At just 28 years old, Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes won his third Super Bowl ring. That’s one less than former Steelers quarterback Terry Bradshaw won during his time with Pittsburgh. Bradshaw was asked about Mahomes and his accolades during an appearance on The Rich Eisen Show earlier this week. Bradshaw said it was a different game when he played, but that today’s quarterbacks would still find success in his era.
“It was a different football game completely. Not to say these guys wouldn’t be outstanding,” Bradshaw said. “Say if Mahomes played for Pittsburgh, I don’t think they’d be any different. When you average 19 passes a game, they’re not gonna be different. They throw 19 passes in the first two series now. Just a different era.
“I say all the time, I wish I played in this era so I could’ve proven that I’m not a 52% completion guy,” Bradshaw added. “I’m much higher than I would be with the offenses they run and could throw for all the yardage and have all the touchdowns.”
Bradshaw said he thinks about all the great players he played against, seeing guys like Bart Starr and Joe Namath win Super Bowls. It makes him realize that football isn’t about stats and that you can’t really compare players among eras due to the differences in the game. He did admit that players from the 70s are “so far down the totem pole” when it comes to ranking quarterbacks due to their high interception totals.
There’s no doubt that the style of play is different and that the game is more pass-happy than ever. In all sports, the evolution of different play styles makes it impossible to compare players between eras. Larry Bird would probably have incredibly gaudy shooting numbers if he played in the modern NBA that prioritizes the 3-point shot. Bradshaw’s numbers would look better on paper if he played today and not in an era that was dominated by the run game and defense.
Winning is the ultimate measure, and Bradshaw won the Super Bowl four times. It’s why he’s still considered one of the best quarterbacks in NFL history with statistics that are ultimately pretty pedestrian if you compare them to today’s numbers. Because of the nature of the game, Bradshaw never threw for more than 4,000 yards in a season, but he also never attempted more than 472 passes in a season. For reference, Mahomes has attempted at least 484 passes in every season he’s been a starter.
It’s a different game, and you can’t really do a fair one-to-one comparison of players between eras. You also can look at the development and training that goes into making players into NFL-caliber guys, and it makes you wonder just how good some players who played in the 60s and 70s would be if modern practices and training techniques and technology were what they are today. It’s just not fair to look purely at numbers to compare players when there’s such drastic differences in play style. I do think the older players get their fair due, but you just can’t look purely at numbers to compare eras.
Mahomes is well on his way to being an all-time great, and another ring would really cement his legacy as a top-five quarterback of all time. His success shouldn’t take away from the success of other players like Bradshaw, and it really hasn’t. It just makes it hard to compare them when the game has changed so much.
