Sean Glennon talks new book, "Tom Brady vs. the NFL: The Case for Football's Greatest Quarterback"

Forget about Joe Montana's 4-0 record in the Super Bowl, or that he's never thrown an interception in the big game; Sean Glennon firmly believes that Tom Brady reigns supreme when it comes to the National Football League's greatest quarterback.

Glennon took the time to speak to Steve Fox's Sports Journalism class about his newly released book, "Tom Brady vs. the NFL: The Case for Football's Greatest Quarterback" on Tuesday.

Glennon said that he used a mix of analytical and anecdotal evidence to make the case that Brady, the New England Patriots quarterback and winner of three Super Bowls, trumps all NFL "passers." A list that includes Montana, Bart Starr, Peyton Manning, Terry Bradshaw and a handful of former and current greats.

Glennon started his career writing about arts, and said that he "backed into sports journalism."

His blog about Patriots fans jumpstarted his career, and with this blog, he found a topic he wanted to continue to write about: the New England Patriots.

In 2004, he published his first book, "This Pats Year," which focused on Patriot fans.

In 2008, he wrote about the history of the Patriots in his second book, "The Good, the Bad & the Ugly."

Two years later, came "Game Changers," a book chronicling the greatest plays in Patriots history.

After "Game Changers," his publishers asked for a book about Tom Brady. He knew Charles Pierce had done "Moving the Chains: Tom Brady and the Pursuit of Everything" in 2006. Glennon felt like he couldn't tell Brady's story as well as Pierce did, so he opted to avoid the biography route.

Instead, he chose to make a case for Tom Brady as the NFL's greatest quarterback.

Glennon struggled with a number of things in the making of his book.

He said "stat's don't interest people, stories do." But, given that he had no access to Brady or really anyone in the Patriots organization, how would he be able to tell an interesting story without overloading on stats?

Glennon pointed to Pat Kerwin, of NFL.com, as someone who helped guide him through the predicament. Kerwin ended up writing the forward for Glennon's book.

He also wrestled with the reality that Brady may not be the best quarterback in the NFL. Montana and Brady are two of the first names mentioned when discussing this topic, and proving that Brady is superior to Montana was one of his biggest challenges.

One of Glennon's key arguments is that "there's a reason Montana never won a 5th Super Bowl. Because he kept losing conference championships."

Glennon said that he didn’t care if people disagreed with his point, as long as they acknowledged that his opinion was well thought out and sensible. He made it clear that younger quarterbacks like Eli Manning and Ben Roethlisberger could usurp Brady in the coming years.

Glenon said that he expects his publishers to ask him to write a book about Patriots' coach Bill Belichick next. 

Sports blogging still has a long way to go

The thing that bothers me about the professional world of sports' resistance to bloggers is that a lot of them are no longer the stereotypical, fanboy bloggers living out of their mother's basement. So when I read articles about Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban wanting to ban bloggers from his press conferences -- because obviously allowing a few reporters that aren't with a professional organization is the absolute worst thing in the world -- I get frustrated. There is so much good sports writing prevalent today that could be considered "blogging." Take Grantland, a project headed by ESPN's star Bill Simmons, for example. That's technically a blog, correct? Yet, Simmons has assembled an all-star staff that would stack up against any other professional organization. So it's disappointing to see that Grantland can't get credentialed to certain events simply because their title isn't the New York Times, the Boston Globe, etc. It's disappointing because the best writers, and Grantland absolutely has some of the best writers, should be covering the most significant events.

In my opinion, we need to start to wean ourselves off of the word "blogger." The term carries a negative connotation, even though today's definition of a blogger is vastly different than what you'd find in the infancy of sports blogging. Grantland is not the only example here. SB Nation and Sports on Earth also churns out some of the best content to offer, but still they don't have close to the same access as newspapers and professional organizations such as ESPN and Sports Illustrated. Although sports blogging faces an uphill battle, the world of professional sports is beginning to open their doors to the Grantland's and SB Nation's of the sports blogging world. Now, if we can reshape wide-spread beliefs about the lines between bloggers and journalists, a real breakthrough in sports journalism can be made.

Sources: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/21/business/media/21bloggers.html?pagewanted=2