Joe Maddon doesn’t lack for strong opinions.
On baseball. Wine. Or pretty much anything else he’s asked about.
And if you read between the lines that also includes a definitive answer on the great New England sports dynasty debate: Tom Brady vs.
Belichick.
When The Athletic embarked on a look at why Tom Brady – arguably the best football player of his or any generation – just won his seventh Super Bowl while Angels center fielder Mike Trout – arguably the best baseball player of his or any generation – has yet to win a single playoff game, it’s no surprise that Maddon was on the website’s list of obvious interviews.
Maddon did win a World Series with the Cubs and is after all the man in charge of Trout’s career these days.
But, Maddon didn’t only offer up his thoughts on Trout’s lack of October opportunities, but also his opinions on Brady’s many successes and the value that TB12 brought to the Patriots dynasty over the last two decades.
“It’s such a quarterback-driven sport,” Maddon told The Athletic of Brady’s NFL domination. “It really is. I think that of all the games, it’s the one game driven by one position more than any other. So when you think about the Patriots, they had the culture. They absolutely had the coach and the philosophy. But then they also had the most important ingredient of all — the quarterback. (Meanwhile in baseball) you can have the best center fielder. But the best center fielder doesn’t ensure that kind of success.”
Maddon went on to explain why baseball is so much more of a team sport, in his opinion, than football or basketball.
“Baseball,” Maddon told The Athletic, “is just so much more interdependent — on everybody. I’m not diminishing the interdependency of football or any game. But without LeBron James, the teams he’s been on haven’t won that much. And without Brady, the Patriots don’t win all those years, either. They just don’t. There’s no way.”
So there you have it. At least according to the opinionated Angels manager Maddon.
Brady over Trout.
And Brady over Belichick.
