Barry Wilner - Footballs Top 10 Quarterbacks

WHO ARE THE GREATEST QUARTERBACKS?

What does it take to be one of football's top ten quarterbacks? Many things: Touchdowns. Yardage. Completions. Accuracy. And Super Bowl trophies. From Johnny Unitas to Peyton Manning, author Barry Wilner lists the ten greatest quarterbacks of both yesterday and today.

About the Author

Barry Wilner is a professional sportswriter. Other titles he has written for Enslow Publishers, Inc., include Sports Great Peyton Manning and Football's Top 10 Running Backs.

No sport is more of a team game than football, where eleven players working together is a must for success. Yet the guy in charge of it all on offense usually is the key to winning gamesand, eventually, winning championships.

The ten star passers here all played for or won championships, some of them winning many times. Otto Graham, considered by some the father of all modern passers, took ten titles of some sort in two leagues, the All-American Football Conference (AAFC) and the National Football League (NFL). Terry Bradshaw and Joe Montana won four Super Bowls each, and no one would argue that their teams could have still been champs without them.

Montana was the man who made the West Coast Offense go for the San Francisco 49ers, and that offense became the style of choice in the 1980s and 1990s, and still flourishes in the NFL today. He also was the master of the comeback win, but no more so than John Elway, Dan Marino, or Tom Brady, who have been almost unstoppable in two-minute drills.

When the Baltimore Colts beat the New York Giants for the 1958 championship, still considered the greatest game ever played, it was the cool and calm of John Unitas, as much as his strong arm and accurate throws, that got the credit. Indeed, the term field general, often used to describe QBs, probably was penned for Unitas.

But even before Johnny U and Graham, there was Sammy Baugh, perhaps the best all-around athlete ever to play the position. Baugh led the NFL in passing, punting, and intercepting passes as a two-way player in 1943.

There has been a straight line of great quarterbacks from Baughs days until now, when Manning and Tom Brady, who won three Super Bowls in four seasons early in his career, have dominated. And all of them were dependable: Favre holds the record for consecutive starts for a non-kicker. Manning may someday break that.

No matter who holds what records, these are the best passers football has ever seen.

Slingin Sammy was his nickname, and for good reason. In his time, Sammy Baugh threw the ball like no one else.

He could also kick it better than anybody, and he played some tough defense, too. Yes, one of the greatest quarterbacks ever also was a terrific defensive back for the Washington Redskins.

Sammy Baugh did it all, first in high school in Sweetwater, Texas, then at Texas Christian University and, finally, in the NFL.

Everybody thought I was a better baseball player growing up, said Baugh, who played shortstop and third base. I thought I was going to be a big-league baseball player.

Instead, he led TCU to a 2973 mark, including victories in the Sugar and Cotton Bowls. While in college, he played in a wide-open offense that no professional teams used. So when Baugh joined the Redskins in 1937, slingin wasnt in fashion. Running the ball was.

Sammy changed that, setting an NFL record in his first season with 81 completions for 1,127 yards. From there, Baugh got better, leading the league in passing six times, throwing for 187 touchdowns and, in 1945, completing an amazing 70.3 percent of his throws. This was a record that stood for thirty-five years.

And that wasnt all. Unlike more modern quarterbacks, Baugh played on offense and defense. In 1943, he led the NFL in passing, interceptions, and punting. In 1940, Baugh averaged 51.4 yards per punt. Baugh also played his entire career in the days when many players didnt wear face masks.

There was one game where Sam threw four touchdown passes and intercepted four passes. Imagine that, said Don Maynard, one of footballs top receivers, who was once coached by Baugh. Theres nobody any better than Sam Baugh was in pro football.

Thats why Baughs No. 33 is the only number officially retired by the Redskins, and why Baugh was one of seventeen members of the very first class to enter the Pro Football Hall of Fame, in 1963.

The Redskins won two championships and made the NFL title game five times in Baughs sixteen seasons with them. In 1994, Baugh made the NFLs 75th anniversary team, one of four quarterbacks selectedalong with Otto Graham, Johnny Unitas, and Joe Montana.

As a measure of how great a player Baugh was, the award given to the best college quarterback each year by the Touchdown Club of Columbus (Ohio) is named the Sammy Baugh Trophy.

BORN:

March 17, 1914, Temple, Texas.

HIGH SCHOOL:

Temple High School; Sweetwater High School, Texas.

COLLEGE:

Texas Christian University.

PRO CAREER:

Washington Redskins, 19371952.

RECORDS:

NFL passing, punting, and interception leader in 1943.

HONORS:

Pro Football Hall of Fame (1963); Six-time NFL passing leader.

To many of todays football fans, Terry Bradshaw is the guy who clowns around on a TV pregame show. To Steelers fans, hes only the greatest quarterback in Pittsburgh history.

The Steel City loves its football, and the guys who made Pittsburgh the city of champions in the 1970s are special heroes. Bradshaw, the top overall pick in the 1970 draftthe Steelers had never won a title at that timewas the engineer of Pittsburghs dynasty during that decade.

Not only did Bradshaw throw the most famous pass in NFL historywhich Franco Harris caught for the Immaculate Reception touchdown in a 1972 playoff game against Oaklandbut he went on to guide the Steelers to four Super Bowl wins in seven seasons. And he did it at a time when the NFL was filled with future Hall-of-Fame quarterbacks.

I loved winning. I didnt care. I just wanted to win, said Bradshaw, the first quarterback to win four Super Bowls. Id like people to say nothing else but: That sucker just loved to win. That would cover it pretty good.

Bradshaw was more than pretty good. The 1978 league Most Valuable Player as well as the MVP of the 1979 and 1980 Super Bowls, he had a powerful arm, strong body, and a sense of how to avoid pass rushers. He was a true team player, something Bradshaw learned growing up in Louisiana, where he set a national high school record for throwing the javelin. When he entered the Hall of Fame, Bradshaw immediately credited others, not himself.