Simply because people get too caught up in the heroics. Since Brady won many games in exciting fashion he's viewed to be clutch. I'm not saying that he isn't, my point is that it doesn't matter when the production comes in the game.

A touchdown counts as a touchdown, whether it's in the first quarter or the fourth quarter and in the production department, Manning has done more then Brady.

Another huge argument in Brady's favor is that he has won three Super Bowls to Manning's one. The use of Super Bowl victories to judge greatness is the worst argument people usually make.

By that standard, Doug Williams and Trent Dilfer are better then Dan Marino because they won one Super Bowl and Marino didn't win any. Or perhaps Jim Plunkett is better than Brett Favre or Steve Young because he won two Super Bowls to their one. Same is the case when comparing Brady to Manning.

Tom Brady happened to be the quarterback on the best team in Pro Football during those three Super Bowl wins. His team always had a top-tier defense (which is 50 percent of the game) where as the Colts almost always had one of the worst.

This logic is lost on too many people. If your defense is ranked at the bottom of the league, your team gives up points that leads to you losing games. That also puts more pressure on your offense to produce so you can hopefully out-score your opponents and win.

This means that Peyton Manning has usually had to overcompensate for a poor defense, play in more pressure situations, and have to be highly effective in order to win. Tom Brady has had the luxury of a top-tier defense to back him up. That means he did not have to be highly effective as often for his team to win (look at Super Bowl XXXVI). The amount of pressure was different for Manning then it was for Brady.

When being put in this perspective, it's hard to believe that Manning has been so much more productive then Brady when having to do more for his team to win. Where Brady has in fact done less for his team to win (look at his statistics) yet has won more often.

Then of course you have to consider the infamous legacy of Spygate. I hear the same arguments in defense of the Patriots every time.

'Everyone does it."

Yet, in the NFL's 89-year history, not one single team has ever been caught doing it besides the Patriots. You'd figure something within 89 years of history would turn up.

Don't get me wrong, I don't think the Patriots are the only team to have ever cheated, but I do believe they are the only team to ever cheat to that extent. Trying to read lips has been around forever, but incorporating technology takes it to an entirely different level. As you can see, the Patriots certainly reaped the benefits from doing so.

I love how another defense I also hear for Spygate is that the Colts have pumped artificial crowd-noise into the RCA dome. This is also yet another wildly false accusation. The story originated from a Boston reporter (who certainly couldn't be biased) who claimed that a person who worked inside the RCA dome told him the Colts' big secret.

Let's face it, "if" the Colts were doing such a thing it would be kept on the low-down. So to believe this fairy-tale, you have to believe that the Colts organization would leak their biggest secret to a random RCA dome worker. Furthermore, they'd be willing to share such information with a worker who's so trustworthy as to tell a Boston reporter for no reason.

That story was as fishy as it sounds. We later found out that the "CD-skipping sound" heard on TV was not heard at the live game, and CBS took full responsibility for the error in the broadcast. So as you can see, that argument is simply the Patriots poor attempt to make other organizations look as dirty as they are.

The next Spygate excuse is that the videotaping was of little to no advantage. Interesting thought but also incorrect. The Patriots if nothing else are a brilliant organization. They'd have to be to get away with cheating for six seasons. Bill Belichick and that organization would not risk all they risked for an advantage that wasn't worth-while.

If they could have won all three Super Bowls without the aid of illegal videotaping, they wouldn't have bothered. You also have to keep in mind that each of their three Super Bowl victories were only won by three-points. I think it's safe to say that they wouldn't have won those games without the advantage they possessed.

Then people say that the evidence that the Patriots didn't need cheating can be found in success of the 2007 season. They say the fact the Patriots went 18-1 is proof enough that they didn't need to cheat to win. Think again.

Imagine the plethora of knowledge acquired during all of those cheating seasons. Brady saw a side of defenses that most 15-year veterans probably didn't see. The Patriots also acquired a stacked roster filled with top-tier players who came from other teams.

Players like Randy Moss, Wes Welker, Donte Stallworth, Rodney Harrison, Adalius Thomas, Junior Seau, and Corey Dillon come to mind. Players who wanted to become part of a "winning-tradition". I do not believe that winning-tradition would have been what it was had the Patriots not cheated in prior years.

So what you had in 2007 was a team of stacked superstars who were led to a winning organization that might not have been as successful without illegal aid. I could be wrong about this but I have to think that if they could have done as well without cheating, they wouldn't have bothered.

Regardless, Peyton Manning would be better than Tom Brady had the Patriots never cheated a day in their lives. Think about all of the points made and decide for yourselves. This is a debate that has raged on for years and will continue to be debated.

I can certainly say without a shadow of a doubt that Peyton Manning is better then Tom Brady. Tom Brady has had a very successful career, no doubt about it. I do feel however when it's all said and done, Peyton Manning is in a league of his own.

A quarterback who has been more productive, rebuilt a far weaker team, improved the players around him, and done more as an individual to contribute to his team winning has to be considered the favorite in this one.

I know that there are a lot of Manning and Brady supporters out there so lets hear it...

Who's better, Peyton Manning or Tom Brady?

You're currently logged into Facebook

Do you want to share your Bleacher Report activity on Facebook?