Quarterback Mysticism

It's all about your quarterback. Bill Belichick was a sub-.500 coach before Tom Brady. He was 5-11 in 2000, and 0-3 in 2001. Then Bledsoe gets hurt, in comes Tom Brady. Super Bowl Champions. Is Bill Belichick a great coach or is he a good coach, who got lucky?

 -Colin Cowherd

Yesterday's Radio Show

This must be what it feels like to be an atheist. Every flimsy bit of evidence people throw at you sticks in your craw. But I'm not an atheist. I'm simply not a member of Quartbackism: the newest superstition on the block with its most devout sect being the Tebowists. The primary dogma of these zealouts is that the Quarterback is more than an athlete, a symbol or even a man. He somehow connects everyone on the football team to the same line of thinking and ability, and can--through sheer force and will--turn losses into wins. They worship at the alters of "Fourth Quarter Heroics" and "Gutsy Plays". Their devotion leads them to the unassailable conclusion that the Holy Trinity consists of Favre, Brady and Montana (with Tebow playing a Virgin Mary-like role). You see, its only logic. Who wins championships? FRANCHISE QUARTERBACKS, that's who.

Walk down the halls of memory lane and you will see the images of these noble knights of football hoisting the Vince Lombardi trophy: the Manning brothers, Brees, Brady, Big Ben, Aaron Rodgers, the list goes on. You see, that's why you can't trust the 49ers this year. They don't have a franchise quarterback. They've got Alex Smith, and a very conservative offense. And you can't win without a franchise quarterback. Unless you're the 2000 Ravens with Trent Dilfer, but that was a decade ago, and this is a quarterback league.

Though lets go through the history shall we? Let's examine the Lords of Legends from the first Superbowl I watched start to finish: 1998 match up between the Packers and Broncos. This is where John Elway jumped up an echelon to become a Superbowl winning quarterback. He'd been there three times, but kept losing. Some how he summoned up enough guts in that 38 year old body of his to will his team to victory.

Without throwing for a single touchdown.

You know who had an epic day? Brett Favre, who tossed three touchdowns, and for twice the amount of yards than Elway. If Quarterbacks win Superbowls, Favre would have won that day and ESPN would have rioted like Detroit after a Pistons Championship. But somehow Elway's guts won the day.

You know, that and 157 yards from Terrell Davis, the most dominant running back at the time, with significant help from a superb offensive line and Mike Shanahan's zone blocking scheme that would produce 1000 yard rushers like Harvard produces millionaires. And his defense stopped Favre on the last drive to save the victory.

But clearly that game made Elway one of the greats. Which he was, anyway. And he did have a great game in the next Superbowl, where he threw for over 300 yards. But even if he'd retired after the Packers Superbowl, we'd still have him on the same level of greatness. Of course, if he'd retired before the Packers game, he'd be a level down. Because then he wouldn't have been a "Superbowl Quarterback".

That's the kicker. We count out the Niners before this season because we don't think Alex Smith is a "Superbowl Quarterback". Which is right. But before the Rams 1999 championship run, Kurt Warner was not a "Superbowl Quarterback", he was a "Back-Up Quarterback" and "Former Grocery-Store Cashier". But he was able to put up big numbers all season (with a team including Marshall Faulk, Isaac Bruce, and Torry Holt; Adam Sandler could have tossed for 4000 yards with those guys).

2000 was our supposed anomaly year, where Trent Dilfer and a great defense won out over the Giants (opposing quarterback: Kerry Collins. Least. Intriguing. Matchup. Ever.) 

2001 was the aforementioned year in which Tom Brady saved Bill Belichick's career. Of course, they got to the Superbowl in much the same style as the Ravens the year before, extremely conservative offense, with stifling defense and, as all Raiders fans can attest, a few lucky breaks. Brady would go on to great numbers, but he was very pedestrian that year, throwing for under 3000 yards, 18 touchdowns to 12 interceptions. Those numbers actually reflect Alex Smith's numbers before Harbaugh.

He also managed 20 points against a porous Rams' defense. Oh, and somehow his defense held The Greatest Show On Turf to 17 points.

2002. Brad Johnson. Not a Hall of Famer by any stretch of the imagination. Oh, and a terrific defense. Pattern?

2003. Slightly better Brady. The team is still a conservative offense, and again wins on a last second field goal, leading Reed Smith to loudly argue that if Jim Kelly had Tom Brady's kicker, we'd all have to bow down to him too.

2004. Ok, MVP level Brady. And a great defense. They went 14-2 and were hands down the best team, walked away with the Superbowl. Ironically despite this being his best season, this is the one time Brady was NOT Superbowl MVP. See, there was a time when we used to give the award to the biggest impact player, not simply the Quarterback of the winning team. (Silence as Justin Tuck stares bullets at Eli Manning).

2005. BIG BEN. Only completed 9 passes. He was only in his second year, so Bill Cowher played things pretty close to the vest, and the defense really won the day (OMG, its like defense is important or something).

2006. After years of shootouts, the Colts defense buckles down for 4 games and wins Peyton Manning his only ring. So aside from this year and Brady's third Superbowl, all our Superbowl Champions since 1999 have started the season with a Quarterback that was not a consensus Hall of Famer. Kudos Peyton, on being the exception to the rule.

2007. Much-maligned Eli Manning snatches certain victory from the MOST DOMINANT TEAM OF MY LIFETIME. Brady threw for 50 touchdowns that year, yet the Giants D held him to only 14 points. But Eli's fifth-string receiver caught a ball on his head, so he's the MVP. This convinces nobody, and as late as last summer analysts refused to call Eli an "Elite Quarterback".

2008. Big Ben enters season generally thought to be in the top 10 QB's in the league. By the end he's clearly in the top 5. A good example of someone improving their stock through winning the Superbowl.

2009. THE YEAR OF THE QUARTERBACK. Colin Cowherd and all Quarterbackists finally see a match up of Franchise Quarterbacks. So who needs defense? One year some team won on offensive fire power, so lets ignore the past 10 years.

2010. Look, I was on my mission for the entirety of this season, so I don't really know. When I left Aaron Rodgers was thought of about like Matthew Stafford is today. So he won a Superbowl. Great.

2011. The season of HYPOCRISY. I saw only the Superbowl this year, yet I got enough of the coverage to know that when Eli Manning asserted before the season that he was an elite quarterback he was laughed at harder than Monty Python's killer rabbit. Before the playoffs NOBODY called him elite. Going into the Superbowl NOBODY thought he was a future hall of famer. Then the Giants won, because Wes Welker dropped a wide open pass that would have clinched the game.

We all agree that because Eli has now won two Superbowls, he's a great quarterback. Even though none of us thought that before the most recent game he's played.

My point: don't count out the Niners. Defense wins Championships.

And Bill Belichick is the best coach of the past 20 years and that goes way beyond Tom Brady.