Tom Brady and Peyton Manning in Weather Games

When talking about Tom Brady vs. Peyton Manning many Manning fans always mention how he has the better stats. But stats don’t tell the whole truth.

For once I would like people to think outside the box because there is always a clear explanation deep down as to why a player puts up the stats he does and why another player doesn't. We have to think logically and not always start stating stats.

Stats don’t tell the whole story, if they did the Cardinals should not have lost this year's Super Bowl and the Patriots should not have lost last years. If stats told the whole story then Joe Namath and Bart Starr would not be in the Hall of Fame.

But unfortunately stats don’t tell the whole story.

When comparing Brady and Manning there are many factors to consider, but its seems that a lot of people don't consider how many outdoor games they play in.

A writer here at Bleacher Report, Ryan Michael, told me that Brady plays in snow games, at Foxborough, about once or twice a year. Once a year? Snow is not everything, there’s always wind, rain, sleet, etc.

Lets look at both divisions that they play in.

The AFC is all outdoor stadiums and three fourths of the teams are in the northeast, where, after November, we experience nasty weather almost everyday such as high strong winds, freezing rain, snow, and sleet. Let's look at the AFC South. Two fourths of the teams play in indoor stadiums included the Colts.

Now that we got that out of the way lets figure out the approximate number of outdoor games each player has per season.

The Patriots play half of their games in Foxborough, so that’s eight games of outdoor weather. They also play one game in the Meadowlands, which we all know has brutal winds (if you're not sure just look back at the NFC division playoffs this year between the Giants and Eagles).

The Meadowlands also occasionally experience snow and rain. Then the Patriots have to play one game in Buffalo. We all know how freezing Buffalo is. And Buffalo experiences snow every year. Buffalo also has winds that can reach over 120 mph.

Just look at the game between the Patriots and the Bills this year, when the field goal post was half tilted during the game and they had to fix them every time a team was about to score. Then the Patriots play one game in Miami and we all know Miami has a lot of rain.

That’s already 11 games that Brady plays in outdoor stadiums. They also play four NFC teams, and in about every division there’s only one indoor stadium. So add three to 11 and you get 14.

So Brady plays 14 games out of the 16 regular season games in outdoor stadiums, that’s 87.5 percent of the games in outdoor stadiums.

Brady has to face all the wind, rain, sleet, and snow that mother nature has to offer for 14 games out of the regular season.

But that must not be a big deal, right? Because Brady only plays in one snow game per year. Wrong. Brady plays in approximately three or four per year because he plays in places like New York and Buffalo.

Brady faces even more possibility of playing in snow when he plays the NFC East or NFC North. Now Brady has been a starter for seven full seasons in the NFL, so he has played in approximately 21 snow games in his career. That’s not even counting the playoffs where he faces even more possibility to play in the snow.

But like I mentioned before, snow is not everything. Wind is a factor. When you want to go deep with the ball and the wind is blowing straight at you at about 35 mph, that effects your throws. And it effects your vision when its snowing and the snow goes into your eyes.

Ryan has also mentioned that Brady fumbles a lot. How many times has he played in rainy games effecting his grip on the ball.

Answer: a lot. Just look at Matt Cassel when the Patriots played the Steelers this year in Foxborough. It was raining a lot and he had two fumbles. That’s something Brady has to deal with each year for every season his been a starter in the league.

Lets look at Manning and the outdoor games he plays in.

He plays in the AFC South which features two indoor stadiums, the Texans and the Colts. Manning plays half his games at home so that’s already eight indoor games he plays in. Plus the Texans game, that’s nine.

He only plays in Jacksonville once a year and Tennessee once a year so that’s only two outdoor teams. You can add another two outdoor teams because they either play the Chargers or the Steelers most of time.

They also play four NFC teams, so you can add another three as was the case for Brady. That’s seven outdoor games the Colts play. That’s 43.75 percent of the games outdoor compared to Brady’s 87.5.

Brady plays indoors about three times a year. While Manning plays indoors about 11 times a year.

So there’s a part of your explanation as to why Manning has better stats. Because he plays in a nice, comfortable dome where he doesn’t have to worry about the wind blowing away his passes.

He doesn’t have to worry about rain disrupting his grip on the ball. He doesn’t have to worry about his hands freezing to death every game after October. Well unfortunately Brady has to deal with all of that for approximately 14 games a year.

Another note that I would like to add that’s off topic. I hear a lot of Manning fans complaining that there defense was horrible this year, did you know that the Colts only allowed six passing touchdowns this year.

Yeah, they gave up a lot of yards but once the opposition got to the red zone, the Colts shot them down and gave up only three points.

Once again, as you can see, the stats don’t tell the whole story. There is always a story hidden underneath and if people think outside the box they’ll see it.

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