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Johnny Unitas: Games
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Earlier this year one of the true gentlemen of sports, Johnny Unitas, died at the age of 69. Unitas was arguably the greatest quarterback in the history of the game. Unitas was not flamboyant, nor did he have a contract in the millions of dollars when he played in the pros. Unitas was a blue-collar everyman who rose from being a $6-a-game sandlot player to become the best in his chosen profession.
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Johnny Unitas, voted the best player of the NFL's first 50 seasons, has died at the age of 69. Unintas, first to accumulate 40,000 passing yards, still holds the NFL record for throwing touchdown passes in 47 consecutive games.
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After his playing days were finished, Unitas settled in Baltimore where he raised his family, while ... pursuing a career in broadcasting, doing color commentary for NFL games on CBS in the 1970s. He, Brooks Robinson, Cal Ripken Jr., and Ray Lewis are generally considered the city's foremost sports icons. After Robert Irsay moved the Colts franchise to Indianapolis, in 1984, a move reviled to this day in Baltimore as "Bob Irsay's Midnight Ride", Unitas was so outraged that he cut all ties to the relocated team (though his #19 jersey is still retired by the Colts). Other prominent old-time Colts followed his lead. He asked the Pro Football Hall of Fame on numerous occasions (including on Roy Firestone's Up Close) to remove his display unless it was listed as belonging to the Baltimore Colts. The Hall of Fame has never complied with the request.
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After graduation, Unitas's hometown team, the Pittsburgh Steelers, picked him in the ninth round of the college draft. However, the team cut Unitas before he even appeared in an exhibition game. He did not give up on a professional career. Unitas moved to Bloomfield, New Jersey and found work on construction sites, primarily as a pile driver. He ... played quarterback for the Bloomfield Rams for $6 per game, on fields that were often covered with litter. Of this stage in his career, Unitas told Paul Zimmerman of Sports Illustrated, "They called it semipro football.
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Unitas set many passing records during his career. He was the first quarterback to throw for more than 40,000 yards, despite playing during an era when NFL teams played shorter seasons of 12 or 14 games (as opposed to today's 16-game seasons). His 47-game touchdown streak between 1956 and 1960 is a record that still stands and is considered by many the Mount Everest-like football equivalent to Joe DiMaggio's 56-game baseball hitting streak.
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Unitas played his last game as a Colt on December 3, 1972, after which he was benched and traded to the San Diego Chargers. There, Unitas was the backup quarterback. He retired at the end of the 1973 season, after 18 years in the NFL. Unitas only retired when he could no longer play. He told Dianne C. Witter of Arthritis Today, "When it's time to quit, it's time to quit." Unitas's career statistics were impressive.
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