Marshall Faulk Comments on Tom Brady's Legacy Ahead of Super Bowl 51

Hall of Fame running back Marshall Faulk believes New England Patriots star Tom Brady can lay his definitive claim as the best quarterback ever with a victory over the Atlanta Falcons in Super Bowl 51 on Sunday—but there's a catch.

Conor Orr of NFL.com passed along comments the former Indianapolis Colts and St. Louis Rams playmaker made about the topic Sunday on GameDay Morning. Faulk thinks Brady's place atop the list of all-time greats deserves an asterisk because of issues like Spygate and Deflategate.

"Man is about to play in his seventh Super Bowl, he has a chance at winning five, it's been great," he said. "But some things has happened and we know what those things are—when you talk about Super Bowls and things that has happened along the lines with the Patriots and we just cannot pretend like they didn't happen."

There's no doubt Brady's resume is among the most stacked in NFL history, and he's still playing at an extremely high level, which means he could add even more accolades in the years ahead. But the Patriots' controversies over the years are still a sticking point for some.

Whether that's enough to offset a historic run that's included four Super Bowl titles, three Super Bowl MVP awards, two regular-season MVP awards and just about every meaningful playoff record for quarterbacks is up for debate.   

Brady could upgrade those numbers with a triumph, and potentially another MVP nod, against the Falcons. A fifth Super Bowl victory would also move him past Joe Montana and Terry Bradshaw for the most championships as a starting quarterback.

The other argument in his favor is how the Patriots performed after Spygate and Deflategate.

In 2007, the Patriots went 16-0 during the regular season and almost completed the league's first perfect season since the 1972 Miami Dolphins. Over the past two years, New England has gone a combined 26-6 with an AFC title game berth last year and Sunday's Super Bowl appearance.

So even when it was perceived the league was cracking down on the franchise, it's remained a model of consistent success matched by few teams in American sports.

As for Brady, he stated leading up to the Super Bowl that his standing among the NFL greats is not something he's ever going to worry about or discuss publicly, per Jerry Sullivan of the Buffalo News.

"I don't think anything about a personal legacy," Brady said. "I mean, those words would never even come out of my mouth, unless I just repeated them. So those things have never been important to me."

Alas, even if Brady's not interested, it's a debate that will rage on for generations. And the anti-Brady crowd will likely utilize the same argument as Faulk to question whether the Patriots quarterback is truly the best to ever step on a football field.