Aaron Rodgers, Peyton Manning, and Tom Brady are widely considered the top three quarterbacks of this generation, with many arguing that Brady is the GOAT. And why not? Brady’s made seven Super Bowls, more than any other quarterback or franchise. But not everyone agrees. Former NBA star Jeff Teague believes that if you take away Brady and Manning’s accolades, Rodgers would stand above them.
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It’s not the worst argument to make in the sports world. After all, from an athletic perspective, Rodgers had a leg up on the other two quarterbacks at his peak. He’s run for over 100 yards and multiple touchdowns in 10 separate seasons of his career, something the other two GOATs have done just three times combined.
From that perspective, in a schoolyard pick ’em, many would opt for Rodgers first because of his dual-threat ability. But Teague, a childhood Rodgers fan, arguably took things too far when he tried to denounce Manning to make his favorite player seem better.
“Peyton Manning threw a terrible ball, bro. His balls went like this,” Teague said on the Club 520 Podcast, gesturing with his hands to show how wobbly Manning’s passes were.
It was a wild proclamation, made even crazier by the fact that Teague made his case in front of former Indianapolis Colts player Zaire Franklin. He was disrespecting the team’s legend right to his face.
Franklin also thought Teague was out of line, but the former NBA guard came prepared with arguments to back up his claim.
“I could have won in Denver,” Teague stated. “With Von Miller and them boys? I could have lobbed that one up. That first one, he was hoopin’ that year. But that second one, he couldn’t throw that motherf***er past 15 yards.”
It should be noted that ever since he retired, Teague has made a name for himself by sharing his cold, hard feelings on sports topics. He’s almost turned into somewhat of a comedian because of it. Now, he seemingly isn’t afraid to throw shade on any former player if he thinks it’ll get a rise out of his podcast crew or fans.
At the end of the day, though, this was a hot take. The number of goalposts he had to move to make his argument that Rodgers was better than Brady and Manning at their peaks was ridiculous. He took away their accolades, career accomplishments, and stats. At that point, what’s the point in even comparing players?
Manning admitted after his career that he struggled to throw tight spirals, which made his passes wobbly. But it didn’t hold him back from remaining incredibly accurate. In fact, he once called throwing a tight spiral “overrated.” And everything seemed to work out for him, as he now has an NFL record 5 MVPs in his trophy case. Take that, Teague!
