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.
Drew Brees has accomplished all of this over his career… yet he did not make the NFL 100 all-time team. Nonsense. pic.twitter.com/SS2iPcq7YF
— SportsTalkFeed (@SportsTalkFeed) December 28, 2019
Fans were understandably baffled.
When the NFL tweeted that Drew Brees was not a top-10 QB 🤣 #Saints pic.twitter.com/W8AhfmqxOg
— New Orleans Saints (@Saints) December 28, 2019
WITHOUT DREW BREES THIS IS BLASPHEMY https://t.co/eKYc7iRAPS pic.twitter.com/eUkVQ7nplt
— Stephen A. Smith Burner (@SASBurnerAcct) December 28, 2019
You have QBs on the list ahead of Brees, that played in the era where passing the ball was “just a fad and not going to last”they thought.
If Drew Brees went back in time and played in this Era, they would have called him a witch & tried to burn him at the stake. He’s that good.
— Big Easy Bets⚜️🎙 (@BigEasyBets) December 28, 2019
I respect all the guys who came before us making the game what it is. However some on this QB list could not play in the NFL of the past 20 yrs. Greatness should be able to be plugged into ANY time period.
Drew Brees is 1 of the top 5 QBs ever to play the game PERIOD. #NFL100 https://t.co/BIITQPsNCk— Scott Shanle (@scottshanle) December 28, 2019
Not seeing Brees on the list… #NFL100 pic.twitter.com/52YSLmVgrI
— Garrett Stevens (@gratt13) December 28, 2019
How do you have an all time team, and at quarterback you don’t have the all time leader in passing yards and passing TDs? That’s why these lists are meaningless. https://t.co/KWbaXld5Tp
— stan verrett (@stanverrett) December 28, 2019
No Steve Young? No Brees?
Who cares.
At least they didn’t put Peyton in a Broncos jersey 🤷🏻♂️ https://t.co/pP3Xg9RMGW
— Luke Schultheis (@LuckAtLuke) December 28, 2019
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