I woke up this morning to the news that former (and I say "former" since he officially retired about two months ago) Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Tom Brady is returning to football for at least one more season. I know that Brady is a polarizing figure - most people either love him or hate him! However, I don't think there is any question or controversy that Brady is one of the, if not the, greatest quarterbacks who ever played the game.
Brady is a seven-time Super Bowl champion (in fact, he's won more Super Bowls as a player than any other team in the history of the NFL - his former team, the New England Patriots and the Pittsburgh Steelers have each won the Super Bowl six times), five-time Super Bowl Most Valuable Player (MVP), three-time NFL MVP, and college football National Champion (he led the University of Michigan to the college football national championship in 1997). Brady holds the NFL records for most career quarterback wins, most career passing attempts, most career passing completions, most career passing yards, and most career passing touchdowns.
We tend to throw around labels such as "greatest of all time" loosely. Based on the evidence, I think that when it comes to Tom Brady, such labels are appropriate. Here's the question though. Even if there's no argument that Brady is the greatest quarterback of all time, is it fair to say that he is the greatest football player of all time? In order to answer that question, we have to decide whether the quarterback is the most important player on the team.
Harvard Business School professor, Boris Groysberg, recently answered this question in a study published in the Harvard Business Review. I've posted about Groysberg in the past (he previously conducted a number of studies on the so-called "Portability Paradox", the concept that "superstar employees" fail to achieve a similar degree of success when they move to new organizations). More specifically, Groysberg and his colleagues set out to determine which individual was the most important for the success of an NFL franchise - the quarterback, the head coach, the general manager, or the owner.
The quarterback position has become increasingly important over the last couple of decades. Since the 1970 NFL draft (which was the year that the Pittsburgh Steelers selected Hall of Fame quarterback Terry Bradshaw with the number one pick), teams have selected a quarterback with the first overall pick in the draft 26 times. Quarterbacks are usually the highest-paid players on the team by a substantial margin. The quarterback is the leader on the field, and most quarterbacks also serve as one of the team captains (making them leaders off the field too).
However, one could certainly argue that the head coach, general manager, and owner are equally important too. The head coach influences all three phases of the game - offense, defense, and special teams, making key decisions both on and off the field. It's no coincidence that the NFL's championship trophy is named after legendary head coach Vince Lombardi! The general manager is in charge of evaluating and recruiting talent, through free agency, the draft, or via trades. The general manager puts the team together (including the quarterback), so that the head coach can implement and execute the strategy for winning. Finally, the owner is the individual who sets the ultimate tone for the team's identity and mission.
Groysberg's team analyzed 38 seasons worth of data and found that the four leaders (quarterback, head coach, general manager, and owner) accounted for 68% of the variance in NFL team performance. Owners were the least important (accounting for 11% of the variance), while the quarterback was the most important (accounting for 37% of the variance). General managers and head coaches accounted for 22% and 29% of the variance, respectively.
They analyzed the data further, dividing the 38 seasons into two groups in half (19 seasons in the 20th century versus 19 seasons in the 21st century). Quarterbacks significantly increased in level of performance in the 21st century. The NFL game has changed significantly, with greater emphasis on offense (and passing, in particular), which likely accounts for this trend.
What are the lessons for those of us who aren't working in the NFL? Groysberg suggests that the capability to execute has become critically important for all organizations, not just for teams in the NFL. The classic view of leaders of coming up with great ideas, visions, and strategy is certainly still true today, but the need to execute on the vision and strategy is equally important. The take-home message is that organizations need to have strong "quarterbacks" who excel when it comes to execution and operations.
Is Tom Brady the greatest quarterback of all time? Absolutely. Is he the greatest football player of all time? In my mind, it's hard to argue otherwise.
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