Thursday’s 6-pack:
Patrick Mahomes betting props for the Super Bowl:
Passing yards— 254.4
Completions— 24.5
Rushing yards— 28.5
Longest run— 12.5 yards
Longest pass completion— 35.5 yards
Passing TD’s— 1.5
Quote of the Day
“There’s nothing you have to know, you just have to work. I’m never not working on material. Every second of my existence, I’m thinking, could I do something with that?”
Jerry Seinfeld
Thursday’s quiz
Which NBA team drafted Kevin Durant?
Wednesday’s quiz
Anthony Davis broke into the NBA with the New Orleans Hornets, in 2012.
Tuesday’s quiz
Vince Ferragamo played QB for the Rams, the first time they played in a Super Bowl.
*************************************
I screwed this up the first time I posted this..….here is the updated list.
Here is my list of the 13 best QBs of the Super Bowl era; I left Johnny Unitas out, because he was at the end of his career when I saw him play, couldn’t really evaluate him. Otto Graham was also really, really good, but he retired five years before I was born.
Make your own list; this was harder than I’d thought it would be, to get them ranked where I think they should be.
13) Kurt Warner
Started three Super Bowls for two different teams……
Before the Rams won the Super Bowl 25 years ago, in Warner’s first year as an NFL starter, they hadn’t made the playoffs in ten years.
Warner led the Cardinals to the Super Bowl in the 2008 season; before that year, Arizona also hadn’t made the playoffs in ten years.
Not only did he lead two franchises to a Super Bowl, he transformed two losing franchises into conference champions. Thats why he’s a Hall of Famer.
12) Terry Bradshaw
121-56 as an NFL starter, 14-5 in playoff games; was the underrated field general for a Steeler team that won four Super Bowls in a six-year span.
He played when teams ran ball more and threw less, but his TD pass to Franco Harris in a 1972 playoff game (the Immaculate Reception) is one of the most famous plays in NFL history.
Bradshaw won and he won a lot; he parlayed that winning into a TV career that is still going on.
Bradshaw played in college at Louisiana Tech; the QB at Tech before him was Phil Robertson, the father on the TV show
Duck Dynasty.
11) Jim Kelly
110-67 as an NFL starter, won four consecutive AFC titles. Was 9-8 in playoff games, albeit 0-4 in Super Bowls. His teams were great fun to watch.
He also went 23-15 with the USFL’s Houston Gamblers.
He threw for 35,467 yards in the NFL, 237 TD’s.
10) Matthew Stafford
The two greatest seasons by a receiver, in terms of yardage, in NFL history:
1,964 yards- Calvin Johnson, 2012 Lions
1,947 yards- Cooper Kupp, 2021 Rams
The common thread between those two seasons? Stafford was the QB both years.
From 2014-18, Lions were 36-28 with Stafford at QB under coach Jim Caldwell, but he got fired and they stupidly hired Matt Patricia as coach, because he worked with Belichick/Brady in New England. Matt Millen was the GM then; he wasn’t good at his job.
Three years later, Detroit traded Stafford to the Rams; he is 5-2 in playoff games with LA, with a Super Bowl title, and he ain’t done yet.
9) Drew Brees
Played five years for the Chargers, 15 years for the Saints; he was 181-123 as a starter, 9-9 in the playoffs, winning a Super Bowl for New Orleans 15 years ago.
As a rookie, Brees backed up Doug Flutie as the Chargers’ QB.
In 2005, Brees tore up his shoulder, when he was hit by John Lynch, who is now GM of the 49ers; a free agent, Saints/Dolphins were interested in signing him.
Miami’s doctors wouldn’t endorse signing Brees, because of his injured shoulder, so Miami signed Daunte Culpepper instead, and Brees signed with the Saints.
Dolphins went 6-10 that next year; their coach quit and went back to a college job, where he became arguably the greatest college coach ever.
Drew Brees’ shoulder is why Nick Saban became the coach at Alabama.
8) Dan Marino
He was 155-103 as a starter, 8-10 in playoff games.
Marino threw for 61,361 yards, 420 TD’s. Tremendous passer.
Somehow, he was the 27th pick of the 1983 draft, the sixth (6th!!!) QB taken that year. Three of those six QB’s are in the Hall of Fame.
The other QB’s picked in the first round that year:
John Elway
Todd Blackledge
Jim Kelly
Tony Eason
Ken O’Brien
Dan Marino…….every team in the AFC East picked a QB that year.
—
Famous birthdays, February 6th
Mike Farrell, 86
Richie Zisk, 76
John Dutton, 74
Tom Tupa, 59
Kris Humphries, 40
Pavin Smith, 29
Kevon Looney, 29
Adley Rutschman, 27
7) Bart Starr
Won five NFL titles, including the first two Super Bowls.
Was 9-1 in playoff games, back when there weren’t as many playoff games.
Green Bay was 105-35 with Vince Lombardi as coach; Starr was his field general.
His only playoff loss was 17-13 to the Eagles in the 1960 NFL title game.
I decided not to mention that he ruined my 8th birthday party, but he did, when Green Bay beat the Rams 28-7 in the playoffs. There is a chance I was a weird kid.
6) Peyton Manning
200-92 as an NFL starter, 14-13 in playoff games. He threw for 71,940 yards, 539 TD’s.
He won Super Bowls for the Colts/Broncos; he and Tom Brady are the only guys on this list who won a Super Bowl for multiple teams.
He also threw for 11,201 yards, 89 TD’s in college at Tennessee; the QB at Tennessee before him was baseball Hall of Famer Todd Helton. As excellent as Manning was, the Vols won a national title the year after he left, with Tee Martin under center.
Manning was 32-32 in his first four years as a starter, but then he won 10+ games the next 12 years he played. He was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2021, the first year he was eligible.
5) Roger Staubach
96-35 as an NFL starter, 11-6 in playoff games.
Played at the Naval Academy, served four years in the Navy after that; he didn’t play in the NFL until he was 27 years old, didn’t become a full-time starter until he was 31. Dallas was 45-14 in his starts his last four years in the NFL.
He won two Super Bowls for the Cowboys (1971/1977 seasons); he was so universally respected, thought that if he had wanted to become President, he would’ve been.
Today (Wednesday) is his 83rd birthday.
4) Joe Montana
Won four Super Bowls with the 49ers, one of them before they had the great WR Jerry Rice.
Why is the NFL Draft awesome? Montana was a 3rd round draft pick, the 82nd player taken in the 1979 draft. Go figure.
Montana ruined a lot of my Sunday afternoons; he won back/back titles in 1988/89, but lost the NFC Championship Game 15-13 to the Giants in 1990, when they were trying to three-peat, like the Chiefs are trying to do Sunday.
3) Patrick Mahomes
When I do this list ten years from now, chances are Mahomes will be #1 on the list.
He is 17-3 in playoff games, winning three Super Bowls, and he is only 29. His career record is 106-26; before he got the Chiefs, from 1994-2016, the Chiefs were 1-8 in playoff games.
Why is the NFL Draft awesome? Mahomes was the 10th player taken in the 2017 draft; he didn’t play until the last game of his rookie season. He’s made up for it since.
By the way, Bears had the #3 pick in 2017; they traded two extra draft picks to the 49ers to move up to the #2 spot, so they could draft QB Mitch Trubisky.
Whoops.
2) Tom Brady
Brady has accomplished the most of any NFL QB ever, winning seven Super Bowls. He was 286-65 as an NFL starter, 35-13 in playoff games.
He threw for 89,214 yards, 649 TD’s. Not bad for a 6th round draft pick. He’s become pretty good as a TV analyst, too.
That said, if we were choosing up sides on the playground and I had the first pick of any QB ever, I’d choose the last guy on this list.
1) John Elway
Elway was 162-89-1 as an NFL starter, 14-7 in playoff games; he won the Super Bowl the last two years he played in the NFL. He was mobile, he was clutch, throwing for 51,475 yards, 300 TD’s in his career. He also played pro baseball for a year, in the NY-Penn League.
Baltimore Colts drafted Elway with the first pick of the 1983 draft; they traded him to Denver, four years before the Colts moved to Indianapolis. Mike Pagel/Art Schlichter played QB for the Colts after that, a big part of why the Colts wound up moving.
Remember the Stanford Band play in 1982, when Stanford led 20-19 with 0:04 left, but Cal ran the kickoff back for TD, while the Stanford Band marched on the field before the game was over?
That was John Elway’s last college game; the loss prevented Stanford from going to a bowl that year. Elway never played in a bowl (they were a lot fewer back then) other than the Super Bowl.
