NFC Championship Game: The Greatest Career vs. the Greatest Year?

The 2020 NFC Championship Game at Lambeau Field is highlighted by two of the best to ever play the quarterback position.

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers have already won a playoff game in 2020, the team’s first postseason victories since their Super Bowl XXXVII championship campaign of 2002.

The Green Bay Packers are in the NFC title game for the second consecutive year but are hosting this round for the first time since 2007, when Hall of Famer Brett Favre was still the starting quarterback.

The Bucs have 21-year veteran Tom Brady behind center. Matt LaFleur’s NFC North champions are in the capable hands of prolific Aaron Rodgers.

Brady has often been referred to as the “GOAT” when it comes to his position and his career resume is awe-inspiring. In terms of the regular season, he’s thrown for a league-record 581 scores and his 79,204 passing yards rank second only to Drew Brees. He has made the playoffs a regular occurrence (he’s in the playoffs for the 12th consecutive year) and owns all those numbers in terms of yards (11,968), aerial scores (77) and more.

He’s vying to play in his 10th Super Bowl, owns six championship rings, and been the game’s Most Valuable Player four times. When the smoke cleared in 2020, Brady hit on 65.7 percent of his passes for 4,633 yards, 40 touchdowns, and a dozen interceptions. And he managed to reach the end zone on his own three times. He’s been resourceful in two playoff games despite hitting on only 54.8 percent of his throws, connecting for four scores and zero picks.

Rodgers is a two-time NFL MVP and has enjoyed a sensational 2020 season. He’s connected on a daunting 70.7 percent of his throws for 4,299 yards and 48 scores as opposed to a mere five interceptions. He’s turned over the ball just seven times all season and has also rushed for 149 yards and three touchdowns. Last week vs. the Rams, he threw for 296 yards and two scores and ran for another TD in the 32-18 win in which the Packers once again did not commit a turnover.

That aforementioned touchdown pass total marks just the sixth time in NFL history that a player has thrown at least that many touchdown passes in a season. He joins Denver’s Peyton Manning (55 in 2013), Tom Brady (50 with the Patriots in 2007) and Kansas City’s Patrick Mahomes (50 in 2018), Indianapolis’ Peyton Manning (49 in 2004), and Hall of Famer/Dolphins’ hurler Dan Marino (48 in 1984) on that list. Rodgers’ five interceptions are the fewest by any player to throw for at least that many scores in a season, followed by Brady’s eight picks in 2007.

The NFC title game will come down to a lot of things. But it will be fun to marvel to watch arguably the best to ever do it and one of the great seasons in NFL annals when it comes to the quarterback position.