Comparing GOATs: Who’s Better Between Tom Brady and Martin Brodeur?

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers are in the Super Bowl with Tom Brady, who is undoubtedly the greatest quarterback of all time. How does the greatest goalie of all time in hockey history compare to his football counterpart?

The New Jersey Devils have officially been off for a week, so they’ve had plenty of time to prepare to watch greatness of Super Bowl Sunday. Tom Brady is playing in his 10th Super Bowl, and before this year he’s gone 6-3. His record is ridiculous. Another player with a ridiculous record is Martin Brodeur.

Take a look at the careers of Brodeur and Brady. They are extremely similar. They both had one massive run at the beginning of their career, they had some great regular-season success in the middle without the postseason success, then they started to play well at the end again to have one more run. Although, Brady’s run is wildly successful right now.

The goalie position and the quarterback position are similar in importance, even though they aren’t the same in how teams value them. Right now, even a mediocre quarterback can get paid $20 million per season. A mediocre goalie is a backup in the NHL.

However, in his time, Brodeur was carrying the Devils to the playoffs every season (what’s that like?). Brady did the same thing despite at one time having Reche Caldwell as his top receiver. I mean, look at last year’s New England Patriots team. He was throwing to N’Keal Harry and a very old Julian Edelman (in terms of football wide receiver age). Brodeur was playing behind some pretty good defenses for most of his career, but when he was helped immensely by Scott Stevens, Scott Niedermayer, and Ken Daneycko early in his career, he never had that kind of talent again.

So, how do these two compare? Who is the better GOAT of the GOATs? Let’s take a deep dive, shall we?

Awards

One easy way to assess one’s career is to look at how much hardware they have sitting at home. Beyond the team awards like the Stanley Cup and the Lombardi Trophy, individual awards show the seasons this player had the most immediate impact. It’s flawed because it’s voted on by the media, but it still shows who believed was the best in those seasons.

Brady has three NFL MVPs to his name. Only Manning has more. There’s not really a “QB only” award in the NFL. That’s because most MVPs are quarterbacks.

Brady did add a lot of awards to his trophy case. He’s been named Comeback Player of the Year, Breakout Player of the Year, Offensive Player of the Year (twice), Sports Illustrated Sportsman of the Year, and the Bert Bell Award giving to the best player in the pros.

In hockey, goalies are given the Vezina Trophy when they are the best. They very, very rarely get the Hart Trophy, similar to pitchers in baseball. They “have their own award” so forwards are almost always considered over goalies. Only four goalies have won the Hart since 1965.

Anyways, Brodeur won the Vezina Trophy four times in his career. Only Hasek has more in the modern era (sorry, not counting hockey awards given to players when there were six teams). What makes Brodeur’s wins so special is he won them in two eras. He won two before the lockout, when ties still existed and he was allowed to roam free around the ice. Two came after the lockout, when he had to get used to shootouts, new rules to help offenses score, and an overall different game.

Brodeur also won the Calder Memorial Trophy, the ESPY for Outstanding Performance Under Pressure, and he won the William Jennings Trophy five times. His trophy case looks about as full as Brady’s.

Tom Terrific has to get the nod here. Mostly because of his postseason awards. Brady won the Super Bowl MVP four times. Even if Brodeur got the Conn Smythe Trophy he deserved in 2003, it’s not enough to come close to Brady’s trophy case.

Advantage: Brady

Postseason Success

This one is going to be very hard for Brodeur to touch. Brady is getting towards Michael Jordan-level of postseason dominance. He’s in his tenth Super Bowl. Brady is a ridiculous 33-11 in the postseason. He’s winning 66% of his games when the worst teams in the league are eliminated.

Brady has taken his team to the Super Bowl in almost half of the seasons he’s finished. Take out the 2008 season where he played in just one game, and Brady has 20 seasons under his belt. He was in the final game of that season 10 times. He won that game six times and could make it seven on Sunday.

Brodeur made an appearance in the Stanley Cup Finals five times in his 21 years (Blues season notwithstanding). He was knocked out in the first round seven times. Obviously, hockey playoffs and football playoffs are very hard to compare. In the NFL, teams get byes, and Tom Brady has earned a lot of those. No matter what, NHL teams have to play in the first round. Also, they have to win a seven-game series. So, momentum has a lot of impact.

Still, Brodeur had a great postseason career. He has more postseason shutouts than any goalie. He played the most postseason games because he kept his team in it. He had a .919 career playoff save percentage and a career playoff 2.02 GAA. It’s still not close. Brady by a mile.

Advantage: Brady

Impact on the Game

Both Brady and Brodeur got rules to change specifically because of their impact on the game, but they came for very different reasons. When Brady was hurt in 2008, the NFL quickly changed rules to stop defensive players from going after the knees of quarterbacks. More and more rule changes would come to make life easier on quarterbacks and offenses as a whole.

In hockey, the NHL made rules to take away some of the impacts Brodeur had on the game. He was so athletic as a netminder, Brodeur would often play the puck in the corners, taking an offensive shift away from the other team. So, the NHL added the trapezoid. Not many other goalies had the same impact, so it’s literally a rule to stop Brodeur.

Beyond that, both these players have records that will stand for a long time, if not forever. Goalies don’t play 70+ games in a season anymore, so his 691 wins might stand until we get technology that lets athletes play until 50. Brady’s ten Super Bowls is going to be near impossible to beat unless the AFC remains as terrible as it is and Mahomes gets to run wild forever.

Unfortunately for Brodeur, the NHL just doesn’t get the publicity that the NFL does. So Brodeur’s impact is impossible to compare with Brady’s.

Advantage: Brady

Conclusion

This was all in jest to get some hype around the Super Bowl. Brady is one of the greatest athletes of all time. Brodeur is also in that conversation, but he’s fighting to stay in the Top 20. Brady is sitting in the Top 5.

Still, it’s funny how similar these two are. Both played a majority of their career with an also-ran franchise (for those too young, the Patriots were a laughing stock in the 70s, 80s, and most of the 90s). They brought those franchises out of the basement and into prominence. Both franchises might have relocated if they didn’t play as they did. They both faced older presences that were looking to lose them before they fell off a cliff. Then, they both played for a short time in a different jersey (with different levels of success).

Brodeur is the greatest goalie ever. He has all the records, he has three Stanley Cups, and he played in two very different eras, and dominated in both.

Brady is just on a different level. He’s the best, and it’s not fair to compare any athlete to him. Again, Jordan is the one who sits atop the list. Brady is going after him. Brodeur still hasn’t passed Wayne Gretzky and Mario Lemieux for best in his sport.