The NFL wrapped up its all-time team on Friday night, as the league revealed the 10 quarterbacks selected as the greatest in league history. A total of three active quarterbacks – Tom Brady, Drew Brees and Aaron Rodgers – made the list of finalists, but only Brady made the cut on the NFL 100 All-Time Team.
Brady was a no-brainer pick, but the 26-person voting panel passed over another obvious lock in Brees to get to its limit of 10 QBs. Brady leads a field that includes Joe Montana, John Elway, Brett Favre, Peyton Manning, Otto Graham, Sammy Baugh, Dan Marino, Roger Staubach and Johnny Unitas.
Over the course of 100 years of league history, there have obviously been more than 10 legendary quarterbacks that you could make an argument for, but Brees’ exclusion in particular is unconscionable. The NFL’s expert panel has somehow determined that the player who has thrown for more yards and touchdowns than anyone in history is not among the 10 greatest to ever play the position.
It’s difficult to compare modern quarterbacks to the likes of Baugh and Graham, who played an entirely different game in the ’40s and ’50s, but even against his greatest modern contemporaries, Brees is unquestionably one of the greatest quarterbacks ever. The stats don’t lie.
Fans were understandably baffled.
