HOUSTON -- Psssst. Come closer. I want to let you in on a little secret, one that you shouldn't share with anyone at your Super Bowl LI party on Sunday night -- especially if that party is taking place in the decidedly un-Patriots-loving New Jersey area and you don't want to be wearing the guacamole.
But the big storyline in this game? The one about a certain dimpled quarterback cementing his status as the G.O.A.T. with a victory over the Atlanta Falcons at NRG Stadium? It really is nonsense.
Tom Brady is already the greatest quarterback in NFL history, and what he has accomplished during this remarkable season just to get on this stage again has simply confirmed it.
Don't tell Fox!
Oh, right. Fox told us.
"I've always said 'Joe Montana,' " Fox analyst Troy Aikman said on Tuesday when asked the G.O.A.T. question. "The reason is because, not that Joe's much older than me, but when I was really starting to follow the game and had an interest in the league, Joe was doing some remarkable things and playing at a high level. Four Super Bowls and they were good every year. So I just always felt that, in my opinion, Joe was the best."
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But then Aikman started doing the research for this game, and the broadcaster -- a three-time Super Bowl winner himself with the Dallas Cowboys -- reached a different conclusion.
"What is it, 11 championship games? Six Super Bowl appearances? And now his seventh? An incredible number of playoff wins?" Aikman rattled off. "I think you'd be hard-pressed not to name him as the greatest now regardless of what happens on Sunday."
If you want to defend Montana, or make the case for Johnny Unitas, or John Elway, or even Peyton Manning, that is your right, of course. Debating stuff like this, after all, is the reason people love sports. I can already see the argument if the Patriots lose. "But Montana won his four Super Bowls in four tries!"
But mostly, you'd be using the eyeball test at this point, because the numbers point to Brady. He has already thrown for 61,582 yards in his career, with 456 touchdowns and 152 interceptions. Those already rank near the top in league history, and one thing he has made abundantly clear this week, this is no retirement tour.
Why would he stop? He had, at age 39, one of the finest seasons of his career. His average game this year: 24-of-36 passing, 296 yards, 2.3 touchdowns, 0.3 interceptions. Had he not missed the first four games of the season to the Deflategate suspension, he would have had a strong case to beat out Falcons starter Matt Ryan as league MVP.
His alleged role in the deflation of those footballs always will lead some observers -- outside of New England, of course -- to slap an asterisk onto his accomplishments. I have little doubt that Brady knew about a scheme to lower the air pressure in his footballs, even if the science that supported the NFL's decisions is shaky at best.
Still: This isn't like Barry Bonds using steroids to fuel a late-career surge. Does anyone really think taking air out of the balls had any measurable impact in what Brady has been able to do over the course of his career?
Not likely. It is hard not to marvel at what he has done, especially this season. He finished the regular season with the second-highest passer rating of his career, at 112.2, and did it with Julian Edelman and Chris Hogan catching passes, not Randy Moss and Wes Welker.
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He made the sport look easy at a time when his younger counterparts -- hello, Eli Manning -- already were showing signs of wearing down. Father Time will have to catch up with him eventually, but right now he seems as helpless as a rookie defensive back.
"I don't think anything about, you know, 'personal legacy,'" Brady said this week. "Those words never even come out of my mouth unless I've repeated them. Those things have never been important to me."
It was a predictable thing to say, but hard to believe. This is a quarterback who, after leading his team to an AFC Championship in 2012, declared that "sucked pretty bad today." An athlete doesn't reach a level like this without being driven to be the best, and everyone around Brady agrees that this pursuit consumes everything in his life from his diet to his pajamas.
He has another chance to showcase the product of that hard work and preparation on Sunday, and to do so with a hundred million people watching and more than a few ready to end the G.O.A.T. debate with a victory against Ryan and the Falcons, once and for all.
"I think if Tom wins this game, and I never thought I'd say this, he surpasses Joe Montana as the greatest ever," Brett Favre said.
That makes for a nice, tidy storyline that has helped fill the long two weeks before the game. But Brady doesn't need to hold up the Lombardi Trophy again to cement his legacy.
He is the G.O.A.T. already.
Steve Politi may be reached at spoliti@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @StevePoliti. Find Steve on Facebook.
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