Allow me to start this column with a shameless plug. I invented a party game called WaveLength that is all about ranking things. (You can check out the game and buy it at www.wavelengthgame.com.) Okay, there’s my plug. But I didn’t bring up WaveLength just to make a little coin, though that would be nice. I brought it up because WaveLength asks you to decide who or what is the best. And as I watch Peyton Manning’s Colts and Tom Brady’s Patriots battle on Sunday night, it occurs to me that Manning and Brady provide the perfect WaveLength argument. Who’s better? Who’s #1?

That question’s been asked a lot this week, but I’m not sure it’s the question we should be asking. Instead, we should probably be asking ourselves if we’re truly appreciating watching these two future Hall of Famers in their primes, especially considering that they seem to play each other every year either during the regular season, in the playoffs, or both. In other words, not only are they great quarterbacks, but they’re adversaries, too, with one needing to beat the other virtually every season to have a shot at reaching the Super Bowl.

We all know that score. You can count it on their fingers. Brady has three rings, while Manning has none. That’s a simple way of looking at it, but for many people, it’s the only way. Is that fair to Manning? That’s a difficult question to answer, and it depends on the way you look at it. Bolied down to the purest terms, a quarterback’s job to win games, and ultimately, championships. More than any other player on the field, he gets the credit for the wins and is blamed for the losses. When was the last time you heard a team’s fans cry out for a change at free safety when their team was on a four-game slide? Using this logic, it’s a landslide, with Brady and his three titles burying Manning and his many postseason failures.

Super Bowl rings turn good quarterbacks into great quarterbacks, and great quarterbacks into legends. Terry Bradshaw’s a legend. Bradshaw won four Super Bowls with the Steelers. But here’s something I bet you didn’t know: In 14 NFL seasons, Bradshaw threw 212 touchdown passes, 210 interceptions and completed 51.9% of his passes. Those don’t read like Hall of Fame numbers. Now I know what you’re thinking. You’re wondering what Dave Krieg’s career numbers were. (Oh, come on, you know you were.) Krieg played 19 seasons in the NFL, 14 of which he spent as a starting quarterback for the Seahawks, Chiefs, Lions, Cardinals and Bears. During his career, Krieg threw 261 touchdown passes, 199 interceptions and completed 58.5 percent of his passes. By statistical standards, Krieg was superior to Bradshaw. It’s not even close. Ever heard of Otto Graham? Sure you have, even though he played during the Millard Fillmore administration. Graham quarterbacked the Cleveland Browns to three NFL titles in the 1950s. (He also led the Browns to four championships in the All-America Football Conference before the franchise moved into the NFL.) During Graham’s six NFL seasons, Graham threw 88 touchdown passes, 94 interceptions and completed 55.7% of his passes. Graham played in a different era when the forward pass was more of a luxury than a necessity, but still the numbers are puzzling.

Yet Bradshaw and Graham are Hall of Famers, romantic gold standards in a league that treats its signal callers like gods. We conveniently forget the fact that practically half their teammates are Hall of Famers, too. And what is Krieg’s place in NFL history? Somewhere roughly between Neil Lomax and Steve DeBerg. In other words, he has no place. How can that be? The ring’s the thing. Only quarterbacks with unprecedented talent become legends without winning a championship. Think Dan Marino. Marino is probably the greatest pure passer who ever played the game. No quarterback in NFL history struck fear in opposing defenses the way Marino did. He was a cold blooded killer with a gun for an arm, but he never had the two things teams need to win Super Bowls – a running game and a defense. Marino’s bazooka arm got him to a Super Bowl in 1984, but he and the Dolphins were beaten by a complete 49ers team led by Joe Montana. You remember Montana. Four Super Bowl rings? Three Super Bowl MVP awards? The guy who, by most accounts, is the greatest quarterback who ever played the game?

Right now, Brady is playing Montana to Manning’s Marino. The similarities are striking. Brady and Montana, each champions several times over. Each drafted well after the first round was completed. Each relying on his intelligence, his poise under fire and the uncanny ability to play his best when it counts the most. Manning and Marino, each the possessor of passing skills paralleled only by the other. Each with the intense desire to win a championship. And each burdened by the lack of anyone who can stop the opponent’s offense.

Does Manning need to win a Super Bowl to validate his greatness? In a word, no. Manning is a great quarterback even if he never makes it to the big one. He’s no Dave Krieg. Like Marino, Manning’s simply too good to be considered anything but an all-timer. His place in NFL history is secure, and he could retire tomorrow and still end up with a bronze bust in Canton. But if he wants to climb to the top rung of the NFL quarterbacking ladder, a rung on which only Montana sits but which Brady has one firm hand on, he has to win a championship. Maybe two. That might not be fair, but that’s life at the top of the NFL ladder. Football might be the ultimate team game, but some teammates matter a bit more than others.

So who’s better - Manning or Brady? For now, we’ll give Brady the slight edge. And let’s all make sure we enjoy watching these two sort things out in the coming years.