Sports

the best there was

In the annals of sports, in each one in particular, be it basketball, baseball or others, there are those who are revered by their peers and sportswriters of all generations who award an individual as the best there was. In professional football, it stands to reason that now, during the current NFL season, we look back at the one person many consider “the best there ever was.” In the storied history of the NFL, even by today’s standards, one individual is the only one who exemplifies sportsmanship, true grit and determination despite overwhelming odds and for eighteen years he reigned supreme as the best quarterback ever. never played the game. There are many who emphatically state that Johnny Unitas was the best there was. Even today, there are those who feel that Johnny U could command any team, read today’s complex defense playbooks, and literally take the entire game to a new level of excitement, skill, and fearlessness.

With his signature flat top haircut, Johnny Unitas ascended to the highest level of professional football. Few, if any, sports stories are more dramatic or more comprehensive than the story of Johnny Unitas. He was, after all, a ninth-round pick for the Pittsburgh Steelers in 1955. Even though Unitas was eliminated before he had thrown a single pass in a game, he was still determined to play. For the rest of the year, Unitas substituted his construction job for playing semi-pro football for $6 a game. Back then, players were called upon to play what is commonly known as Iron Man football. That is playing in both defensive and attacking positions. Johnny Unitas excelled at everything. But it was his passing ability that finally caught the attention of other professional scouts.

It was after the 1955 season that Baltimore Colts head coach Weeb Ewbank learned of an “outstanding prospect” in the wastelands of Pittsburgh. Ewbank signed Johnny for $17,000 on a team basis. Scheduled strictly as a backup, Unitas got his chance in Game 4 when the Colts’ starter was injured. And they say the rest is history! Over the next 18 seasons, “Johnny U” amassed a book of game-winning exploits that have stood as the benchmark by which all other quarterbacks are measured. Many of his achievements have remained intact for more than fifty years. In the entire history of the NFL there has never been another Johnny U. Sure, there were others like Bart Star, Dan Marino, Brett Favre, Tom Brady, but it was Johnny Unitas who put the NFL on the map and in the consciousness. of the nations.

Without a doubt, it was his last-second heroism in the 1958 NFL title game, often called “the greatest game ever played,” that made Unitas a household name and began the legend. The greatest game between the Colts and Giants was played before a national television audience, it gave Unitas the opportunity to display all of his wonderful attributes, confidence, courage, leadership, playmaking genius and passing ability, all without the book of plays. by today’s coaches. Just think of Johnny Unitas as the quarterback today. He once told Weeb Ewbank to sit back, relax and just enjoy the game. The confidence and determination displayed under intense pressure in a collision sport like NFL football just showcased the true talents of Johnny Unita.

As in any professional sport, the era has its way of slowing down the great skill one had and in 1974 Johnny Unitas had to leave the game that he single handedly brought into the living rooms of the nations. A household name that all aspiring football players, especially young quarterbacks, tried to emulate. He was always recovering from injuries that became a Unitas trademark. A typical incident occurred in 1958, when he led Baltimore to the Western Conference title, he was hit by the Packers’ Johnny Symank in Game 6 and hospitalized with three broken ribs and a punctured lung. Four games later, he led the Colts from a 27-7 halftime deficit to a 35-27 victory over the San Francisco 49ers, a performance that rated higher than the season’s celebrated title game. .

Unitas might have been overlooked as a young player, but he was always an energetic and confident leader. “Everything I do,” he said, “I always have a reason to do it.” Even late in that championship game, he disregarded Ewbank’s instructions to keep the ball on the ground. “We don’t want an interception here,” the coach reminded him during a timeout. Two moves later, inside the 10, Unitas passes Jim Mutscheller down to the one. When asked about the risk of an interception, Unitas said, “If I had seen the danger of that, I would have thrown the ball out of bounds. When you know what you’re doing, you don’t get intercepted.” Unitas threw for 32 touchdowns in 1959, and the Colts again beat the Giants in the title game. In a 31-16 victory, Unitas rushed for the go-ahead touchdown and passed for 264 yards and two touchdowns.

His 3,481 passing yards led the NFL in 1963. The next season he was the league’s Most Valuable Player when he led the Colts to the NFL’s best record at 12-2 and was first in yards per pass attempt (9.26). . Earning another MVP in 1967, he had a league-high 58.5 completion percentage, passing for 3,428 yards and 20 touchdowns in the Colts’ 11-1-2 season. After being injured for most of the 1968 season, Unitas returned and led the Colts in their only scoring drive in historic Super Bowl III, a 16-7 loss to the New York Jets. Two years later, in the Colts’ 16-13 win over the Dallas Cowboys in Super Bowl V, he threw a 75-yard touchdown pass to John Mackey before suffering an injury late in the first half.

Nagging injuries eventually caught up with him and in 1972 the Colts under new coach Don Shula were forced to bench Unitas. The following January he sold him to the San Diego Chargers, for whom he played just one season before retiring. In his 18-year career, Unitas threw for 40,239 yards and 290 touchdowns in 211 games. What made Unitas special, Berry said, “was his uncanny instinct to call the right play at the right time, his icy composition under fire, his fierce competitiveness and his utter disregard for the his own safety.” On Sept. 11, 2002, as the rest of the nation remembered a national tragedy, Unitas was working out at a physical therapy center in Timonium, a suburb of Baltimore, when he suffered a fatal heart attack and quietly went down in history. He was 69 years old. The best he had, now he was gone.