23 Grand Slam titles, 72 Women’s Tennis Association titles and four Olympic gold medals. Serena Williams has continued to be a role model, not just for female athletes but all women. Her consistent ability to break convention and push boundaries is a constant inspiration.

Tom Brady is the most accomplished player in the most popular league in the U.S., making it easy to be known as the Greatest Of All Time. With seven Super Bowl rings and five Super Bowl MVPs, and with so many nicknames derived from his clutch factor, Brady has a resume that is more than GOAT worthy. 

In the nearest equivalent to the NFL, Serena Williams has 23 Major titles to Tom Brady’s 7 titles. Williams has 33 such appearances, while Brady has 10 respectively. Williams ended the season as the number one ranked player (MVP) 5 times, while Brady has won 3 of the sort. In the final critical stat, Williams has won 358 games in Finals sets, whereas Tom Brady has 230 career wins. 

A study by ESPN ranked football the third most difficult skill set and tennis the seventh. Those making up the study consisted of “a group made up of sports scientists from the United States Olympic Committee, of academicians who study the science of muscles and movement, of a star two-sport athlete, and of journalists who spend their professional lives watching athletes succeed and fail.”

However, whoever holds the title of GOAT should be so based on  accomplishments both on and off the court, or pitch, or field. Operating under that definition, Serena Williams is far and away the greatest athlete of all time. 

In 2017 Serena Williams became a mother, narrowly so as Williams suffered a near-death experience due to blood clots coming up in the birthing process. Williams had been suffering from pulmonary embolism, which essentially is a blocked artery in the lungs. When Williams gave birth in her emergency C-section, it threw off her blood thinners and nearly killed her in the birth process.

 In order to prevent this from happening again, Williams debuted a made-for-tennis bodysuit, which the French Tennis Federation labeled “disrespectful.” The bodysuit, as well as compression clothing, is designed to reduce the risk of blood clots happening. Therefore, Williams was essentially receiving backlash for protecting herself from dying. 

This story, combined with the various racist and sexist remarks that have been thrown at her, are part of a long list of critics that continue to undermine her various successes anytime she breaks any convention. 

Tom Brady survived a cheating scandal infamously known as deflategate, which questioned the legitimacy of big victories following proof that some footballs were deflated to have a better grip. Brady suffered a four-game ban as well as the team getting fined, yet after the dust settled, Brady walked clean. 

It’s difficult to imagine Williams surviving such a scandal with all the sexism and racism she faces. Nonetheless the trending comparison of Brady and Williams can be discussed to no end. There will never truly be a single GOAT, but it’s safe to say that we are living in a legendary era of sports’ greatest.

Because of his career that boasts 456 touchdowns, seven Super Bowl appearances, five Super Bowl victories, and two all-league Most Valuable Player (MVP) awards, Brady is a definite contender for football’s GOAT. Even other football legends stand in awe of his accomplishments.

Packers quarterback Brett Farve, who is the second-highest ranking touchdown pass leader, gave Brady high praise. “I think if Tom wins [the 2017 Super Bowl], and I never thought I’d say this, he surpasses Joe Montana as the greatest ever,” Farve said. Before this month, Joe Montana, quarterback for the San Francisco 49ers through the 1980s, had held the record for most Super Bowl triumphs.

If the GOAT title requires overcoming odds and exceeding expectations, Brady fits the bill. In 2000, Brady was drafted in the NFL’s sixth round—a round often seen as an afterthought. Many teams saw Brady as a gangly college student; his 40-yard dash was considerably slower than other quarterbacks’.

“It’s not that we said we wanted to draft a tall, lanky quarterback that ran a 5.3 [time in the] 40 [yard dash],” said the Patriots’ then-personnel staff member, Jason Licht. “Those weren’t the traits we were looking for…We were looking for the mental makeup … Watching [Brady’s] tape, he was the guy that would go in and lead [the University of Michigan] back to victory.” The Patriots coveted Brady’s leadership skills after suffering significant losses in their late 1999 season. The Patriots’ undervalued pick paid off: all the Patriots’ Super Bowl victories have occurred under Brady’s watch.

Yet, if one determines a GOAT by individual accomplishments rather than team accomplishments, former quarterback Peyton Manning is in the running for the GOAT in football. Though Manning has only won two Super Bowl rings, he remains the clear leader in touchdown passes, with a career total of 539.

Discrepancies between personal and team achievements permeate the NBA’s GOAT debate as well. Michael Jordan has sported the crown as basketball’s king for some time. Jordan scored 32,292 points, won six NBA championships, and never lost a single finals game during his career. However, Jordan earned these six NBA titles during a time of NBA expansion, when new, inexperienced teams were entering the league. Some argue that the lack of seasoned competition and the overall strength of the Chicago Bulls diminishes Jordan’s legacy. After Jordan retired, the Bulls lost only two more games in the subsequent season than they had under Jordan’s leadership, raising questions about the significance of Jordan as a single player.

On the other hand, in 2016, LeBron James earned his third championship title when he led his hometown team, the Cleveland Cavaliers, to their first victory in the team’s franchise history after a 52-year slump. Akin to the Patriot’s record-breaking comeback in this year’s Super Bowl, the Cavaliers came back from 3-1 down to beat the Golden State Warriors—a first in NBA finals’ history. Though James has not won as many championships as Jordan, his personal leadership and his ability to transform his team on the court may make him basketball’s GOAT.

An outstanding team player and an upstanding athlete inside as well as outside the arena may be overlooked standards for GOAT. Michael Jordan was by many accounts a ball-hog; while his miraculous scoring often made up for this, critics say his aversion to passing the ball contributed to his inability to break through the first round of the playoffs during his first three seasons in the NBA. If GOATs are determined by the greatest team players, John Stockton, holding the record for the most assists in NBA history, would come in the lead.

Likewise, in baseball, Babe Ruth is widely considered the GOAT, maintaining the third-highest number of home runs and preserving the leading slugging average of .690. Yet, using the team-player measure, Hank Aaron would need to be in contention for the GOAT since he holds the record for the most RBIs in MLBhistory.

Poor ethical conduct may weaken athletes’ claims to GOAT status. In the “deflategate” scandal, Tom Brady in particular and the Patriots as a whole were accused of using underinflated footballs in the 2014-2015 playoffs against the Indianapolis Colts.  Consequently, Brady was suspended for the start of the 2016 season. Similarly, steroid scandals may obscure the accomplishments of potential baseball GOATs such as Barry Bonds, Sammy Sosa, and Alex Rodriguez.

Yet, retired quarterback Boomer Esiason disagrees, claiming that fans and sports analysts should judge players based purely on their accomplishments—even amidst controversy.

“[Brady’s] the greatest of all time. I don’t care what anyone says,” Esiason said. “I don’t care about Deflategate…I don’t care about any of that stuff. I just look at what a guy does on the field when he’s on the field.”