CBS’ James Brown: If greatness defined by rings, Tom Brady has no equal

The face of CBS Sports’ coverage of the Big Game is weighing in on the debate of whether Tom Brady is the greatest quarterback of all-time.

To make his point, he switched sports and dropped the name of His Airness. 

James Brown, who is preparing to host coverage for his ninth Super Bowl, believes that if greatness is defined by rings, Brady “has no equal.” 

“Clearly Tom Brady is in there,” said Brown, who believes it’s more fair to rate the best players by individual eras rather than all-time.

However, Brown says he understands arguments against Brady, referencing the decades-old debate as to who’s the greatest basketball player of all-time. Michael “Air” Jordan is often given that title, but as Brown notes, if the decision was based soley on rings, Bill Russell would be on top.

“If [greatness] is defined by championships, Bill Russell is the greatest athlete of all-time then,” said Brown. “Because he won more championships than anyone else, and he did it as a player-coach as well.”

“But you don’t consider [Russell] to be the same kind of acrobatic player with the same kind of fluidity on the court as a Michael Jordan. So it all depends on how you define [greatness.]”

Watch Big Game Bound: Live from Atlanta all week long at 1:00pm EST on this website for more inside access from Anthony “AC” Calhoun and J.B. Biunno.