On September 8, 2024, Tom Brady stepped into the Cleveland FOX booth for his broadcasting debut, only to be hit with an immediate reality check. When studio host Curt Menefee greeted him as “TB,” Pittsburgh Steelers legend Terry Bradshaw instantly barked back, “I’m the original TB, Curt.” That quick exchange perfectly sums up Bradshaw’s stance on the modern era. He’ll admit Brady dominated the last 30 years, but don’t ask him to call the seven-time champion the greatest ever. For Bradshaw, seniority and undefeated Super Bowl runs still rule the debate.

“I am so against I don’t like to hear when Brady’s the best that ever played cuz he won seven Super Bowls. I won four, but no, no, no. So, I defend my decade,” shared Bradshaw on the September 11 episode of the Real Time With Bill Maher podcast. “But when they say he’s the best ever and I’m going, ‘Well, I was 4 and 0. [Joe] Montana followed me. He was 4-0. Then Tom came. Tom was seven and three. 7 minus three is four. Four. Four. Four. There you go.”

Brady is in contention for GOAT status with Peyton Manning, Drew Brees, and Aaron Rodgers as representatives of the modern phase of the league. But before any of those played, some quarterbacks left a mark of their own, and that includes Bradshaw. Bradshaw played in Pittsburgh from 1970 to 1983 and became the first quarterback to win four Super Bowls: IX, X, XIII, XIV. Once labeled a “bust” for the Steelers, Bradshaw found his groove in the mid-70s and was part of the squad that absolutely dominated the league then.

Then there’s the iconic Joe Montana, who can never be counted out of the picture, thanks to his four Super Bowl victories, three Super Bowl MVP awards, two NFL MVP honors, and eight Pro Bowl selections. Pretty much every modern quarterback has been in awe of how Montana played, including Brady. When it comes to pure efficiency in the big game, Joe Montana has an unblemished record that Brady cannot match. In his four Super Bowl appearances, Joe Montana threw 0 interceptions. Brady, despite his brilliance, threw 6 interceptions across his 10 Super Bowl appearances. Beyond the stat sheet lies a far more brutal reality: the era itself.

Montana and Bradshaw survived an unsparing 1970s and ’80s NFL, where defenses were legally empowered to slam, level, and break quarterbacks. Today’s passers operate inside a protective vault of roughing-the-passer flags and low-contact penalties. As legendary wideout Jerry Rice often noted, if Montana had enjoyed modern rules shielding his body, his career would have lasted much longer. One could argue that the yesteryear greats are the reason why we have the modern giants, because they grew up watching them.

However, this is not the first time that Brady has come under the former Steelers quarterback’s radar. 

“People always say, ‘Tom Brady is the greatest quarterback to ever play.’ Okay — is he really?” Bradshaw said, appearing on the Nothing Left Unsaid podcast last year in November. “Otto Graham might be the greatest quarterback to ever play. How many titles did Otto win? … Look it up. Tom lost three.”

Montana also brought up Graham in a similar discussion in 2022. He told The Spun that it’s “hard to compare guys” when looking at the forgotten QB’s tenure, who won seven NFL championships. He played with the Cleveland Browns when the team was part of the All-America Football Conference and later played in the NFL when the team was integrated.

However, for what it’s worth, Brady, or no other modern player, has asserted they are better than the former greats. The former New England QB admires Joe Montana very much.

“He was a winner. Every time he took the field, it felt like the 49ers were going to win,” Brady said in an interview back in 2016. “I remember rooting for that team when Joe was playing quarterback, and you always felt like they were going to win, no matter who they were playing, where they were playing at. Same when Steve (Young) took over. So it was great to be a 49er fan at that time.”

Joe Montana has always been a hero for Brady; the latter dressed up as the iconic 49ers QB during Halloween once, when he was a child. The Candlestick was familiar ground to him, having watched plenty of San Fran games as a child. But whenever it came to Montana, he was always starry-eyed.

Montana is still Brady’s inspiration even though he has hung up his cleats. In 2025, by which time the former Patriots QB was a seven-time Super Bowl winner, he remained just as humble when it came to comparisons with Joe Cool.

“When you grow up in the Bay Area and you have that, it gives you a lot of reasons to love sports and love football,” Brady said in 2025 at a Fanatics event. “And that’s when I fell in love with football because of Joe Montana. And he’s still my idol today. He was an incredible quarterback. And he set the tone every single day for what greatness really looks like. … Nobody performed in Super Bowls as great as this guy.”

Terry Bradshaw may not be ready to hand Brady the undisputed GOAT title; neither will many groups of fans. However, the latter knows that there have been many greats before him, and hasn’t shied away from acknowledging their contributions.