At 81, Tom Moore still helping quarterbacks improve

Pro Football Focus recently noted that only two teams in NFL history have had a 4,000-yard passer, a 1,500-yard rusher and a 1,500-yard receiver in the same season.

The 1995 Detroit Lions and the 1999 Indianapolis Colts.

The one and only common denominator: Minnesotan Tom Moore, born in Owatonna, raised in Rochester and, yes, still coaching football for a 57th fall since starting off as an Iowa graduate assistant 60 seasons ago.

The guy who was Terry Bradshaw's quarterbacks coach in Pittsburgh and Peyton Manning's offensive coordinator in Indianapolis is now Tom Brady's 81-year-old consultant in Tampa Bay.

If the 43-year-old Brady raises a seventh Lombardi Trophy this season, it would give Moore rings from the 13th, 41st and 55th Super Bowls.

Since 1961, Moore has been out of football for only the 1963, 1964 and 2018 seasons. He already was in his 10th season as a coach when he first met Tony Dungy, a freshman quarterback at the University of Minnesota.

"And that was 1973," said Dungy, the Pro Football Hall of Fame coach who is in his 13th season of retirement. "It's crazy to think that he was my quarterbacks coach, my offensive coordinator 30 years later, coached Peyton and now he's helping Tom Brady put it together in Tampa. Amazing."

"I cannot wait to watch it," said Cris Collinsworth, NBC's "Sunday Night Football" game analyst. "This is going to be a team, an offense that we don't even know what it's going to be. The difference between Bruce Arians' offense and Tom Brady's offense [from New England] is so stark that we just don't know what it's going to be. I'm completely psyched."

Making the game even more entertaining is the opponent: 41-year-old quarterback Drew Brees and the host Saints. Together, these two future first-ballot Hall of Famers have thrown for roughly 86 miles and rank 1-2 in career touchdown passes with a combined 1,088 in the regular season.

"I would have my TV on for sure," Arians said last week. "I'd be there early, probably with a few cold ones and some hot dogs. When they kicked off, I'd be ready to roll."

Dungy also said he's looking forward to the meshing of what Brady has done the past 20 years in New England with what Arians likes to do.

"There's a lot of knowledge there," Dungy said. "I'm sure they've spent a lot of time sorting through what Tom does best, what Bruce does best. And I know Tom Moore has a knack for understanding strengths and weaknesses and accentuating the strengths and covering the weaknesses.

Mark Craig is an NFL and Vikings Insider.

Twitter: @markcraigNFL.