tom brady is better than peyton manning

i think tom brady is better than peyton manning because not only does brady have 3 rings to manning's 1 and brady has had more success in the playoffs then any other qb in history

Given that this is only 3 rounds and my opponent made some arguments in the first round, I too will argue in my first round. Since my opponent brought up past achievements, I presume we are discussing their skills over their lifetime vs at this current moment.

== Team Effects ==

We are comparing too great athletes, and as such, we need to compare their skills, and avoid as much as possible the effects of other players. That can be difficult, since no matter how great a QB is, the receiver has to catch the ball, and a great WR will make catches that an average one won't, and thus inflate the stats of the QB.

It can be difficult to see a team's effect, but the best way is to look at how well the team does if the player is removed. Normally this cannot be done, as teams aren't going to bench a QB for an entire season just to see how well he really does. But these two players are wonderful examples of this.

Tom Brady missed the 2008 year [1][3], while Peyton Manning missed the 2011 year [2][4]. We can see that in the year without Brady, the Pats still went 11-5, scoring 410 points [1], while the Colts fell from 10-6 down to 2-14 with only 243 points [2]. This clearly shows that Brady was on a better team that was able to help inflate his success. Winning Super Bowls is a team effort and a team success. It is not an individual accomplishment. It would be ludicrous to suggest that Stephen Gostkowski was the best kicker because of his Super Bowl rings.

Lets not also forget the fact that the Patriots have a bad history of cheating [5], which came out right after their almost historic 2007 season. While Brady was not directly involved in this, it was his Head Coach which indirectly helped Brady's numbers look better than he actually is.

== Individual Stats ==

If we stop and look at the actual stats of the players, Manning blows Brady out of the water (most stats will be from [3][4]). With 491 TDs for Manning to 359 TDs for Brady. That's 37% more TDs for only being in the league for 2 years more. When it comes to passing yards, we see Manning has approximately 65,000 to Brady's 49,000 (33% more). Manning is also more accurate, with 65.5% career completion to Brady's 63.4% (and Brady has, until just this last season, much better targets to throw to). This all goes in line with Brady being on a better team. He puts up worse numbers, but finds more team success.

I'll leave this as is for now so that it is not too much for my opponent to address in their 1 hour.

Thank you,

[1] http://www.pro-football-reference.com...
[2] http://www.pro-football-reference.com...
[3] http://espn.go.com...
[4] http://espn.go.com...
[5] http://en.wikipedia.org...

Extend

/end debate