Comparing GOATs: Who’s Better Between Tom Brady and Martin Brodeur?
By Nick Villano
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.