Unitas to Brees: The passing of the torch

**Boulderraven** · 10-05-2012, 07:51 PM

Originally Posted by mmi16

Not to take anything from Johnny U - he was being hit by D linemen that were in the 250-280 pound range - today's D Linemen are laughed at as being puny at 300 pounds and some are over 350, couple that with speed the leaves the D linemen of the Unitas era in the dust we are talking of a different dynamic in to days game. I suspect, if today D linemen played under the Unitas era rules, QB's would be measuring their careers in games, not years.

Likewise, if today's receivers had to endure the punishment dished out by the larger and faster D backs of today, would shorten the already short careers of running backs and receivers.

Also. Back then Unitas had to play OUTDOORS, on grass or half a baseball diamond. They also didnt have great footballs back then that are exchanged on just about every other play. Try throwing a football from 1960 and today, much harder. Todays footballs are made be thrown and kicked, very aerodynamic. Back then they were beaten and by games end and rounder less easy to throw. Trust me I got about 30 of them. Brees played more than half of his games on turf in a 72 degree dome, not a baseball feild at 30 degrees in the wind with harder rules and less tosser freindly footballs.

**Florida Art** · 10-05-2012, 08:01 PM

The only QB, I think that are in Johnny's class are Elway and Manning.

You left out the great OTTO GRAHAM.

**The Excellector** · 10-05-2012, 08:31 PM

Unitas, Graham and Montana for me.

**ballhawk** · 10-05-2012, 09:52 PM

There wasn't a QB in the league that could hold a candle to Unitas during the time of his streak, plus he won 2 championships during it. Brees gets lumped together with a few others when talking about the best QB's today, but you won't find many people that would say that he is hands down the best of his era.

That being said, it is still a great accomplishment. Even with all the rule changes, the record has still stood for 50 years. Im glad it was Brees and not Manning when he was with the Colts.

**NC Raven** · 10-06-2012, 01:22 AM

My dad was in the Colts marching band, and the first ever Colts Corral; he was at the '58 championship game, and lots of other games thru the mid 60's. For him, Van Brocklin was the next best QB of that era, FWIW. I don't know, wasn't alive then. But I have that on pretty good authority and I believe it.

Looking at stats, guys like Bobby Layne and Norm Van Brocklin, they had as many or more INTs as TDs for their CAREERS! Obviously no comparison of the eras, and the fact those guys are HOFers and held in such high regard, despite stats that today would be horrible, tells you everything about the difference in the game then, versus now.

Brees may well claim this record, but even a basic understanding of the difference in eras reveals that his achievement is nothing compared to what Unitas did.

**Real Fan Dan** · 10-06-2012, 09:17 PM

Originally Posted by ActualSpamBot

Tony said it best when he tweeted that Brees breaking this record is like a baseball player breaking Joe DiMaggio's consecutive games with hit record.... After they give hitters 4 strikes.

Origianally posted by GOTA.Staubach was asked a question about whether or not quarterbacks in today's game will be evaluated in the same way that quarterbacks during his era were.

"The statistics today are overwhelming," he said. "I saw Peyton Manning one time and he had a great comeback drive, but he had two 15-yard roughing-the-passer penalties. I'm thinking, 'I don't ever remember having one of those.' It's kind of a wussy game, really, in a way."

These two quotes pretty much sum it up for me. Tony's analogy is probably the best description of the situation I have heard to date. Thanks for that TL.

FWIW i fully expect Mr. Brees to be professional and classy in his approach to breaking Mr. Unitas' 50 year old record.

Other than that i pray that Jared Johnson and the entire San Diego defense have career days and HOF caliber performances vs NO tomorrow.

DeputyDawg · 10-06-2012, 09:27 PM

Originally Posted by TL24x7

Agreed on the class of the Unitas family and it would have been awesome to expose Joe to JU. That said Boller never met Johnny...at least not while he was a Raven. JU passed on 9/11/02

You can't equate Brees to Unitas.
1. It was only 14 game season's when Johnny did it, so Brees would have had to survive as many seasons as Johnny to achieve it.
2. There was no skirt rules for the qb in those days, so you had to be extremely tough to survive that many straight games as qb, let alone throw a TD in each.
Johnny's record can never be broken, it's a different game today.

**Sirdowski** · 10-06-2012, 09:45 PM

Originally Posted by Florida Art

The only QB, I think that are in Johnny's class are Elway and Manning.

You left out the great OTTO GRAHAM.

IMO Manning = Marino

DeputyDawg · 10-07-2012, 12:48 AM

Originally Posted by Sirdowski

IMO Manning = Marino

Never saw Otto play, but Elway and Manning don't belong in the same class as Unitas, Montana, and Staubach.
Now they were great when it was still a man's game, these guys today have their own body guards on the field in stripes.
It's not the same game anymore, but it's all we have so I'm still a fan, but very aware of the difference between then and now.