Who leaves the better legacy: Buccaneers QB Tom Brady or Olympic gymnast Simone Biles?
The NFL and NBA media are always quick to label a player as the greatest of all time in their sport. Buccaneers quarterback Tom Brady has worn this moniker for some time in the NFL now, and it seems unlikely that any other player will ever come close, and the next logical step in the discussion is the GOAT of all sports.
Names like Michael Jordan and Lebron James are right up there with Brady as they have played some of the biggest and most televised sports in the world, but U.S. gymnast Simone Biles makes a case for herself as well.
Gymnastics isn’t a sport that has many casual fans. It’s much harder to find Biles in a competition than it is to see Tom Brady in primetime, which plays a role in the sport’s viewership, but it doesn’t take away from the legacy that Biles leaves.
It may feel like Tom Brady and his teams over the past two decades have been unbeatable, but Biles has been able to leave a similar legacy in a shorter period in her sport. While we would like to say that an athlete is the “Tom Brady” of their sport, it would be much more appropriate to say that there is no equal for Biles in the NFL, but Brady is the closest.
Biles just doesn’t lose. It may feel like Brady does the same, but there have been some down moments in Brady’s career that don’t have an equal in Biles’. There was no equivalent to the loss to the Eagles in the Super Bowl in Biles’ career. There is no losing track of the downs against the Bears for Biles.
Since arriving on the scene, Biles has 36 total medals across all competitions in less than a decade, a stat that makes the impossible seven Super Bowl rings that Tom Brady has seem small.
To further add to the legacy of Biles, the existence of rules in the sport that only negatively impact her to level the competition puts her in a league of her own. While this is a football blog and not one that covers gymnastics, we’ll let Vox perfectly explain these rules in their articles covering Biles.
To best explain these rules, it would be like Brady throwing 100 left-handed touchdowns in a single season, but each one would only count for three points to make sure that he doesn’t blow too many of his competitors out.
While the existence of Biles may weaken Brady’s case as the GOAT of all sports, it doesn’t take away from what the NFL GOAT has been able to accomplish during his career. There is no equivalent in Biles’ career for Brady leaving his home and team for 20 years to win a Super Bowl with a team that had been mediocre for years, and that speaks for itself.
Whether you see Biles as the GOAT of all sports, Brady, Jordan, James, Tiger Woods, Serena Williams, or someone else, Brady has the distinction of being the best in his sport, and that alone makes him the closest NFL athlete to Simone Biles.
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