This is a good response! This is how you would attack the Manning v Brady argument. I’m glad you’re making it. I don’t think it’s “over” by any means. I would point out that some of your assumptions — popularity and stat padding for all-pro nods — are not supported by evidence, at least you didn’t give any and a cursory look at their head-to-head seasons in which they made all-pro looks pretty convincing that the correct decisions were made. To wit:

2003: Manning’s advantages: 67–60.2 CMP%, 5.1–4.4 TD%, 1.8–2.3 INT%, 7.5–6.9 Y/A, 18–32 Sk, 3.1–5.7 Sk%.

2004: Manning’s advantages: 67.6–60.8 CMP%, 9.9!-5.9 TD%, 2.0–3.0 INT%, 9.2–7.8 Y/A, 13–26 Sk, 2.5–5.2 Sk%

2005: Manning’s advantages: 67.3–63 CMP%, 6.2–4.9 TD%, 2.2–2.6 INT%, 8.3–7.8 Y/A, 17–26 Sk, 3.6–4.7 Sk%

2008 — Brady threw 11 passes.

2009: Manning’s advantages: 68.8–65.7 CMP%, 5.8–5.0 TD%, 7.9–7.8 Y/A, 10–16 Sk, 1.7–2.8 Sk% Brady advantage: 2.3–2.8 INT%

2012: Manning’s advantages: 68.6–63 CMP%, 6.3–5.3 TD%, 8.0–7.6 Y/A, 21–27 Sk, 4.1–5.0 Sk% Brady advantage: 1.3–1.9 INT%

2013: Manning’s advantages: 68.3–60.5 CMP%, 8.3–4.0 TD%, 1.5–1.8 INT%, 8.3–6.9 Y/A, 18–40 Sk, 2.7–6.0 Sk%

I didn’t put Brady’s ’07 and ’10 seasons in there because, well, I wouldn’t argue anyone was better those years and I’m pretty sure you wouldn’t, either.

Looking at the 7x the 50 or so gatekeepers clearly deemed Manning better than Brady, I think I can safely assume no one is arguing padding stats/bias/indoor v outdoor stuff with the ’04, ’08, and ’13 seasons, where anyone with eyes saw Manning was just superior.

So, in ’03 — Brady’s 2 losses were @ Bills in Game 1 (scored 0; 4 picks) and @ Redskins in Game 4 (scored 17; 3 picks). Looks like there were 2 blowouts where stat padding could have occured. Game 2 v Eagles (31–10; Brady played the whole game; 3/0 TD/INT) and Game 16 v Bills (31–0; Brady pulled sometime in 4th; 4/0 TD/INT).

Manning’s 4 losses were v Panthers in Game 6 (scored 20; 1 pick, 91.9 rating); @ Jaguars in Game 9 (scored 23; 2 picks); v Pats in Game 12 (scored 34; 1 pick, 95.7 rating — Brady had 2 picks in the game fwiw); and v Broncos in Game 15 (scored 17; 2 picks, his worst game of the season). Looks like 3 blowouts: Game 2 v Titans (33–7; Manning played whole game; 1/0 TD/INT), Game 4 @ Saints (55–21; Manning did not play 4th; 6/0 TD/INT), and Game 14 v Falcons (38–7; Manning pulled in 4th; 5/0 TD/INT).

If you remove 3 TD passes from the Saints and Falcons games (I’m not going to watch these games to see if padding occurred, but lets just assume 3) Manning’s TD% falls to 4.6% on the year. Still better than Brady’s, but not really with any significance.

On the other hand, Brady was demonstrably worse in Pats’ losses than Manning was in Colts’ losses.

I don’t know. Seems like Manning still has the edge here. And since this took way too long, I’m not going to go through it for other seasons, but I imagine the varience wouldn’t be all that different than what ’03 looks like. I hate Manning. Hate him. He always seemed like a dick to his teammates, and the rumor and innuendo seemed to confirm that. But the guy could ball. Before I looked at this closely, I had the sense Brady was better, now I’m not as sure. Like the Sanders/Smith argument, it would be amazing if we could watch them on each other’s respective teams in some alternate universe (I’ve always been under the opinion that Sanders would have had 3,000 yard seasons on those Dallas teams). Would Manning have won 5 Super Bowls? 8? 1? I don’t know. That’s still my point. This is still an argument, and likely always will be, unless Brady runs off, like, 3 MVP seasons to end his career.