NFL Card Show - Johnny Unitas

NFL CARD SHOW 

Johnny Unitas

Writing my blog got me thinking about my roots as a fan of the NFL.  The first game I remember vividly was Super Bowl III played in 1969 between the Baltimore Colts of the NFL and the New York Jets of the AFL.   At about that same time I began to amass my football card collection.  I probably collected cards from grade one through grade seven.  Topps was the only card company at that time.  The cards came with the obligatory piece of cardboard style bubble gum.  

I am going to make each Wednesday show and tell for a card or two that I pull at random from my collection.  I hope you enjoy a trip down memory lane if this was your era, or a little history lesson if these cards are 10-20 

years older than you are.

OK, I confess that I did not randomly draw these cards.  A friend asked me whether I had any Johnny Unitas cards.  So, this is a reader request.

I don't think I have many sadder football memories than seeing Johnny U in a Charger uniform.  Montana with the Chiefs, Namath with the Rams, Gabriel with the Eagles, Hadl with the Packers,  -- those all felt odd -- but not in the empty kind of way Jonny Unitas as a Charger did.  

The card on the right is from the 1968 season.  Unitas had missed most of the 1968 season and his backup, Earl Morrall led the Colts to Super Bowl III where they lost to the Jets.  Unitas relieved Morrall in the Super Bowl but was not able to rally the heavily favored Colts who lost 16-7.  

Super Bowl III ranks as one of the most important games in NFL history.  The Jets' victory gave credibility to the American Football league (AFL) which would merge with the NFL after the 1969 season.  Super Bowl III is thus a fitting bookend to Unitas's career, standing in contrast to the December 1958 "Greatest Game Ever Played" when a young Unitas and the Colts beat the Giants 23-17 in overtime to win the NFL title.  The 1958 Title Game marked the starting point of pro football's ascendancy in American sports culture. 

The Colts were one of three NFL teams that moved to the AFC when the NFL and AFL merged.  Unitas and the Colts represented the AFC in Super Bowl V when the Colts defeated the Cowboys 16-13 in the first post merger Super Bowl.

 The card on the left is from the 1973 season, Unitas's last year in the game.  Unitas probably played two years too many.  He finished the season on the Charger bench behind a game named Dan Fouts.

Unitas retired with most of the NFL passing records.  The new breed of gunslingers have claimed those records now.  Drew Brees just this year broke Unitas's last remaining mark of 47 consecutive games with a TD pass.

Unitas is on my list of the top five quarterbacks of all time.  The crew cut.  The black high tops.  A field general.  He is the guy Peyton Manning would have been had he started his career 40 years sooner.  The Pro Football Reference.com fan voting system ranks Johnny U #2 among all the grid iron greats.