Who are Tom Brady’s peers in other sports?

Co-holding the North American big-four sports record is a duo containing one of the elite athletes in his craft and another not even being the most-famous member of his family. At 11 pro sports titles, Boston Celtics’ great Bill Russell and longtime Montreal Canadien Henri Richard are at the top of the list. With Boston’s run of NBA titles in the late 1950s and throughout the 1960s, it’s not surprising to see Russell and a fraternity of his Celtic teammates take up eight of the top nine spots in the NBA’s history of individual title wins. Robert Horry is the only non-60s Celtic to have won seven or more league titles.

Horry won the same number of championships as Brady, with the former Michigan quarterback being the focal point on his team for every Lombardi lift. Horry was a standout in his own right, but had more help around him such as Kobe Bryant, Shaquille O’Neal and Tim Duncan. Who’s Brady’s greatest championship teammate? Rob Gronkowski? Adam Vinatieri? Deion Branch? There’s not a clear answer, making Brady’s legacy harder to replicate.

Of course, when talking about championships in modern sports, no comparison is fair without bringing up Jordan. His six championships took place over eight seasons, seven of which he played in. All six years in which Jordan played more than 20 games for the Bulls, they won the title. Jordan was dominant for a long time and won championships at a quicker rate than Brady. Jordan also had the same core of players around him for those championships. Brady had a rotating door. The longevity of Brady makes Jordan an odd contemporary, outside of championships alone. Jordan did get two seasons with the Wizards, much as Brady wanted a final run in Tampa Bay. Brady won his seventh title with the Buccaneers. Washington missed the playoffs both years of the Jordan era.

These former UConn teammates have won championships throughout their entire college and professional careers. In American sports, they each have six titles. Bird won two NCAA titles with the Huskies and four WNBA titles with the Seattle Storm. Taurasi won three consecutive titles under Geno Auriemma from 2002-04 and a trio of championships with the Phoenix Mercury. The pair have 22 combined WNBA All-Star selections and have been named to the All-WNBA first team 15 teams, with Taurasi picking up 10 of those nods.

Overseas, Bird helped win five Russian league titles and seven European trophies. Taurasi won seven championships in Russia and six more at the continental level. Bird is the only WNBA player to win a title in three different decades, holds the league’s record for games played and started (both 549). At 41, Bird also is the oldest active WNBA player and holds the league’s record for career assists too (3,048). Taurasi set the WNBA points per game single-season record in 2006, averaging 25.3, and has never had a scoring clip below 16.2 in any season she’s played in full.

Back on the ice, Richard is a name synonymous with hockey fans. The Maurice “Rocket” Richard Trophy is given out annually by the NHL to the league’s leading goal-scorer. Washington’s Alex Ovechkin has the most all-time with nine. The honor is named after Henri’s older brother, while a debate can take place as to which Hockey Hall of Famer is better, with most usually choosing Maurice. Both were named to NHL.com’s “100 Greatest NHL Players” list in 2017. But Henri bests his brother in championships by three, with Maurice winning 8. There were also a lot fewer teams in the NHL at that time. The league didn’t expand to double-digit teams until 1967. Montreal already had 14 Stanley Cups at the time of that expansion.

Berra leads the way in baseball, as it’s expected a Yankee would’ve won the most World Series titles. Placed conveniently at the end of Joe DiMaggio’s career and spending a large portion of Mickey Mantle’s career as New York’s catcher, Berra played in a championship series in 14 of his 18 years in the Bronx, winning a World Series 10 times. The Yankees dominate the individual championships list better than any team in professional sports.

Of the 26 players in MLB history to win at least six World Series titles, only one never played for the Yankees, Eddie Collins, who had two stints with Philadelphia Athletics and one with the Chicago White Sox from 1906-30. (Collins was one of the clean members of the 1919 Black Sox, who threw the World Series as heavy favorites). Ten of the dozen baseball players to win seven or more titles exclusively played for the Yankees, with Babe Ruth being one of the odd duo out because he won three championships with the Red Sox. Of the championships representing those in the six-or-more club, the most recent was won in 1962. Brady’s old by athletics standards, but he wasn’t born for another 15 years and didn’t compete for his first professional championship for 40 years after that Yankees title.

In terms of dominance over a long period of time, comparisons to Hank Aaron or Willie Mays could be made for Brady. Aaron was a 25-time All-Star and baseball’s longtime home-run king, but he only won one World Series in 1957 with the Braves. Mays himself is a 24-time All-Star and won 12 straight Gold Gloves from 1957-68, but also one a single World Series in 1954, with “The Catch” taking place in a Game 1 for the Giants win over Cleveland.

No one has dominated tennis quite like Williams. Her 23 Grand Slam titles is the most by either gender in the Open Era and is right behind Margaret Court’s all-time record of 24. Overall, Williams holds 39 Grand Slam titles, adding 14 women’s doubles titles, all with sister Venus Williams, and two mixed doubles championships. The WTA ranked Williams No. 1 eight times between 2002-17, with her longest reign atop the sport being a 186-week stretch, tied for the longest ever alongside Steffi Graf. Her 319 weeks as the world’s No. 1 is third all-time behind Martina Navratilova and Graf. Williams’ tenure as the sport’s elite athlete was longer than both Graf and Navratilova, even though the latter has 59 career Grand Slam titles. Navratilova finished her career with 18 Grand Slam singles titles. Williams’ last Grand Slam Championship was over Venus in the 2017 Australian Open, losing her first four chances at tying Court’s record.

The lack of modern examples in the big-four sports to Brady is astounding. Heading worldwide, Lionel Messi won nine La Liga titles and four UEFA Champions League crowns with Barcelona. What differentiates Brady from one of the greatest soccer players of this generation is how Spain’s top-tier league became a two-team race, with rival Real Madrid always keeping up with Barca in spending, to win all but one league championship between the two of them during Messi’s 17-season tenure at Camp Nou.

Staying in Europe, Cristiano Ronaldo’s career is also outstanding, winning seven league championships with Manchester United, Real Madrid and Italian giant Juventus combined with five Champions League titles, four in Madrid, one with Man U. Ronaldo would be my pick for the best modern equivalent to Brady, albeit, still not an airtight comparison. Even playing with elite talent his entire career, Ronaldo has always been the focal point of every major European team he’s been on, something Messi needed a few years to develop, while Ronaldo did so in his native Portugal.

What makes up the difference for me from the disparity of elite talent Ronaldo played with compared to Brady, were the early expectations placed on him. Ronaldo was immediately handed Manchester United’s No. 7 jersey, a kit that carries legendary status at Old Trafford with David Beckham, George Best and Eric Cantona donning it before him. His production didn’t skyrocket until 2006, but he was rarely invisible in games either. A quarterback never hides and Brady was the most visible player in the NFL since 2003.

Every year Hamm went to college at North Carolina, she was part of a national-championship-winning squad in Chapel Hill. She scored 103 goals in 95 appearances for the Tar Heels. Hamm redshirted the 1991 season to prepare for the inaugural FIFA Women’s World Cup, which the United States won. UNC only lost one game Hamm played and in 2003, she was named the greatest athlete in the first 50 years of the Atlantic Coast Conference alongside another Tar Heel who’s already appeared on this list: Michael Jordan. Hamm made her USWNT debut at 15 in 1987 and when she retired in 2004, she was the leading goal scorer at the international level for either gender with 158 goals. She’s now third all-time behind Christine Sinclair and Abby Wambach. Hamm only played at the club level for three seasons for the WUSA’s Washington Freedom, winning a title with them in 2003. Add in two Olympic Gold medals and another World Cup title in 1999, and Hamm’s trophy case is just as crowded as Brady’s.

She’s the top goalscorer for the Brazilian national soccer team in either gender at 113 goals, blowing past men’s leader, Pele, who has 77. Marta also holds the overall FIFA World Cup record for goals scored (17) and was the first player to score at five different World Cups, a feat only matched by Christine Sinclair in 2019. The striker was also named FIFA’s World Player of the Year in five consecutive years from 2006-10 and draws comparisons to Brady because of longevity for winning the award for a sixth time in 2018. At the club level, Marta won seven Swedish league titles and one European Cup. She also won two league titles in the now-defunct WPS.

Marta is still an active soccer player for the NWSL’s Orlando Pride. One aspect of Brady’s career which she doesn’t replicate is late-career success thus far. In 2021, Brady had the most pass completions (485), pass attempts (719), passing yards (5,316) and second-most touchdown passes (43) of his NFL career. In 82 career appearances for Orlando, Marta only has 27 goals, well below her usual club scoring average of 0.6 goals per game. Marta did score five international goals in 2021, her most since 2017.

Is Brady the greatest football player ever? No. On talent alone, that’s Jerry Rice, Barry Sanders or Lawrence Taylor in my book. Is he even the greatest quarterback of all time? That’s more debatable, but elite passers such as Joe Montana or Dan Marino had a larger skill set. Brady is no doubt the best teammate and on-field winner of all-time, probably in any sport, the statistic which motivates most athletes to keep training, even if their bodies are running on empty. Despite Deflategate and a mid-career drought without a title, that part of his legacy is untouchable and that’s why there might not be another player like him in North American sports history.