Peyton Manning Argument Analysis

This article attempts to persuade readers that Peyton Manning is the best quarterback in the National Football League since the NFL was founded in the 1920s. Neil Greenberg uses several varieties of arguments to strengthen his argument, including numerous factual statistics, and loaded language. He begins the article overwhelming the reader with statistic after statistic, overloading the reader with unquestionable certainty that no other quarterback can compare. “No other quarterback has more than three first-team all-pro nominations. Not Tom Brady. Not Brett Farve. Not even Joe Montana.” As a reader you are familiar with these similar quarterbacks and mentally start to compare them to Peyton Manning as Mr. Greenberg continues his argument,

Another contradictory statement from Mr. Stewart, “Montana was a better quarterback in the playoffs than Manning”, if another quarterback was better than the person that this article was about then I fail to see how this justifies making him “the best quarterback in the NFL.” Yet again Mr. Greenberg brings in an outside person, Adam Steele, to weigh in on this matter, and again does not inform the readers of Mr. Steele’s credentials on what makes him a quarterback expert. Mr. Steele begins to compare Peyton Manning to Tom Brady, but in this situation the only difference between the two is the teammate that assisted them in their victories. By stating that, “Brady is clutch, Manning is a choker.” Mr. Steele is trying to come to Mr. Greenberg’s aid and state that Brady’s teams are better that the teams that Manning played for. Mr. Greenberg then tries to conclude the entire article with this, “Even before Manning got his second ring he deserved to be looked upon as the NFL’s all-time greatest quarterback. Now that he has ring No. 2, there really shouldn’t be any debate.” I feel as though this is an example of Post hoc ergo propter hoc since Manning won ring number 2 that makes him number 1. To end the entire article based off this simple statement without adding more statistics, or simply re-iterating some key notes, I found to be sloppy and not very hard hitting for a writer who is trying to convince me of who the best quarterback