OF ICE & MEN
Mat ty will change his and the Falcs’ legacies with Supe win Sunday
HOUSTON — This is business, and also personal.
Tim Hasselbeck was an NFL quarterback, just like his far more accomplished older brother, Matt. Tim studies the position and is honest when it comes to evaluating his brother’s career and place in the pecking order of the most scrutinized job in the NFL.
“I don’t know if people can really appreciate how much of a life-changing event it really is, between winning it and losing it,’’ Tim Hasselbeck recently told The Post. “I mean, my brother went in ’05 and they lost and I think had they won he would have finished his career as a Seattle Seahawk.’’
Matt Hasselbeck did not win the Super Bowl in his one and only shot and did not finish his career with the Seahawks. The chasm between winning and losing a Super Bowl is among the widest of any championship in any sport. Winners are exalted, losers are forgotten. The winning quarterback is forever linked to the Lombardi Trophy. The loser is usually damned because he did not attain the prize.
“Me, personally, I don’t think that’s a great way to go about it, but it’s how we do it,’’ Tim Hasselbeck, an ESPN analyst, said. “Right or wrong, that’s just what winning one does for you.’’
Right or wrong, that is the fate that awaits Matt Ryan. Sometime Sunday night, he either will be in the club of Super Bowl winning quarterbacks or be on the outside, looking in, denied a place at the best table in the room. Ryan does not have to outplay Tom Brady to gain admission, he just has to make sure his Falcons beat the Patriots in Super Bowl LI. If he does, Ryan’s legacy is secure.
“We got ready to do a game earlier this season, after [the Falcons] played Green Bay, late October and one of the guys on the crew asked me, ‘ Why isn’t Matt Ryan mentioned amongst the game’s greats when people start talking about him?’ ’’ said Troy Aikman, the former Cowboys quarterback, who will work Super Bowl LI as an analyst for FOX Sports. “I said, ‘ The only reason is because he hasn’t won a Super Bowl.’
“The only reason I wasn’t talking about him with ‘the others,’ the Aaron Rodgers and Tom Bradys, those type guys, is because he hasn’t yet won a Super Bowl and he hasn’t done it consistently enough in January. Right or wrong, that’s when all legacies are born in the NFL, for quarterbacks, and even in a lot of ways for other positions as well. What you do in January goes a long, long way.’’
January has given way to February and Ryan, 31, is on the clock. What can this one victory do for him? Well, Eli Manning generally is acknowledged as a future Hall of Famer, but the fact he likely will finish in the top five or 10 in most significant all-time passing categories is not the reason why. Sure, his durability is impressive, but if he gets inducted at Canton, it will be because of his two Super Bowl triumphs over Brady, Bill Belichick and the Patriots, in which Manning was named MVP both times after last-gasp final drives secured the winning points.
Comparing the raw data from Ryan’s first nine NFL seasons with the numbers put up by Manning in his first nine years with the Giants reveals something quite stark: Ryan is the more accomplished player, and it is not close. By any statistical measure, Ryan is in a higher class. Ryan has completed 64.9 percent of his passes through his nine-year career. Manning, through the 2012 season (his ninth), was at 58.6 percent. Ryan has thrown 240 touchdown passes, Manning, after nine years, had 185. Ryan has 114 interceptions, Manning had 154. Ryan’s passer rating is 93.6. Manning’s rating was 79.8.
If the Falcons win, try keeping Ryan out of the Hall of Fame.
“There are only 31 quarterbacks in this world to have a Super Bowl ring, that’s it, it’s a small club,’’ said Steve Mariucci, former head coach of the 49ers and Lions and at present an NFL Network analyst. “It’s a very exclusive club, it’s a fraternity we would all love to be in. So Matt Ryan, to have that ring, to join those 31 guys, it’s forever. He will always be known as a Super Bowl-winning quarterback. Like Kurt Warner, he won one. Brett Favre won one. Aaron Rodgers won one. It’s almost like if you want to be considered great or greatest, you got to have that jewelry, that hardware.
“I know Dan Marino doesn’t have one, and he’s considered great, but that’s kind of the exception. This would tremendously benefit Matt Ryan and his legacy and his career and would look pretty darn good on that resume. This would be huge for his legacy, no doubt.’’
Ryan, with this one victory, greatly enhances the way he is perceived in NFL circles. Likewise, Ryan can apply the polish to the mostly-tarnished image the Falcons have put forth in their 51-year history, dating back to 1966. This is just the second Super Bowl appearance in franchise history — they lost 18 years ago to the Broncos in Super Bowl XXXIII.
Aikman won three Super Bowls and is in the Hall of Fame. The pressure to win his first was intense, and immense.
“I remember when we won our first NFC Championship game at Candlestick Park back in January of ’93 and it was such a great feeling as we were walking off that field to know we were going to Pasadena to play in Super Bowl XXVII,’’ Aikman said. “As long as it took me to walk from the sidelines to the locker room it hit me that we haven’t done anything. Everyone talks about getting to the Super Bowl. It’s not about getting to the Super Bowl. That’s a great accomplishment, I’m not taking anything away from that. But no one remembers who lost the Super Bowls, nobody cares who lost the Super Bowls. It’s about who’s winning the Super Bowls. Especially for a quarterback. For a quarterback, that ultimately is all that matters.’’
Dan Quinn arrived in Atlanta two years ago and inherited Ryan, a rare find for a first-time head coach. At around this time last year, the coach challenged Ryan to take his game to the next level.
“And it’s a challenging task when you’re already playing at a really high level, how do you get higher?’’ Quinn said. “He nailed that.’’
Indeed, Ryan is coming off his best season, by far, and it the favorite to win his first MVP award. Manning has never come close to winning the MVP award, but he has two rings and when it comes to rating quarterbacks, the ring’s the thing.
“To me, I don’t really think there’s a question of who’s the better quarterback between Joe Flacco and Matt Ryan,’’ Tim Hasselbeck said. “I think Matt Ryan is the better quarterback, but he doesn’t have a Super Bowl. I’ve studied quarterbacks and I played the position and I watch these guys all the time. I’m going to have a hard time convincing anybody Matt Ryan is better than Joe Flacco because Joe Flacco has a Super Bowl ring.’’
After this weekend, Ryan might have one, too, and if he does, how he is viewed will change, forever.
“It’s a very exclusive club, it’s a fraternity we would all love to be in. So Matt Ryan, to have that ring, to join those 31 guys, it’s forever. He will always be known as a Super Bowlwinning quarterback.” — Steve Mariucci