I know I'm not going to win any votes on this stance, but hear me out.
Peyton Manning is viewed as the "greatest QB to never win the big one." Well, he's still just like Marino, in the SB but no ring yet. I realize if he wins the SB, he'll definitely be considered one of the best ever just because of a championship. Fine. I get that, no problem here. But, I want to look at the inverse (yeah, since I'm in Calc class, it's just so much fun to use math words.)
How many of us look at Trent Dilfer or Shawn King as great, heck, even GOOD quarterbacks just because they have a SB ring? It doesn't even matter how well they played in that game, they are sucky QBs. Is Big Ben a great QB? He won a SB. What about Mark Rypien? So, should one game really make all the difference?
Here is where my stance might not get many votes: What if Peyton Manning has a terrible SB game. And I mean terrible. Like, oh, hypothetically speaking, a QB rating of 1.3. BUT, the Colts still WIN the game. Based on the type of game Manning had and his rating in this scenario, should he really be considered to have had any part of them winning that SB game? With that performance and rating, ANYONE would have won the game. However, because the Colts won the SB and Manning was the QB, he will now be considered as one of the greatest ever, just because he won a title, even though his performance in that ONE game had nothing to do with his team winning. Yet, Dilfer, King, Rypien, etc. could have incredible games, but not much is going to change about how good of an NFL quarterback they were. We will still forget about them and our opinions will be that they stunk as QB's.
2 comments:
It's an interesting question. It doesn't really make sense to judge an individual's skill on a team effort, but we do. Winning the Super Bowl validates a great QB but certainly doesn't make us think a bad QB is great. I think it's mostly about the position. You don't hear Barry Sanders talked about as "the best RB to never win a Super Bowl." A QB is a leader; if he can't lead his team to the Super Bowl then maybe he isn't great. Or something.
Funny how you say that about Barry. Monday morning on 1130 AM - The Fan, Sean Beligien had a segment about the Top 10 professional athletes to have never won a title. I don't think it was Sean that did the poll, it was someone/something else in the media that did the Top 10. I believe Barry Sanders was #6. Marino was #1, shocking.
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