Jackson Free Press

Super Bowl LI features a wide disparity between the two head coaches and starting quarterbacks in terms of experience. New England head coach Bill Belichick and quarterback Tom Brady are about to coach and play in their seventh Super Bowl together.

Atlanta head coach Dan Quinn and quarterback Matt Ryan are in their first Super Bowl together. If experience counts at all in the Super Bowl, Belichick and Brady are overflowing with it.

No coach and quarterback combo in the history of the NFL has reached seven Super Bowls together. http://www.cbssports.com/nfl/news/tom-brady-bill-belichick-make-history-with-fourth-super-bowl-win/">Belichick and Brady are tied with Chuck Noll and Terry Bradshaw with the most Super Bowl wins with four.

Belichick is reaching his seventh Super Bowl and is 4-2 in his previous trips. He surpasses the great Don Shula, who made six trips to the big game but went 2-4.

Shula is still the http://www.pro-football-reference.com/coaches/">NFL’s all-time winningest coach with 328 wins in 33 seasons as a head coach, but Belichick is currently fourth with 237 wins in 22 seasons as the top man. Belichick is still 91 wins behind Shula and will need at least nine more years of an equal number of wins just to have a chance to break Shula’s record.

Quinn on the other hand is in his second season as a head coach http://www.pro-football-reference.com/coaches/">with a 19-13 overall record. If you do the math, that means Belichick has 218 more wins than the man he is coaching against in the Super Bowl.

There isn’t even another active coach with 200 wins in the NFL right now. The next closest active head coach is http://www.pro-football-reference.com/coaches/">Andy Reid with the Kansas City Chiefs (173).

Other active http://www.pro-football-reference.com/coaches/">head coaches who have won a Super Bowl are Mike McCarthy (Green Bay), Pete Carroll (Seattle), Mike Tomlin (Pittsburgh), Sean Payton (New Orleans) and John Harbaugh (Baltimore), and none have even 125 wins.

Brady is tied with Joe Montana and Bradshaw for the most Super Bowl wins with four. Unlike Brady, Montana and Bradshaw were undefeated in Super Bowl starts.

Brett Favre and Peyton Manning have the most regular season wins by a quarterback with 186. http://www.footballdb.com/stats/qb-records.html?type=reg&alltime=1">Brady sits third with 183, but when you add playoff wins, the New England quarterback has the most with 207 wins.

Ryan has just http://www.footballdb.com/stats/qb-records.html?type=reg&alltime=1">85 wins in the regular season and 88 in the postseason. It is amazing that Brady nearly has 100 more regular season wins than the quarterback who will oppose him.

Brady’s name is all over the NFL record book for passing. He is fourth in http://www.pro-football-reference.com/leaders/pass_yds_career.htm">passing yards (61,582), fourth in http://www.pro-football-reference.com/leaders/pass_cmp_career.htm">passes completed (5,244), fourth in http://www.pro-football-reference.com/leaders/pass_td_career.htm">touchdown passes (456) and fifth in http://www.pro-football-reference.com/leaders/pass_att_career.htm">pass attempts (8,224).

Another amazing Brady stat: He has just 152 career interceptions. That is fewer interceptions than Peyton and Eli Manning, Drew Brees and Ben Roethlisberger.

Ryan has 114 career interceptions and came in the league eight years after Brady. The Falcons quarterback is 21st in http://www.pro-football-reference.com/leaders/pass_yds_career.htm">passing yards (37,701), 24th in http://www.pro-football-reference.com/leaders/pass_att_career.htm">pass attempts (5,064), 18th in http://www.pro-football-reference.com/leaders/pass_cmp_career.htm">pass completions (3,288) and 25th in http://www.pro-football-reference.com/leaders/pass_td_career.htm">passing touchdowns (240).

While Ryan is waiting to play in his first Super Bowl, http://www.pro-football-reference.com/super-bowl/leaders.htm">Brady’s name is all over the record book for passing. The Patriots star has the most touchdown passes (13), pass attempts (247), passes completed (164), game passes completed (37) and in-career passing yards (1,605). He is third in game-passing attempts (50), fifth in game-passing completion percentage (74 percent), fourth in career-passing completion percentage (66.4 percent), sixth in game-passing yards (354) and third for game-touchdown passes (four).

In six Super Bowl appearances Brady has only thrown four interceptions. John Elway threw eight interceptions in five Super Bowl trips.

All of these numbers don’t mean Quinn, Ryan and the Falcons can’t win Super Bowl LI. Quarterbacks with no Super Bowl experience have won the big game.

Brady beat Kurt Warner, who had a ring with the St. Louis Rams, in his first Super Bowl and lost to Eli Manning, who was making his first start in NFL’s premiere event. And that is why we play the games.