Joe Montana is still the very best QB I ever saw play the game. He played in an era when there wasn't pussies like Brady folding up like a lawn chair when he saw the rush coming. Whether you saw it or not, you'd better expect to get knocked around violently. I do not believe for even a second that Brady would have lasted even a few seasons in that era. Kenny O'Brien would have gone down as a better QB. Kenny O got the crap beat out of him because the Jets front office was too stupid to realize they needed to protect Kenny.
I've been saying just that for some time. But I am starting to think Terry Bradshaw and Dan Fouts could have lit up the more sophisticated defenses of today all the same - maybe even more.
I am totally sure that Namath would do great in this era. Namath was fast and a good runner before his knees were torn up. Remember that knee surgery was primitive then. There was no arthroscopic surgery. Today. Namath's knees would be in a lot better shape and he would be just fine. He wouldn't have to worry about pass rushers pile driving him into the dirt or clotheslining him like he did back in the day. I do agree that comparing eras is ridiculous, however, and that's why I think it silly to proclaim any player at any position the "GOAT."
What you said about the Jets' FO is undoubtedly true, but Kenny didn't help himself. He held onto the ball too long. Walton and others tried to get him to throw the ball away, but he wouldn't.
Namath had injured his knee badly at Alabama. Before that, he could run and scramble. The Jets signed him without a medical examination. Werblin wanted star power, and knees be damned. Dr. Nicholas, the team physician, examined Namath's knee for the first time while they were killing time before the introductory press conference, and Nicholas was shocked at how unstable Namath's knee was. "Son," he told Namath, "if I knew your knee was this bad, I would have told them to never sign you." It sure sounds like an ACL tear, but they didn't have MRIs back then. It's similar to Mantle. He wrecked his knee in the 1951 World Series (on a ball hit by Mays). It is now believed he torn his ACL, but they couldn't diagnose that back then. Think about it: there's a good chance that Namath and Mantle played almost their entire careers with unrepaired ACL tears.
Also - If he didn't miss 6 years of his career fulfilling his Naval Academy commitment, Roger Staubach would have probably rewritten a lot of the NFL Record books.
During SB week they had highlights of one of Parcells SB runs with the Giants and how they beat the 49ers in the playoffs. Montana was just getting destroyed by LT and the defense in those highlights. I mean brutal hits after the throw. Today you'd see all this outrage, penalties, suspensions, etc. That was just another playoff game back then. and that wasnt even that long ago!!
Great responses! Thanks. Glad most of you agree. I was thinking the same when I watched that game during The Two Bills documentary. Montana had no chance.
Yes, I know that Namath hurt his knee at Alabama, but if that happened today, it would be a totally different story. Actually, Mantle didn't wreck his knee in the 1951 World Series. He wrecked them in high school playing football. He developed a condition called osteomyelitis or something like that. When he hit that drain in the 1951 World Series, it just made the condition in his knees worse.
Sure, Namath's knee would have been an entirely different story today, and I would have loved to have seen what a mobile Namath would have been like. As for Mantle, it was the ACL that he tore in the 1951 Series that was the big deal. Before that, he had no chronic instability in his right knee. After that, he did. He lost a full step from home to first. Check out "The Last Boy" by Jane Leavy. She's the one who had modern orthopedists examine the medical evidence and make the diagnosis. Mantle also had osteomyelitis, but it was dormant, although it was enough to get him a IV-F draft deferment before he blew out his knee.
As an aside, as a lifelong Mantle fan, I really hated Leavy's book. SHe dug up every arcane fact about his life, and made a hodgepodge, sprinkled liberally with negativity. It may well have been truthful, but as a fan I didn't enjoy it. That's my opinion, and I don't say that to prevent others from reading it and drawing their own conclusion, but if you expect a sunny, feel-good read about a great baseball player, be forewarned.
I agree. She went way too heavily into the amateur psychoanalysis and devoted too many pages to Mantle's bad behavior after retirement. Plus, she never go to the bottom of what happened during that brawl at the Copa!
I couldn't agree more. The rules were so much different then, you can't compare QBs then to QBs now. It's not fair. With that said, when it comes to reading the defense, Peyton was masterful.
That's not what the biography I read of Mantlle said. It said that he injured his knees pretty badly playing football in high school and the knees bothered him and had cut some of his speed before he even played for the Yankees, and led to his later knee problems.
Lol at all the posters talking about how tough the players were in the 1960s. They were a bunch of pussies. To see real toughness you have to go back to before the players wore helmets and some of them died on the field. Here are some real men.
In all honesty I think that if they went back to 2-way players, and limited equipment - helmet with a single bar face mask, thin shoulder pads, cup, and cleats - there would be less injuries. In today's football players are virtual missiles with all the padding they wear, and not having to play offense they get to dish it out without fear of reprisal. Maybe I'm just sentimental, but I do think it would reduce injuries. It would reduce payroll, that's for sure.
While I agree in principle, I would also have to point out that, basically all the metrics, with which we compare QBs, have been invented by Bill Walsh, and the golden standard has always been Joe Cool. [60% completion ratio, 2:1 TD to INT ratio, 3000 yards, 20+ TDs, etc.] In short, the harbinger of the modern passing attack is not Dan Fouts, or Air Coryell. It will always be the West Coast Offense, under the command of Joe Montana.
