Twelve Pro Bowl selections, five Super Bowl victories, four Super Bowl MVPs, two league MVPs, 61582 passing yards, 456 touchdowns and 183 career wins. These are the impressive statistics of one of the most polarizing players players in the NFL, New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady. While he has been one of if not the best at his position for over a decade, his career has been surrounded by controversy, including multiple scandals such as Spygate, and the most recent issue, Deflategate.

Some students believe his success has allowed him to be known as the best quarterback in league history, as junior Joshua Miller said, “Unfortunately I will have to concede that he is the best QB of all time. Being elite is more than experiencing success consistently during the regular season—it’s about victories in the postseason and Tom Brady boasts five Super Bowls. Being drafted in the sixth round of the NFL Draft only solidifies his case.”

There is also a case that Brady has work left to do before earning such a prestigious honor, as junior Bram Nealon said, “He is not the best. Peyton Manning and Drew Brees have more passing yards than him, despite Brees being in the league for two fewer years. Both Brees and Manning have considerably more passing yards per game, and Aaron Rodgers is only half a yard behind Brady. Manning and Brees has thrown for more touchdowns and Brady is last among the four quarterbacks in career completion percentage. If one wants to take passer rating as the true metric of who is the best, then Rodgers is undoubtedly; his is seven higher than Brady’s.” Nealon continued, “Ultimately, the way players normally play should be taken into account over their success in determining who is the “best”, and calling Brady the best simply because he’s won so much wouldn’t be doing a fair service to the rest of the players in the league.”

While there is a valid on-the-field debate for multiple quarterbacks to be known as the GOAT, off the field issues with cheating have hurt Brady’s case. As junior Justin Korman said, “Tom Brady is by all accounts a great football player, but because of his involvement in scandals such as deflategate and spygate, in my mind, he will always have an asterisk next to his name. That is why I will never consider him as the greatest of all time, regardless of his on-the-field achievements.”

There is no debate that Tom Brady is one of the most talented, visually appealing and controversial players in the NFL. There is plenty of debate swirling around whether Tom Brady’s continued run of on the field success should outweigh his off the field scandals and his bloated numbers because the NFL is much more of a passing league than in the past. Whichever side one believes, with an incredible Super Bowl comeback victory and yet another Super Bowl MVP, the race for GOAT became much more intriguing than ever before.