In the annals of sports, in each one in particular, be it basketball, baseball or otherwise, there are those who are revered by their peers and sportswriters of all generations who award an individual as the best there ever was. In professional football, it’s only fitting that now, during the current NFL season, we look back at the one person many consider to be “the best there ever was.” In NFL history, 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 reigned supreme as the greatest quarterback ever. have 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 audacity.

With his trademark flat top haircut, Johnny Unitas rose 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 cut before he even threw a pass in a game, he was still determined to play. For the rest of the year, Unitas substituted construction work for him with 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 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” on the Pittsburgh vacant lot. Ewbank signed Johnny for $17,000 on team basis. Strictly scheduled as a backup, Unitas got a chance at him in Game 4 when the Colts starter went down with an injury. And they say the rest is history! Over the next 18 seasons, “Johnny U” amassed a book of game-winning feats that have remained the benchmark by which all other quarterbacks are measured. Many of his achievements have remained intact for more than fifty years. In all of NFL history there has never been like 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 demonstrate all his wonderful attributes, confidence, courage, leadership, genius on the plays 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 Johnny Unita’s true talents.

As in any professional sport the age has its way of slowing down the great skill one had and in 1974 Johnny Unitas had to leave the game he single handedly brought into the living rooms of nations. A household name where 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 ranked 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 for doing it.” Even at the end of that championship game, he dismissed Ewbank’s instructions to keep the ball on the ground. “Here we don’t want an interception,” the coach reminded him during a timeout. Two plays 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 a 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 as the Colts beat the Giants again in the title game. In the 31-16 victory, Unitas ran for the go-ahead touchdown and passed for 264 yards and two scores.

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 best NFL record at 12-2 and was first in yards per passing attempt (9.26). . Winning another MVP in 1967, he had a league-high 58.5 completion percentage while 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 to their only scoring drive in the historic Super Bowl III, a 16-7 loss to the New York Jets. Two years later, in the Colts’ 16-13 victory 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 finally caught up with him and in 1972 the Colts under new coach Don Shula were forced to bench Unitas. The following January he sold it to the San Diego Chargers, for whom he played just one season before retiring. In his 18-year career, Unitas passed for 40,239 yards and 290 touchdowns in 211 games. What made Unitas special, Berry said, “was his uncanny instinct for calling the right play at the right time, his icy composition under fire, his fierce competitiveness and his utter disregard for his own safety.” On September 11, 2002, as the rest of the nation remembered a national tragedy, Unitas was exercising at a physical therapy center in Timonium, a Baltimore suburb, when he suffered a fatal heart attack and quietly passed into history. He was 69 years old. The best he had, now he was gone.

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