The National Football League, or NFL for its abbreviation, is “America’s sport” and therefore, its most popular sport. Every year when the Super Bowl game is near, people begin conversations about who is the greatest NFL player of all time. In this year’s Super Bowl, the New England Patriots face the Atlanta Falcons. For the Patriots fans, this is not necessarily a surprise. On the other hand, a lot Falcons fans were not expecting their team to reach the Super Bowl this season. Nevertheless, the spotlight is bright and pointing straight onto Tom Brady, who is thirty-nine years old. Tom Brady is in a quest to find his well-deserved fifth Super Bowl ring. If the Patriots win, Tom Brady would be tied with Charles Haley for the most Super Bowl rings as a player in the NFL history. Also, if Tom Brady were to achieve this outstanding goal, he would be crown by many as the greatest NFL player of all-times. Which automatically sparks the conversation of who is the G.O.A.T. (or greatest of all-time) as of now. Well, I made survey and asked over twenty-five high school students a series of questions.

The first question, and the most “popular” in Super Bowl parties is: who is the greatest NFL player of all time? This question obviously cannot be proven to have just one answer, therefore, in the survey there is an option where survey takers can name who they believe is the G.O.A.T.. The second question, one that has been increasingly asked for the past couple of months is: If Tom Brady were to win and potentially be “crowned” the G.O.A.T., who do you think has the potential to surpass him as the best ever? And the third and last question asked was: Who is the most underrated or under appreciated NFL player of all-time? The question and answer are both criminally underrated.

Anyways, let’s begin with the results:

Who is the greatest NFL player of all time? (Ordered in votes)

• Bo Jackson: 15
• Tom Brady: 6
• Walter Payton and Peyton Manning: 2
• Jerry Rice, Barry Sanders, and Lawrence Taylor: 1

Most high school students that participated in the survey think Bo Jackson is the greatest NFL player of all-time by giving him fifteen of the twenty-eight total votes. Many people do not remember that Bo also played in the MLB and was part of both sports all-star game. In other words, he is an amazing athlete with unlimited abilities and potential until his knee injury cut his career short. Still, in his best NFL season, Bo rushed for 950 yards and collecting 4 rushing touchdowns to his name. Bo was also selected to be part of the Pro-Bowl in 1990. All statistics have been retrieved from the Football-Reference page.

Taking the second place is Tom Brady. Not a surprise as Bo was but still up there. During Brady’s best season, he racked up 50 passing touchdowns — which was a record until Peyton Manning broke it — and 8 interceptions. He also passed for 4806 yards and finished the season unbeaten until losing in the Super Bowl. Still, he managed to overcome that disastrous ending to an unbelievable season with another Super Bowl ring in 2014 adding to his collection of 4 rings in total. Brady has also won 2 MVP awards and is also in the conversation to win it this year. All statistics have been retrieved from the Football-Reference page.

Perhaps the name that is surprisingly not in the list is the one and only, Joe Montana. Montana who is a member of the NFL Hall of Fame has won two MVP awards and four Super Bowl rings with the 49ers. Montana was also selected to be part of the Pro-Bowl eight times.

If Tom Brady were to win and potentially be “crowned” the GOAT, who do you think has the potential to surpass him as the best ever? (Ordered in votes)

• Aaron Roders: 4
• J.J. Watt: 3
• Ezekiel Elliott: 2
• Deshaun Watson (college), Dak Prescott, and Russell Wilson: 1

* Now for this next survey question there was a problem with the selections. The students selected Bo Jackson the higher number of time, fifteen times. His consideration would not make sense since he cannot surpass Brady’s excellence as the next great player because he retired long before Brady began his career. Therefore, he would not be able to.

This is a harder question to think about since we cannot predict the success that this people will have. What we can do is imagine what their potential could help them do. Now with the most votes is Aaron Rodgers who is well in track to be a Hall of Famer and one of the all-time greats not only in his position but of all. Rodgers has already won two MVP awards as well as a Super Bowl ring. He has also been selected six times to be a member of the Pro-Bowl game. Although he can still play, he is not as young as people may think. He is already thirty-three years old, but hopefully he can show us that durability that Tom Brady has.

Second on the list, is the only the second defensive player we have seen in all these survey responses, J.J. Watt. Although he has not won either a Super Bowl ring or  MVP award he still deserves a mention as a player that could become the greatest of all-time. He is only twenty-seven years young and even though he has been battling with injuries he has been named as the NFL AP Defensive Player of the Year three times. During Watt’s best season, he recorded 20.5 sacks, intercepted the ball once and ran it for an 80-yard touchdown, forced 4 fumbles and recovered one for a touchdown, deflected 10 passes, and even caught a touchdown pass, all statistics have been retrieved from the Football-Reference page. Hopefully he come back healthier than ever next season and continues his dominance to eventually become the G.O.A.T.. All statistics have been retrieved from the Football-Reference page.

And finally, for the last question…

Who is the most underrated or under appreciated NFL player of all-time? (Ordered in votes)

• Bo Jackson: 15
• Drew Brees: 6
• LaDainian Tomlinson and Steve Young: 2
• Ed Reed, Warren Sapp, and Larry Allen: 1

Perhaps the most interesting and thoughtful question in the survey, the most underrated NFL player of all-time is none other than Bo Jackson, who received fifteen votes. Bo is truly under appreciated my many fans, not only NFL fans or MLB fans, but sports fans in general. He was outstanding in both sports and gave us entertainment week in and week out. Bo only played four seasons and only played 38 games in his whole NFL career. He played for just 38 games but as you can see, he was voted best player ever by high schoolers. Last time he played NFL was in 1990 and is still remembered dearly by many fans but his impact is forgotten by many more. There would never be another Bo, and he knows. All statistics have been retrieved from the Football-Reference page.

Drew Brees finished second with six votes. Brees, who is 37 years young now is still playing at an all-time level. He just finished this season passing for 5208 yards, 37 touchdowns and 15 interceptions. Still that is not his best season, during the 2011 campaign, he led his team to 13-3 record and passed for 5476 yards, 46 passing touchdowns and 14 interceptions, while also averaging 342.3 passing yards a game. Those numbers are out of this world and by just those numbers he deserves much more praise. Brees has also added a Super Bowl ring to his name and nine Pro-Bowl selections (almost a decade!). All statistics have been retrieved from the Football-Reference page.

Hopefully the NFL keeps bringing entertainment to our houses in order to keep having these conversations that build friendship and bonds among all fans. All the players mentioned will never be forgotten and to those that are young and are full of potential, I wish you the best. Also, I wanted to thank all the students that were part of the survey. Again, thanks for the participation.