Unitas to Brees: The passing of the torch

[TL24x7]

Nicely done piece that speaks to Brees' likely record breaking day this Sunday and the historical relevance of Unitas' accomplishment HERE

[rharris1986]

Joe Unitas is class - but why should that surprise anyone - he's his father's son!

The only football related statistics or record that Johnny Unitas was ever interested in was winning. I only wish Joe Flacco had had the opportunity to be around Unitas for a couple of years. Too bad that time was squandered on Kyle Boller.

[Boulderraven]

Joe Unitas is class - but why should that surprise anyone - he's his father's son!

The only football related statistics or record that Johnny Unitas was ever interested in was winning. I only wish Joe Flacco had had the opportunity to be around Unitas for a couple of years. Too bad that time was squandered on Kyle Boller.

Very true.

[TL24x7]

Joe Unitas is class - but why should that surprise anyone - he's his father's son!

The only football related statistics or record that Johnny Unitas was ever interested in was winning. I only wish Joe Flacco had had the opportunity to be around Unitas for a couple of years. Too bad that time was squandered on Kyle Boller.

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

[Boulderraven]

Unitas record was at time when it the NFL not todays game that resembles arena league or CFL football. What he did was truly incredible, when teams could ACTUALLY play defense. I use to like Brees, but after his last second TD pass to keep the streak going against the WINLESS Rams last year down 17 points with 8 seconds to go followed by a fist pump after a loss all that went out the window. Could you imagine Johnny doing that? Unitas never cared about record books anyway, just winning. The only QB, I think that are in Johnny's class are Elway and Manning. Manning is a leader and a great, but if he didnt whine so much he'd come off better.

[pslholder96]

Unitas record was at time when it the NFL not todays game that resembles arena league or CFL football. What he did was truly incredible, when teams could ACTUALLY play defense. I use to like Brees, but after his last second TD pass to keep the streak going against the WINLESS Rams last year down 17 points with 8 seconds to go followed by a fist pump after a loss all that went out the window. Could you imagine Johnny doing that? Unitas never cared about record books anyway, just winning. The only QB, I think that are in Johnny's class are Elway and Manning. Manning is a leader and a great, but if he didnt whine so much he'd come off better.

100% agree. Johnny U accomplished that feat during a very different era. If and when Brees does break the record, I'm still going to give Johnny U's feat a leg up.

[lobachevsky]

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

It was Chris Redman that Johnny U took under his wing--& Unitas' sudden unexpected death on 11 September 2002 clearly affected Redman's play the next Sunday in a shutout loss to Tampa Bay. (The kid wasn't playing all that poorly that year except for that Bucs game, but a back injury sometime prior to Game 7 put him out for the year.)

[mmi16]

Unitas record was at time when it the NFL not todays game that resembles arena league or CFL football. What he did was truly incredible, when teams could ACTUALLY play defense. I use to like Brees, but after his last second TD pass to keep the streak going against the WINLESS Rams last year down 17 points with 8 seconds to go followed by a fist pump after a loss all that went out the window. Could you imagine Johnny doing that? Unitas never cared about record books anyway, just winning. The only QB, I think that are in Johnny's class are Elway and Manning. Manning is a leader and a great, but if he didnt whine so much he'd come off better.

Took the words off my keyboard!

[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.

[Ravens44]

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.

But I would argue that it is much more than that.
The Olinemen can extend their arms.
You can't hit the quarterback in the head or at the knees AND it can't be after he throws the ball.
Also, the receivers can't be touched after 5 yards...AND you can't nail the receivers as they are catching the ball unless it is exactly perfect without the use of your helmet, not striking the receiver's helmet, etc, etc...
JohnnyU was hit so many times after the ball was long gone, in the head, break his nose, blah blah blah...
I really don't think Brees could have survived the pounding JohnnyU did, much less have a streak during that time period.

And yes, I like Brees. But this era where offenses have all the advantages, can't be realistically compared to those days.
Unitas under today's rules would have been unbelieveable.

[GOTA]

http://www.aolnews.com/2010/09/15/ro...-a-wussy-game/

Roger Staubach let loose with a few choice words for today's NFL players on Monday when he and a panel of Hall of Famers got together in New York to discuss the preliminary list of nominees to be inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame's Class of 2011, as well as the Fan's Choice campaign. The campaign provides fans with an online forum to debate and cast their ballot for who they believe should be included.

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."

He credits some of the bloated statistics to the rules changing over the years. "When we used to run around a little," he said, "the receivers were still getting pounded downfield until the ball was in the air. Today, if you buy a little time, receivers are running free, you just have to find them. So in the passing game [it's] much more [difficult] to separate players, [statistically]."

[mmi16]

But I would argue that it is much more than that.
The Olinemen can extend their arms.
You can't hit the quarterback in the head or at the knees AND it can't be after he throws the ball.
Also, the receivers can't be touched after 5 yards...AND you can't nail the receivers as they are catching the ball unless it is exactly perfect without the use of your helmet, not striking the receiver's helmet, etc, etc...
JohnnyU was hit so many times after the ball was long gone, in the head, break his nose, blah blah blah...
I really don't think Brees could have survived the pounding JohnnyU did, much less have a streak during that time period.

And yes, I like Brees. But this era where offenses have all the advantages, can't be realistically compared to those days.
Unitas under today's rules would have been unbelieveable.

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.