Why Mahomes and Brady are the Messi and Ronaldo of American football

Ask any football (soccer) or NFL fan who the greatest player of all time is, the chances are you will be given one of two answers. For football fans, it’ll probably be one of Lionel Messi or Cristiano Ronaldo, for gridiron fans, there’s a decent chance they’ll answer Tom Brady or Patrick Mahomes, and for good reason.

All four sportsmen have legitimate claims to being the greatest players in history, despite three of the four still competing. All of them have won countless team and individual awards during their careers and have produced performances that leave fans in awe. Strangely, in both rivalries, some distinct differences are worth exploring.

Some fans like to differentiate between the Greatest Of All Time and the Best Of All Time, with GOAT status reserved for a player with unparalleled accomplishments. To be the best, you may not need to be as successful, but your individual skill is so transcendent, you will always be remembered for simply being better than all of your peers.

Want to see more like this? Follow us here for daily sports news, profiles and analysis!

These definitions may of course prove controversial, but for the sake of this piece, we are defining Ronaldo and Brady as the GOATs, (don’t worry, we’ll stop using terrible acronyms soon) and Messi and Mahomes as the BOATs due to their instinctual abilities and natural talent.

Both Ronaldo and Brady boast incredible, record-breaking statistics, with Ronaldo currently sitting on 899 career goals, per Planet Football, 61 ahead of second-placed Messi. Brady has 89,214 passing yards, nearly 10,000 ahead of Peyton Manning behind him.

Tom Brady also has the most NFL appearances for a non-kicker in history (George Blanda stopped playing QB after his age 43 season), per Pro Football Reference. Ronaldo has 1,271 games of professional football, per World Football, making him the non-goalkeeper record holder. Both players were at the top of their games for close to two decades in a way professional sports has rarely, if ever, seen.

On the other side are Lionel Messi and Patrick Mahomes. Messi has played roughly 200 games less than Ronaldo, scoring goals at a faster rate whilst also assisting 374 goals, a stat that’s hard to put in American football terms. Mahomes has only started six seasons in the NFL, so any statistics will need to be extrapolated, which we will do next…

If Patrick Mahomes plays the same number of games in his career as Brady, and continues at the same pace he is now, he will finish his career with around 99,199 yards passing and 764 TDs, to 649 for Brady. If he reaches those numbers, there will be little doubt who is the greatest (or best) of all time, but is it realistic?

Tom Brady made history by playing into his age 44 season, becoming just one of seven players to ever do so. If Mahomes wants to match him, He will need to play for another 15 years. Can we include longevity as a criterion for greatness? Tiger Woods believes so, telling NBC Golf, “Longevity the key to greatness,” in 2018.

All four of our subjects had unique paths to the top, Messi was scouted as a 13-year-old and moved to the iconic La Masia academy with the spotlight on him from an early age. Ronaldo made his breakthrough as a teenager too, but far later, signing for Manchester United aged 18. He too was highly rated, breaking the record for most expensive teenager at the time, per BBC Sport.

Mahomes and Messi are truly transcendent talents, appearing to have more time and space than those around them. They play sports with an aura that only the very greatest have. Brady and Ronaldo are greats themselves, but their greatness had a different feel to it during their primes. It was less romantic, more calculated, but equally effective.

Is it fair to compare players from different sports, with such different backgrounds? Probably not, but we’re doing it anyway and the comparisons (we think) have some legs to them. Let us know if you think this comparison is accurate in the comments!

Want to see more like this? Follow us here for daily sports news, profiles and analysis!