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?

Regular Season Success/Records

Tom Brady has been dominant across his career. He’s second in career passing yards behind Drew Brees. He’s first in career passing touchdowns, beating Brees by ten. He has the seventh-best passer rating of all time, tied with Dak Prescott. His counterpart on Super Bowl Sunday Patrick Mahomes leads the all-time rankings. When it comes to wins, nobody even comes close to Brady. Brett Favre and Peyton Manning both have 186 wins. Brady has 230. It’s as if Brady has almost three full seasons worth of wins over his counterparts.

Brodeur also has records for days. He has the most wins all time with 691. Patrick Roy is second with 551. Again, more than a full 82-game season’s worth of wins over number two. Brodeur also has the most shutouts, beating Terry Sawchuk’s former record by more than 20. Brodeur’s save percentage doesn’t look so great overall. He ranks in the 40s with Marc-Andre Fleury.

Both these players were dominant in the regular season. If they were healthy, they were going to lead their team to wins. There were always players who would be compared to them. Mahomes, Brees, Manning, and Aaron Rodgers were all considered one of the best in the league during Brady’s run. Brodeur had similar comparables in Dominick Hasek, Roy, Roberto Luongo, Jose Theodore, and Henrik Lundqvist. They drove both these GOATs to keep getting better. There was never time to rest because someone was inevitably going to be there to replace you.

This one is extremely close. It’s razor thin who was better before things really counted, but Brodeur gets the edge.

Advantage: Brodeur

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

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.