The NFL had a pretty cool ceremony prior to the Super Bowl, honoring all the numerous MVPs from the first 49 Super Bowls. The biggest cheers went to John Elway and Terrell Davis due to the large number of Denver Broncos fans in the crowd. However, Joe Montana, Steve Young and Jerry Rice all got big cheers.
The biggest boos went to Tom Brady. Considering his rivalry with Peyton Manning, and the Spygate stuff around the Super Bowl win over the Panthers, it was not surprising to see Brady get booed.
Earlier in the week, Brady, Montana and Terry Bradshaw talked about being the only quarterbacks with four Super Bowl rings. Brady was asked if he considered himself one of the best quarterbacks to ever play. He said no, and talked about the many great quarterbacks to come before him, and as a Bay Area boy, a lot of his comments dealt with Joe Montana and Steve Young. Brady talked about Young being one of the most gifted players to ever play, but then took things a step further with his comments about Joe Montana.
When you look at me being a fan of Joe Montana â nobody ever did it better than Joe Montana. In a way he was like the Michael Jordan of football. The style and the grace and the beauty of what Joe's style was, it never looked hard for Joe.
It is no surprise that Brady would think so highly of Montana. He attended the playoff game against the Dallas Cowboys that resulted in "The Catch". He was a fan of those great 80s teams, and like many fans of those teams, he considers Joe Montana the greatest of all time. The debate will rage for years to come, and is an intriguing one, but given his fan history, Tom Brady will likely always defer to Joe Montana.