Scoreboards

• Johnny Unitas is the greatest quarterback in the history of the National Football League
• What sets Unitas apart is his legacy of toughness, intelligence, and accuracy
• Other candidates include Joe Montana, Brett Favre, Dan Marino, John Elway, Tom Brady, and Peyton Manning

In his 17 seasons in the NFL, Johnny Unitas became best known as the leader of the Baltimore Colts team that won back-to-back NFL titles in 1958 and 1959 and a Super Bowl in 1970. Unitas carried a heavier burden than did the star quarterbacks of more recent years, in that he called all of his own plays and lacked the rules of today that protect the quarterback from vicious hits.

Toughness

Among the practices now outlawed that Unitas had to endure when he played were shots to the head and being thrown to the turf. He also had the disadvantage of defensive backs’ being able to jam receivers more than five yards beyond the line of scrimmage. Despite an almost constant pummeling, Unitas rarely missed a game and often played with more than one injury.

Unitas endured adversity early on, as his father died when he was five and his mother had to work two jobs to support her children. After finishing his college career at Louisville, Unitas was not drafted until the ninth round by the Pittsburgh Steelers, who soon released him. He got a break when the Baltimore Colts signed him and made him a starter when the number-one quarterback was injured. Unitas quickly grew into his role.

Intelligence

Like most other quarterbacks of his era, Unitas called his own plays. He showed a keen ability to exploit a defense’s weaknesses. He charted the tendencies of all of the league’s defensive backs and was not afraid to go after even the best of them. He was brilliant at clock management and at mixing plays to keep an opponent off balance.

The most famous game of Unitas’s career was the NFL championship game of 1958. Unitas led the Colts on a touchdown drive in the final two minutes that resulted in a come-from-behind victory over the New York Giants. Several major sporting publications called the contest The Greatest NFL Game Ever Played. Unitas’s leadership of the final drive is considered a textbook example of how to get a team down the field quickly. It featured several passes to his favorite target, wide receiver Raymond Berry. Unitas and Berry came to know each other’s abilities so well that they developed their own set of audibles.

Accuracy

Unitas had supreme confidence in his ability to get his ball to the right spot at the right time. He stunned onlookers during his famous last-minute drive in 1958 by throwing the ball near the goal line when a field goal would have sufficed for the victory. He completed the pass to the one-yard line, and the Colts ran the ball in on the next play. He later scoffed that the pass was a gamble, because he had spotted a hole in the defense and knew he had a high-percentage play.

In 2002, Sports Illustrated and the Elias Sports Bureau compiled a table of key quarterback attributes and ranked the top quarterbacks in all eras of the NFL in each category. Unitas came out on top because of his top scores in game management and toughness, and his high scores in accuracy and passing touchdowns per game. Joe Montana finished second in the rankings. Unitas set a record that still stands for throwing a touchdown pass in 47 consecutive games.