Numbers don’t bear that out.
First of all, nice to meet another “49ers fan since 1981” – good stuff. Willis was just such a force, there’s a reason he made 5 First Team All Pros in just eight seasons. However, you are absolutely right that it’s not a no-brainer. If you look at Pro Football Reference, Willis is most similar to guys like Von Miller, KJ Wright, DeMarcus Ware and … NaVarro Bowman. Bowman was a better pass defender but Willis just took the entire middle of the field away and I think was the more feared player. I think offenses schemed away from him, not as much from Bowman.
Man, I wish our team had won a ring for those guys, Frank Gore and Joe Staley…
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Also just speaks to the era. The NFC Championship game was the de facto Super Bowl for most of the 80s and 90s.
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You could say the same about the AFC now, which has won 15 of the last 21.
And doesn’t help Montana losing in the first round three years in a row, including getting benched against Minny.
That may be true but I still have a bone to pick with Ayesha and her line of cookware, it’s terrible quality and durability that she should be embarrassed of.
I just think that if Brady took the punishment QBs in Montana’s era took, he wouldn’t have gotten to as many Super Bowls. I also think his defense won a couple of the games as he simply managed not to lose them for his team. Montana pretty much dominated in his Super Bowl appearances. He never threw a Super Bowl interception (Brady threw 6, although he threw more passes). Montana’s QB rating in Super Bowls blows Brady out of the water.
It’s sort of a Tiger Woods/Jack Nicklaus argument.
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It’s not a toughness contest. The only way you can compare players across different eras is to compare them to how good they were relative to their peers.
Again, that’s great that Joe Montana played well in Super Bowls, but how’s his first round passer rating? If he hadn’t sucked so badly in the first round, maybe we’d have a larger Super Bowl sample size on which to judge.
Those were four great Super Bowl runs. He also made the playoffs seven other times, and won a total of four games in those years. Not great. (5 years with SF. Two wins.)
No one deserved a SB ring more than Frank Gore. He was a man’s man on the football field. I still get warm in the cockles thinking about him on blitz pick ups. The best at that craft I’ve ever seen.
You are making the argument for Montana.
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@MerchCzar before Uber you absolutely needed a car to live in SF. I’ve visited several times and before Uber getting a cab anywhere was nearly impossible and public transit is practically non existent once you get into the city.
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Wasn’t even the best QB on his team the last five years in SF, nevermind the league.
So Brady’s in third place, then?
Prob my favorite book I’ve read in the last decade.
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I really enjoyed when the @MerchCzar started his airing of grievances while also praising the city. My wife lived in Berkeley for 4 years and SF for another 6. Anytime we’re in SF there is a definitive time limit of 2 days until the ptsd returns and the anger towards how difficult of a city to live in it can be. Got a great chuckle from the pod
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I read about 10% of this book and stopped because I was so bored. Does it get better further along or do I just have a shitty opinion?
in what years was brady the best player on the patriots?
Ha, so true. I remember several different times realizing a cab wasn’t coming, but also depending on where you were going there was/is no PARKING available either. I drove to a few parties in North Beach, realized I could only park illegally, calculated how much that would cost and went home. Uber sucks for a lot of reasons but in SF it was completely and totally needed.
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I’d be hard-pressed to come up with another one.
Yes, push through his childhood. Once he comes of age the book absolutely takes the top off the defense and gets into open space. You know when people say they couldn’t put a book down? This is one of those books.
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