We hope all you students of the gridiron arts have taken copious notes in recent days.

After all, you’ve just been treated to a pair of virtuoso performances by the Michelangelo and da Vinci of the NFL Renaissance, Peyton Manning and Tom Brady.

No sooner had Manning dried the brushes after completing the Sistine Chapel of his NFL career — reaching to touch the hand of the Gridiron Gods with a remarkable 34-31 win at Denver — than Brady pulled the cover off his own pigskin Mona Lisa. He walked into one of the loudest stadiums in the NFL last night and took all of two minutes to turn it into a mausoleum of Egyptian mummies, shredding the upstart Vikings and their vaunted defense for 372 yards — including a dizzying 257 in the first half – and four touchdowns.

It was not the equal of Manning’s Sunday masterpiece. The Colts quarterback faced a tougher defense and a better team, and was forced by his own inept defense to score with every second-half possession. But Brady’s performance was one of those Rightbackatcha! games — serving notice to his fellow football Florentine that he will not cede the title of the game’s greatest gridiron artist without a fight.

There are some analysts out there in the seedy underworld of online pigskin “punditry” who believe that the Manning-Brady debate is tired and old.

We believe that these people are high from the fumes of absinthe and oil paints.

“Brady or Manning?” is the most compelling debate in all of sports today — rapidly reaching the standards of Magic vs. Bird, Russell vs. Chamberlain and Tastes Great vs. Less Filling among sports-fan debates that will never die.

We should celebrate their historic rivalry.

Manning and Brady are often compared to Dan Marino and Joe Montana. But those NFL legends rarely ever faced each other – just three times in their 12 years in the league together. Brady and Manning square off Sunday night for the eighth time in the last six seasons, in front of a national television audience on NBC. It may be the precursor to a ninth head-to-head gunfight in January.

At the very least, it will be the regular-season highlight of 2006 — the most hyped and analyzed game of the season. The least we can do is revel in each and every meeting between the game’s greatest performers — two bona fide future Hall of Famers at the very heights of their artistic genius.

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Yesterday, we gave 10 reasons why Manning’s win over Denver on Sunday was the best performance of his career.

Today, Brady gets equal billing. We take a walk around the Museum of Modern Gridiron Arts and, on the heels of another masterpiece, look at the 10 greatest games of his remarkable career.

As we did when weighing Manning's performance against Denver, we take into consideration a variety of factors, including the circumstances and the stakes of the game, the quality of the opponent and Brady's own individual production.

10. New England 24, Philadelphia 21 (Super Bowl XXXIX, Feb. 6, 2005 @ Jacksonville)

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The numbers: 23 for 33 (69.7%), 236 yards, 2 TDs, 0 INTs, 7.2 YPA, 110.2 passer rating.
The story: His opposing quarterback had a physical meltdown under the bright lights and heavy pressure of the Super Bowl. But Brady was again near flawless in a Super Bowl victory, posting a 110.2 passer rating with 2 TDs and 0 INTs against a defense that fielded three Pro Bowl DBs and finished the season No. 2 in scoring. He threw TD passes to receiver David Givens and, for the second time in a Super Bowl, to linebacker/tight end Mike Vrabel.

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