Those who actually saw Bradshaw play in the 70's did not base their opinion of him as a Quarterback on stats but instead on results. And that is why he was named to the All Decade Team of the 70's.
He could throw home runs when the pressure was high and elevated a streaky, mostly poor regular season game to a respectable level in the playoffs. But I think the list is about more than SB performance. So, as I understand it, they're saying, "Of all the winning SB qbs, which were on the whole the worst." Otherwise, Terry couldn't be on the list, even at the back end of it.
Only those who are so enamored with stats would ever say that Bradshaw was the 10th worse Quarterback who ever played in a Super Bowl. After all, he was the winning Quarterback in four Super Bowls and he lost none of them.
I look for how he played his role in the SB, not the W/L column. That's a team accomplishment. I've seen qbs stink and their team win, and some look great in a loss.
Maybe this will help...List of winning SB qbs by career rating, with playoff averages.
Worst career avg SB winners (#1 being the worst):
1. Namath 65.5
2. Plunkett 67.5
3. Williams 69.4
4. Dilfer 70.2
5. Bradshaw 70.9
6. Stabler 75.3
7. Griese 77.1
8. Theismann 78.4
9. Unitas/McMahon 78.2
Best career avg SB winners
1. Rodgers 104.1
2. Wilson 99.6
3. Brady 97.1
4. Young 96.8
5. Peyton 96.5
6. Brees 96.3
7. Rothl. 94.1
8. Warner 93.7
9. Montana 92.3
10. Eli 87.4
Worst playoff career avg SB winning qbs
1. Williams 53.6
2. Namath 54.8
3. Johnson 62.8
4. Dilfer 66.0
5. Griese 68.3
6. Unitas 68.9
7. Rypien 72.2
8. Staubach 76.0
9. McMahon 76.1
10. Simms 77.0
Best playoff career avg SB winning qbs
1. Starr 104.8
2. Warner 102.8
3. Brees 100.7
4. Rodgers 99.4
5. Montana 95.6
6. Rothl./Wilson 94.1
8. Theisman 91.4
9. Brady 89.0
10. Flacco 88.6
Best average of season/playoffs:
1. Rodgers 101.8
2. Starr 98.8
3. Brees 98.5
4. Warner 98.3
5. Wilson 96.9
6. Montana 94.0
7. Brady 93.1
8. Peyton 92.0
9. Young 91.3
10. Ben R. 89.2
And it is those same folks who base their opinions of Quarterbacks on stats who over-rate Joe Montana.
Rather, it's almost entirely people who can't understand that players demonstrate their acumen by statistical performance and teams win games. That's why Sanders is in the argument for best rb of all time without a single SB appearance.
Montana out performs every SB winning qb in the actual SB. Additionally, he's 9th in regular season performance and 5th in overall playoff career performance. And literally everyone above him except Young played under pass friendly rules that saw an explosion of yards an tds as it became harder to mug qbs and interfere with wrs. And Young doesn't compare with him in the playoffs.
It must be remembered that in three of his Super Bowls one of his receiver was Jerry Rice, considered by many to be the best NFL player of all time.
You have that wrong too. Joe won 2 of his 4 without Rice. Rice won one without Joe, even though he had another HOF qb throwing to him after Montana's trade. So who needed who? Seems you have that backwards.
Besides that, his stats would not be so great if he had to play against the Steelers defense of the 70's.
Who knows. Maybe. But his stats would look a lot better under the rules that allowed the handful of others mentioned above to pass him.
On defense the Steelers had Hall of Famers Jack Lambert, Jack Ham, Mel Blount and Mean Joe Greene. L.C. Greenwood (All-Decade Team) and Ernie Holmes and Dwight White joined Greene to make up the Steel Curtain.
I'm a huge fan of that team. But they didn't win every playoff game any more than Montana's Niners did. They won 4 SBs.
If Montana had to play that team in two Super Bowls and Staubach played two of the 49ers lesser opponents in the two Super Bowls he had to play against the Steelers then it would be Staubach who would be considered the best NFL Quarterback of all time.
Not much chance of that. I like him, but no. Supra. Staubach regular seaons rating: 83.4, playoff average: 76.0
If we forget Montana's actual performances and wipe him off the list of consideration, it still wouldn't put Staubach in contention. Staubach doesn't even make the Mount Rushmore list, unless you're talking Dallas QBs.
So it should be at 10.
