Trent Dilfer, whose defining career moment was game-managing his way to a win in Super Bowl XXXV, decided to narrow his focus on weird targets: Tom Brady and Aaron Rodgers.
TRENT DILFER has the audacity to say Tom Brady and Aaron Rodgers ‘aren’t impressive’
Dilfer got carried to a Super Bowl, but thinks Brady and Rodgers are overrated. Okay.
James Dator has been covering a wide range of sports for SB Nation for over a decade, with a special focus on the NFL.
“The modern day game does not impress me. It’s super easy when you don’t get hit as a quarterback, and when you can’t reroute receivers, and when you can’t hit guys across the middle.
I love Tom Brady. I love Aaron Rodgers. I love these guys. It’s not impressive. What’s impressive is what they [pointing at other QBs in attendance] did.”
The “they” referred to old-school quarterbacks in the crowd as part of ESPN’s new 30-For-30 Bullies of Baltimore, which focuses on the 2000s Ravens, most specifically the legendary defenses the team had during this time.
Regardless of whether you think rule changes have benefitted quarterbacks over the last 10-15 years, it’s absolutely ludicrous for Dilfer of all people to say Brady and Rodgers are “not impressive.”
For example, Tom Brady has seven Super Bowl rings. Dilfer has one, in a game where he threw for 153 yards and completed less than 50 percent of his passes. Aaron Rodgers has won MVP four times, throwing for over 59,000 yards. Dilfer never threw for over 3,000 yards in a season.
This is just another example of an older generation whining about a younger one. It’s been happening throughout history forever. Olds always try to make themselves feel better and bolster their own accomplishments by asserting that younger generations had it “easier” than them. Hell, in 1926 people said Henry Ford was going to make the next generation “soft” by adopting a 40 hour, five day work week because dammit — they had to work six days like a healthy, well-rounded adult with a life expectancy of 59.
Dilfer went for the cheap pop. The lazy applause. He knew he’d get adulation in a room full of old players by making them feel every bit as impressive as two of the greatest quarterbacks of all time, despite never needing to volume throw or deal with the quickest defenders in NFL history.
If you want to have an honest conversation about rule changes benefitting quarterbacks, fine. If you want to extend that to slam Brady and Rodgers ... that ain’t it. Both players would have tore your generation a new one, Trent.
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