Tom Brady owns more Super Bowl records than his childhood hero Joe Montana

Tom Brady grew up a San Francisco 49ers fan who, like many NFL fans, stood in awe of quarterback Joe Montana. Everything Montana did throughout his career seemed so precise and tactical that it’s no surprise Brady grew into a quarterback defined by those same traits.

Yet even Brady won’t put himself in the same class as the player he worshipped.

“I don’t ever see myself like him,” Brady said of Montana before playing the 49ers this season. “He was so spectacular and I think he’s in a league of his own. He was a winner. Every time he took the field, it felt like the 49ers were going to win.”

A lot of the same could be said for Brady — especially in the postseason, where he’s slowly been erasing his hero from the record books. More specifically, the Super Bowl record book.

Here’s how their head-to-head title game statistics stack up against each other via Pro-football-reference.com:

Even when comparing two all-time greats, these numbers are still eye-popping. Putting them into historical context makes them seems even harder to believe.

Here are the Super Bowl records Brady currently owns:

In Brady’s last appearance in the big game two years ago, he passed Montana for most career passing touchdowns in the Super Bowl.

They are both tied with three Super Bowl MVP awards, so if Brady wins another on Sunday, he’ll own that record all by himself. With another Super Bowl ring, Brady could also top Montana in wins, but he’ll never have Montana’s perfect record in Super Bowls.

And even still, there are a few Super Bowl leaderboards where Brady can jump Montana in the standings.

Montana is ranked second in completion percentage (68) in career Super Bowls, and third in completion percentage (75.9) in a single Super Bowl. Brady is in fourth (66 percent) and fifth (74 percent), respectively, in those categories.

There’s potential for Brady to knock Montana out of the top three here, but he’ll have to put in one of the most efficient games of his career to do so.

If Brady does just that, he could also end up leaping Montana in most touchdown passes in a single Super Bowl. Montana’s five passing scores are second behind only his successor Steve Young’s six. Brady came close to tying Montana in Super Bowl XLIX when he threw for four touchdowns — the most in any of his title game appearances yet.

There is, however, one Montana Super Bowl record that Brady isn’t close to, and likely won’t be: Montana’s career passer rating of 127.8.

Even if Brady posts a perfect passer rating in Super Bowl LI, it would only bring his career rating up to 104.3, which still wouldn’t even put him in the top three.

Fortunately, the Patriots QB has enough records already to hold him over. You’d hope he’d be OK with his boyhood hero hanging on to at least one.