Can Tom Brady eclipse Michael Jordan as the greatest GOAT of all time?

Can Tom Brady eclipse Michael Jordan as the greatest GOAT of all time?

Dan Pompei
Feb 4, 2021

At the most critical moments in the most meaningful games, they have been the same.

Michael Jordan steals the ball from Karl Malone with 18.6 seconds left in Game 6 of the 1998 NBA Finals, takes it down the court, drives inside the three-point line, creates space with a crossover and slight push of Bryon Russell, and then nails a 20-footer to give the Bulls a three-point lead with 5.2 seconds remaining.

Advertisement

Impervious.

Tom Brady, down 28-3 to the Falcons in the third quarter of Super Bowl LI, leads his team to five consecutive scores, ties the game with 57 seconds remaining and then wins it in overtime.

Dauntless.

Jordan, at 26, takes an inbound pass from Brad Sellers with the Bulls trailing the Cavaliers 100-99 with three seconds remaining of Game 5 in a first-round playoff series. He moves left, rises, hangs in the air above Craig Ehlo and sinks a 15-foot jump shot just off the free-throw line to give the Bulls a victory at the buzzer.

Cunning.

Tom Brady, a 24-year-old second-year player, takes over on his own 17-yard line with the score tied, no timeouts and 1:30 remaining in Super Bowl XXXVI, a game in which the Patriots are 14-point underdogs. John Madden suggests the Patriots take a knee. Instead, Brady calmly completes five of eight passes to set up Adam Vinatieri’s winning field goal.

Smooth.

It has been close to 30 years since Jordan won his first NBA championship. Already a bit world-weary, he pressed his forehead against the gold trophy, smudging it with sweat, and surrendered to the tears. It has been 19 years since Brady won that first Super Bowl, put his hands on his temples and shook his head like he couldn’t believe it, looking more like the boy who dreamt about the moment than the man who made it happen.

Now, Brady and Jordan each have six championships. They stand together as conquerors, and apart from the rest.

At least until Sunday.


They are connected by failure.

Coaches didn’t let Brady on the field for his 0-8 freshman high school team, and Jordan didn’t make the varsity as a sophomore. Jordan grew five inches that year, and his potential greatness was quickly recognized. For Brady, the climb continued to be onerous. As a freshman at Michigan, Brady was the seventh-string quarterback. His first college pass was a pick-six. Even as a senior, Brady was platooned with Drew Henson for the first six games of the season. Then he watched as 198 players were selected before him in the 2000 draft.

Advertisement

Their disappointments led to obsessions with dominance. Jordan and Brady never stopped reminding themselves that to others, they were not good enough. “They both have an insatiable desire to silence their critics,” says Jason Hehir, who directed last year’s Jordan-Bulls documentary “The Last Dance” and is a lifelong Patriots fan who spent his formative years in Newton, Mass.

When Hehir interviewed Jordan in May 2019, he asked him what he missed most about playing. Before Hehir even finished the question, the answer came. “Proving people wrong,” Jordan said abruptly. After Brady’s underdog Bucs beat the Packers in the NFC championship game last month, he posted a video on social media in which he smirked at the camera without saying a word. Rob Gronkowski, by his side, showed off an NFC Champions T-shirt. Says Hehir, “A Tik Tok speaks a thousand words.”

Brady and Jordan silenced critics more with dedication, discipline, competitiveness, and toughness — which they have control over — than with athleticism, which is gifted. It can be argued that Jordan was the third-best athlete on some of his own teams behind Scottie Pippen and Dennis Rodman. Brady, who looked a little too much like Rich Eisen while running the 40-yard dash in 5.28 seconds at the 2000 combine, never has been close to the third-best athlete on any team he played on.

Brady goes to bed at 8:30 p.m. to make sure he is well-rested but not before doing brain exercises. There are exceptions, however. Patriots safety Devin McCourty told House of Highlights that Brady once responded to throwing a practice interception in the red zone by watching tape of 109 red zone plays that night to make sure it didn’t happen again. The Patriots had a bye the first week of the 2016 playoffs, and Bill Belichick gave the team three days off. Instead of spending extra time with his supermodel wife and beautiful children, Brady worked with throwing coach Tom House until early Friday evening at Gillette Stadium. Roy Williams, an assistant on Jordan’s North Carolina team, said on “The Last Dance” that Jordan once told him, “Nobody will ever work as hard as I work.”

Jordan will compete — and bet — on anything. There are tales of him wagering six figures on rock-paper-scissors and gambling $300,000 on a single putt. Brady accepted the challenge of competing in a beer-chugging contest with his linemen — and won. After being beaten in backgammon by a teammate, Brady threw the board across the room. When Jimmy Garoppolo was his teammate, they would play “the bucket game,” in which each tried to throw a set number of footballs into a bucket. If Brady lost, he refused to speak to Garoppolo after.

Advertisement

Pro golfer Keegan Bradley frequently plays with Jordan and is a Patriots fan who considers Brady a “mythical figure in my life.” Bradley accompanied Jordan on a trip to the Bahamas, and they met up with Brady at Baker’s Bay Golf and Ocean Club. After one of their rounds, they played some hoops — Jordan and Brady against Bradley and an acquaintance. Bradley was assigned to guard Brady, who was all flying elbows, loose-ball-dives and scrap. “It was surreal for me because this guy is my hero,” Bradley said. “I’m guarding him, and he’s going really hard. I finally said to him at one point, ‘Please, if I hurt you — if you bust your knee because of this dumb game — I’ll never be able to call home again.’ … He was going so hard.”

If history is an indicator, Bradley had nothing to worry about. Neither Brady nor Jordan have allowed injuries to influence their legacy. Brady has played through shoulder, arm, finger, rib, thigh, knee, shin, calf, ankle and foot injuries as well as concussions, according to his wife. The only injury that forced him to miss a game in his career was a torn ACL. He sat out 15 games because of it in 2008. Outside of missing 64 games in the 1985-86 season with a broken bone in his foot, Jordan missed only seven other games in his career while playing in 1,251. He even suited up for every game for an awful Wizards team at the age of 40.

Their durability has been about mind more than body.


For one, there is the hanging tongue; for the other, the kiss on his children’s lips.

The taste of a Cuban cigar, the taste of a purple potato.

The fadeaway jumper; the loose-bodied, effortless sling.

The dunk from the free-throw line; the quarterback sneak.


As much as Brady and Jordan thrived on the doubts of others, they appear to have none of their own. That explains Brady going where no quarterback has gone at the age of 43 and contemplating playing beyond 45.

When Brady met Patriots owner Robert Kraft for the first time after being drafted, he famously told him, “I’m the best decision your organization ever made.” Jordan guaranteed a victory before the seventh game of the Eastern Conference finals against the Pacers in 1998. Dikembe Mutombo once taunted Jordan on the free-throw line. Jordan closed his eyes and sank his free throws.

Advertisement

In an unguarded moment while preparing to play the Chiefs in the AFC Championship game in 2019, Brady yelled, “I’m the baddest motherf—— on the planet!” as he walked into the locker room, according to Mike Giardi of NFL Network. Brooks Koepka, the former No. 1 golfer in the world, led Jordan going into the last two holes of a round and made sure Jordan was aware of the scorecard. Jordan took a practice swing and stared at Koepka. “It’s the fourth quarter, baby, I don’t lose,’” Jordan told him, according to ESPN. Jordan took the last two holes.

Neither of them thought time — undefeated until Brady — was a worthy opponent. Jordan walked away from the NBA at the height of his basketball abilities to begin a baseball career for the Double-A Birmingham Barons at 31. He is the only NBA player who ever averaged more than 20 points per game and scored 40 in a game in his 40s.

Their confidence is both the result of their supremacy and the reason for it.


Jordan idolized Magic Johnson; Brady idolized Joe Montana.

Alex Guerrero, Brady’s body coach, has Brady’s boundless loyalty. George Koehler, the limo driver who offered Jordan a ride at O’Hare Airport when Jordan arrived there for the first time as a rookie, has Jordan’s lifelong devotion.

Brady has kicked it with Mark Wahlberg, and he played himself in Wahlberg’s movie about a talking teddy bear. Jordan is friends with Spike Lee, and they made commercials together.


Conflict is more central to Jordan than Brady. Whereas Jordan gave teammate Steve Kerr a black eye, kept rival Isiah Thomas off the Dream Team, and dissed Bryon Russell (as well as others) in his hall of fame speech, Brady compliments opposing defensive players after they sack him.

Jordan became an all-pro at imagining insults and embellishing unintended sideswipes. “Jordan was just more open about wanting to crush and answer opponents,” legendary sportscaster Bob Costas said. “I never heard Tom say that he had to create resentments or grudges. Michael would exaggerate slights or invent them. Jeff Van Gundy would say some offhanded thing, and it became a crusade for Michael to drop 50 on the Knicks. … If that was true of Brady, he didn’t wear it on his sleeve as much.”

Advertisement

Brady, in fact, tries to avoid conflict. He espouses Don Miguel Ruiz’s “The Four Agreements,” one of which is Don’t Take Anything Personally. But he doesn’t always succeed at that. “Jordan is a little more demonstrative with his indignance on the court, but I think you’ll see glimpses of it in Brady,” Hehir says. “You can see F-bombs coming out of Tom’s mouth during games to opponents, to teammates on the sideline.”

Whereas Jordan can talk smack at least as well as he plays basketball, Brady usually takes the high road. He can, however, be a sneaky trash talker. Before golfing against Peyton Manning in The Match: Champions for Charity, Brady said he was “worried about them pumping in crowd noise in there if he starts making putts like they used to at the RCA Dome.” After The Washington Football Team made the playoffs this year, Chase Young, the rookie defensive end, said, “I want Tom Brady.” After the Bucs beat Washington, Young, an Ohio State alum, asked Brady for a jersey. Brady obliged but signed it, “Go Blue.”

Bradley has been trash talked by both. After he made a boast on social media about beating Jordan in golf, Jordan tweeted back. “Last time I looked, you were wearing MY shoes. You don’t see me wearing Air Keegans …” Brady, with the benefit of 12 strokes, once beat Bradley on the course. Then the quarterback insisted on going through the scorecard. “Okay Keegan, you’re one down, two down, there goes that batch,” he told him. “You’re two down here.”

Jordan nicknamed general manager Jerry Krause “Crumbs” because of the way his shirts looked after meals. Brady respects authority publicly, even when authority doesn’t bow to him. When it was clear Brady was worn out by Belichick’s ways, he never said a word. He pretty much agreed with Bruce Arians when his coach blamed him for some early season missteps this season.

Brady cares more about what people think of him. If he is asked to sign a photograph in which his throwing mechanics look bad, he declines.

People on the street, as well as friends, find both to be gracious and charismatic — they were raised well — but there is an organic humility about Brady that isn’t as easy to see in Jordan. When Brady came to the Bucs, he had no intention of asking for his jersey number because Chris Godwin already was wearing No. 12. Godwin told him to take it. Even in Brady’s 20th season, after three most valuable player awards and 14 Pro Bowl selections, he is open to coaching. This year, Arians said Brady accorded immediate respect to Byron Leftwich, a first-year offensive coordinator two years his junior. “Humble beyond belief,” says one coach who has worked with Brady recently.

After the Bucs’ victory against the Packers, Fox reporter Tom Rinaldi called on Brady to take the Halas Trophy before he called Arians. Brady seemed uncomfortable. Rinaldi asked about Brady’s decision to go to Tampa. Brady redirected, talking about the team effort it took to beat the Packers. After Brady answered a question about the challenge the Packers presented, Rinaldi started to ask a third question. Brady interrupted him. “Let’s bring some other people out, come on,” he said, turning toward his team. Rinaldi called on Arians.

Some of Jordan’s words in “The Last Dance” offended Pippen, who said he thought his former teammate was “trying to uplift himself and to be glorified.” It’s difficult to imagine one of Brady’s teammates ever saying something like that.


Jordan wearing his North Carolina shorts under his NBA uniform; Brady in his shoulder pads from college.

Jordan reaching for the resin bag; Brady stuffing a towel down the back of his center’s pants.

Jordan pulling up in a LaFerrari; Brady in a Bugatti Veyron Super Sport.


Brady was investigated by the NFL in 2014 for having game balls deflated. Jordan could relate. He was investigated by his league in 1993 for gambling after he acknowledged owing a convicted drug dealer $57,000 over golf bets.

There was a difference in the controversies. Brady was accused of cheating at football — it was another slight, the haters saying he couldn’t have achieved greatness playing by the rules. If Jordan’s gambling was affecting his basketball, it was affecting it adversely; long nights at a blackjack table in Atlantic City usually don’t lead to superior performances the next day.

Advertisement

Jordan eventually was cleared by the NBA. Brady agreed to serve a four-game suspension in 2016. Both responded similarly to having their character questioned. They maintained innocence, but neither was vociferous about it. They let their performances be their responses.

When Jordan’s gambling controversy became an issue, the Bulls were down 2-0 to the Knicks in the 1993 Eastern Conference finals. They came back to win the series 4-2 then defeated the Suns in the NBA finals in six. Jordan was named finals MVP. After serving his suspension, Brady put together arguably the most impressive season of his career. His 28-to-2 touchdown to interception ratio was the best in league history. He brought the Patriots to Super Bowl LI, then led the comeback against the Falcons, for which he was named Super Bowl MVP.

After those seasons, both players closed their circles. In a 2018 interview with Oprah, Brady explained, “I think it taught me a lot of things. It taught me about the people I could really count on, the people that really supported me, and it taught me a lot about life.”


Jordan had the Breakfast Club, at which other Bulls came to his house for an early morning routine of squats, weighted sit-ups, eggs over easy, and grits. Brady has TB12, where teammates show for deep force muscle pliability work, exercises with looped bands, and transcendental meditation.

There were Jordan Rules, written by the Bad Boy Pistons. And Brady Rules — if the quarterback is trying to tuck the football with a forward motion and he loses the ball, it’s an incomplete pass and not a fumble; and it is illegal for a defender on the ground to lunge at a quarterback’s legs.

Jordan owns The Grove XXIII, an exclusive private golf club in Hobe Sound, Florida. It reportedly has fewer than 100 members, each of whom was invited by Jordan. Brady is a member.


As commodities, Brady and Jordan sold themselves on different exchanges. Jordan promoted the American experience, telling us to drive Chevys and eat Wheaties. Brady, meanwhile, represents an elite lifestyle, aligning with IWC and Aston Martin. Jordan sold underwear we could buy at Wal-Mart and pushed Big Macs. For Brady, it was sheepskin boots and, through his website, frozen meals like Mediterranean hash with tofu. While Jordan endorsed Coca Cola, Brady called it “poison for kids” and instead advocated for Glaceau Smartwater, which is owned by Coca Cola.

Advertisement

There was a time when you couldn’t turn on the television without seeing a Jordan ad. To find a Brady endorsement, you might have to search through Vanity Fair or the Wall Street Journal’s Sunday magazine.

Brady was the first quarterback to sign with Under Armour. But Jordan was the first athlete to have his own shoe. Nike’s Jordan Brand has become a $3 billion entity. So even though Brady has earned roughly $167 million more from football than Jordan did from basketball, Jordan’s reported net worth of $1.6 billion makes Brady look almost bourgeois with a reported net worth of $200 million. Of course, Brady married well in that regard, but even if you combine his money with his wife Gisele’s, the couple still is $1 billion poorer than Jordan.

In addition to taking up a bigger slice of the world’s economy, Jordan also occupied a bigger space in pop culture. Thanks to Air Jordans, Space Jam, the baggy shorts trend he started, even jingles — Like Mike, If I Could Be Like Mike — Jordan always seemed like he was so much bigger than his sport. Brady has blended into his sport, or tried to.

The world knew Jordan better than it knows Brady. So far, Jordan has played 906 more NBA games than Brady has played NFL games — and none behind a facemask. Jordan was on the cover of Sports Illustrated 50 times even though he stopped talking to the magazine before three of his championships. Brady has been the cover boy 21 times so far.

“Jordan changed sports more than Brady did,” Costas said. “The athlete as pitchman, modern marketing … it kicked into high gear in the ’80s and ’90s with Jordan.”

Both have had a firm hold on the public. Television ratings for NBA games declined after Jordan’s retirement. And Jordan still was capturing audiences in 2020, as “The Last Dance” was ESPN’s highest-rated documentary ever. Bucs local ratings were up by 28 percent this season, while local ratings for Patriots games dropped 26 percent.


Jordan having his jersey stolen from the locker room before a game; Brady having his jersey stolen from the locker room after Super Bowl LI.

Jordan owning the Bobcats; Brady owning the Bills with a 32-3 record.


What does Brady’s opportunity to win more championships than Jordan mean?

The case could be made that one GOAT is climbing higher than the other. And the case could be made that they are different species of GOATs. “It’s a little bit of apples and oranges,” Costas said. “You can’t do much better than Brady has done, and you can’t do much better than Jordan.”

Advertisement

Brady set a postseason record with 505 passing yards in a game. Jordan set a postseason record with 63 points in a game. Jordan never lost a series in the NBA Finals. Brady played on three teams that lost in the Super Bowl, but one of his best Super Bowl performances — that 505-yard passing game against the Eagles in Super Bowl LII — came in a loss.

Even though the quarterback is the most influential player in a football game, a dominant basketball player — one of five as opposed to one of 11 — has the potential to have more to say in a game’s outcome. The basketball player can impact defense as well as offense — Jordan was the NBA’s defensive player of the year in 1988. Jordan was on the court an average of about 80 percent of each game. At best, Brady has been on the field about 55 percent of every contest.

Jordan benefitted from more stability than Brady. Pippen, named one of the 50 best players in history by the NBA, was by Jordan’s side for all six championships. Brady has had nine different receiving leaders as the pieces around him kept changing. Brady has won with different styles of play. Jordan played for the same coach and in the same system for all six titles. If Brady wins a seventh, he will do it with a different coach and offensive system.

Once Jordan established himself, there was no question he was the best in his game every year through his championship run. With Brady, there have been challengers — Manning, Aaron Rodgers and now Patrick Mahomes.

Part of Brady’s magnificence is his staying power. Brady has had his teams in contention to win a championship for 19 seasons — the only seasons he didn’t were his first, when he was a backup, and in 2008, when he was injured. Jordan’s magnificence was more compressed — six championships in eight years. He had his teams in contention to win a title in only nine seasons.

Time, as it always does, helped crystalize Jordan’s legacy. Brady still is fighting time and still winning.

“Right now, there’s still a pretty large faction of the American fandom that is sick of Tom Brady,” Hehir says. “And I get it because people always root for the underdog, and for 20 years, the Patriots were not an underdog. But I think it will be a while until people truly understand we’re never going to see this again. We’re never going to see someone go to 14 conference championships in 19 years. We’re never going to see someone who is more likely to go to a Super Bowl every season than Steph Curry is likely to hit a three-pointer. I think it will take some distance. It’s like a big mountain. The further you move back, the more impressive and more imposing it seems. I think that’s going to happen with Tom’s career the way it happened with Michael’s career.”

That’s the difference. Everyone understands what Jordan meant. With Brady, we’re still figuring it out.

(Photos of Brady and Jordan: Kevin C. Cox / Getty Images, Jeff Haynes / AFP via Getty)

Get all-access to exclusive stories.

Subscribe to The Athletic for in-depth coverage of your favorite players, teams, leagues and clubs. Try a week on us.

Dan Pompei

Dan Pompei is a senior writer for The Athletic who has been telling NFL stories for close to four decades. He is one of 49 members on the Pro Football Hall of Fame selectors board and one of nine members on the Seniors Committee. In 2013, he received the Bill Nunn Award from the Pro Football Writers of America for long and distinguished reporting. Follow Dan on Twitter @danpompei