A tale of two heros

A warning to fanatic supporters of Dennis Kucinich (not all his supporters are fanatics and don't need this warning): This commentary is about two football heroes. Football is a game you would never watch because it is a brutal, violent, physical competition for male domination. It's the favorite pastime of corporate America. One of the football players mentioned here was named Best Quarterback of All Time by Sports Illustrated, a magazine you'd never read, that exploits and degrades women. Once a year, they pay a group of skinny women, whose profession is to stay skinny, wear clothes, and get their pictures taken, to go to the West Indies for a few weeks, wear skimpy bathing suits and get their pictures taken. For this, the magazine pays each woman significantly more money than I make in a year. You've been warned, Kucinich fanatics.

When a few people started comparing Tom Brady to John Unitas after Brady’s first Super Bowl, I found the comparison to my hero offensive. It was merely premature.

Two big reasons why no quarterback since Unitas can be compared to him are that, today, many rule changes have made the game much safer for quarterbacks, and Unitas called his own plays. Hall of Fame linebacker Sam Huff said there was no defense against Unitas because his play calling was so unpredictable. Deacon Jones, the Hall of Fame defensive lineman, simply said, “The defenses thought he was Houdini.”

Though Brady’s plays come from a coach, he is still the leader. Like Unitas, he always knows he’s going to win, and communicates that to his team. He’s the only quarterback I’ve seen since Unitas who can get the ball in his own territory three points behind with two minutes left in the game, and start running out the clock because he knows he's going to score. This is much harder than the "two-minute drill," which Unitas also perfected and most pro quarterbacks can execute, where a team races down the field using as little time as possible.

Unitas’s ability to hold the ball till the last minute, knowing he’d be slaughtered after he threw it (usually a 15-yard penalty today), was legendary to his teammates and opponents. Brady has that same patience and courage waiting for a play to develop.

Today’s defensive linemen are bigger, stronger, faster, and better coached than in Unitas’s time. The captain of Unitas’s defense was Gino “The Giant” Marchetti, the best defensive end of his era. He was 6-feet-4 and weighed 245 pounds. That's the size of a small linebacker or tight end (speed and agility positions) today. Today’s defensive ends (strength and quick spurts) are 50 pounds heavier, two to four inches taller, faster and stronger than “Gino the Giant.”

Like Unitas, Brady uses all of his receivers. Against the Jaguars, Brady threw to seven different receivers in the first half. Plenty of quarterbacks can throw the ball 70 yards, but Brady and Unitas could pass the ball 50 yards – right on target, with a soft touch, and catchable.

Peyton Manning will probably retire with better passing statistics than Brady, but Brady will retire with more wins, more Super Bowl wins, and more wins against Peyton Manning. Many quarterbacks have broken all of Unitas’s passing records, except one: Unitas threw a touchdown pass in 49 consecutive games. That record is often compared to Joe DiMaggio’s unbeatable 56-game hitting streak. Brady might break it someday.