Resolving the Brady v. Big Ben Debate

If Ben Roethlisberger wins Superbowl XVL next Sunday will he be on the same pedestal as Tom Brady?

That seems to be the question batted around in the media this week.  Will the history books view them as equals?  Will Ben surpass Tom as the golden boy?  Who’s better?  Who would you rather have in the big game?  Blah, blah, blah…

Instead of a long, drawn out, statistic laden diatribe on why Tom Brady if superior to Big Ben… I present to you; The List

1.       Ben hasn’t won yet, so shut it.  Brady has three rings. Ben has two.  Stop with the if’s and let’s see who wins.  Then start the debate. 

2.       Brady has 2 Suberbowl MVPs…Big Ben zero. 

3.       Brady has been to 4 Superbowls and won three of them. This will be Ben’s third appearance.   

4.       Brady has 4,407 passing yards, 30 passing TDs and 16 INTs in the postseason.  Ben has 2,598 yards, 17 TD and 14 INTs. .. Now I know what you are going to say, “But Brady has played in more games than Ben.”  You are correct, but if one is going to say that Roethlisberger is an equal to Brady if he wins another SB, one needs to do so based on everything done to date.  If neither played another game these would be career stats.

...Wait a minute.  Come to think of it, why is everyone just throwing out the regular season?! Just because Big Ben may get a third ring he belongs on the same level as Brady?   Peyton Manning  and Brett Farve only have 1 title each.  Dan Marino doesn’t have any.  Does that mean they are worse than Jim Plunkett? You can’t have a “who’s better” conversation and only look at the playoffs.  It’s like reviewing a movie by only watching the last 20 minutes.  Sure it’s the most important, but without the first hour and half the finale would not even make sense.

5.       Tom Brady will have 2 League MVP awards after this season is complete.  Ben will have zero.

6.       Brady has the most consecutive playoff wins, most consecutive regular season wins, most consecutive regular season home wins, most consecutive passes without an INT, and most TDs in a regular season.  Advantage Brady.

7.       Tom Brady’s career regular season record is 111-32.  That gives him 143 career starts.  Big Ben has only 98 career starts BUT his career record is 69-29.  Brady, in 45 more starts, has only three more loses than Ben.  Incredible! To put that in perspective, Roethlisberger  would need to go 15-1 in his next three seasons to equal Brady’s current mark.   

I don’t want to downgrade Ben Roethlisberger as a quality QB or diminishing his accomplishments as a winner, but a third Superbowl win won’t put him on par with Brady.  It will just give him the same amount of Superbowl wins.  He has a long way to go to be Tom Brady.