugliest people on the planet and sadly that ugliness pales in comparison to the ugliness of his shot.

3.Ron Artest - I really don't have to give a reason I dislike him right?

4.Jermaine O'Neal - Ditto

5. Jeff Van Gundy - I know, I know, he's an announcer now, but he deserves to be on this list since I dread ABC broadcasts just because of him.

Now for the sake of good fun I will also post the Team of Players I admire and like watching.

Starters

Pg. Rajon Rondo
Sg. Kobe Bryant
Sf. Kevin Durant
Pf. Tim Duncan
C. Shaquille O'Neal

Bench

1.Dwayne Wade
2.Paul Pierce
3.Ray Allen
4.Chris Paul
5.Chris Duhon
6.Chris Bosh
7.Gerald Wallace

Whatchya Say??

You know what the most unimportant job is in sports broadcasting? The reporter that talks to the players or coaches after halftime and after the game. I'm confused as to why this position even exists? Do we really need to hear a losing coach tell us his team didn't play well or a player telling us that he'll have to keep playing hard. Shouldn't we assume these things? I feel like we should! These people have nothing interesting to say nine times out of ten and when it is interesting, it's not supposed to be on TV.

Most of the time the best part of the interview is Craig Sager's suit...Or KG's opinion of them...

These interviews after the game accomplish nothing. What do we want this player to say? They are NBA players, not "philosophizers". Shaq may be the "Great Aristotle" but the best thing he's ever said in a sideline interview was the F-bomb!




All I'm saying is this is pointless unnecessary sports reporting and it bores me!

The NBA is Full of Sallies...

Professional basketball is a contact sport. Can someone please tell the refs this immediately, before they ruin the NBA playoffs. Obviously basketball is not on the level of football, hockey or rugby, but if you have played the game you know it gets physical and if you grew up watching the NBA you've witnessed how physical it can be. Playoff basketball was the modern day equivalent of titans battling one another in epic clashes of athleticism, skill and brute force. Legendary battles like Celtics versus the Sixers or Lakers in the 80's or Bulls versus the Knicks or Pacers in the 90's were staples of competitiveness. These games were incredible to watch during the regular season, but were completely on a different level come playoff time and there was never any question what a foul was back then because you would know it when you saw one.

Sadly those days are forgotten and are now replaced by the longest tenured trend in the NBA, the ticky-tack foul. If you just began watching the NBA this year, you'd think the entire NBA was full of overpaid she-males. Players like Rasheed Wallace and Dwight Howard actually have reasons to complain. If they so much as sweat on someone, they could be charged with a foul. It's truly sad when there have been at least a hundred moments when I've thought after watching an NBA game, did that team really lose or did the refs blow it? Granted on the great scheme of things an NBA referee can only do so much, but sometimes thats a lot more than they should. Players can't battle for rebounds now or stand up in the lane to defend a driver. If that player has momentum you had better get out of the way or a foul will be called, especially if that player is a star... *cough* *cough* Lebron James *cough*.

Even more surprising than all of this is the fact that the Cleveland "superstar" averages less fouls than any other starter in NBA history, in a foul happy league at that...Go figure...but that's for another time.

So as NBA fans what are supposed to do? The answer for that...nothing. We are stuck with this watered down league until David Stern is finally finished and even then who knows what would happen. All we need is one more player to be injured from a non-call and we will probably have games decided by free-throw contests instead of teams actually playing each other.

It's not like I am condoning injuring one another or desiring the league to be more like AND1 streetball, I'm just asking if the refs can swallow the whistle more often. Let the men be men and play the game the way it's supposed to be played.

Mr.Phil Will You Please Shut Up!

The NBA Playoffs are right around the corner and already a familiar voice is speaking out of turn again. My only plea, Phil Jackson can you please shut up?! I mean seriously what has Kevin Durant done to you? He now has the record for youngest player to win a scoring title which is quite the incredible feat and yet you have to try to diminish that feat just because he's coming in to town to face your team, the team already expected to win nonetheless? *



I find this to be in poor taste Mr.Jackson, I always was a fan of your ways back when you coached the great Bulls teams and even during your first tenure with LA, but now that aura you used to have is diminishing at a steady rate which has slowly but surely led me to almost despise you. I don't see you taking any shots at veterans in the league either and that may be my biggest issue with all of this. In 2008 during the Boston Celtics championship run you went out of your way to mispronounce Leon Powe's name. During that post conference, now a NBA classic, we watched you look at the box score and wonder how "POW"** got the best of you. Sadly your arrogance didn't pay off in that series to no ones surprise.



I'm looking forward to the Lakers v. Thunder series and I hope it surprises people. Is it bad that I am pulling for an upset now? Who knows, but one thing I'm sure of is that Phil Jackson needs to go back to his Zen-like mentality and shut his mouth.





*The original quote basically just said that Durant gets to the line too often because the refs call a special game for him. Which in turn is why he shoots so many free throws and scores so much.

** It's pronounced like Poe