Thread: No one can figure out the Quarterback Mystique(good article)

The wizards and the gurus and those pasty-faced know-it-alls hired by ESPN to provide the inside expertise have never discovered the answer. John Madden hasn't got the vaguest idea. Vince Lombardi coached and died and never learned the absolute truth. Bud Grant coached in four Super Bowls and lost them all and uttered the magic words: Quarterbacks can't be God Almighty.

John Unitas went to his first pro training camp and the coaches believed they spotted deficiencies and cut him. Bart Starr was drafted on the 17th round and won five championships. Fine, Tom Brady was drafted on the sixth round, was relegated to backup and won three Super Bowls.

Jeff Hostetler and Trent Dilfer were shuffled around from team to team, roustabout quarterbacks, unwanted merchandise - and on a couple of glorious Sundays they won Super Bowls. Fran Tarkenton never won one, but was voted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Neither did Jim Kelly and he played in four of those Super Bowls and wound up in the Hall of Fame, too.

Peyton Manning, the current king of the quarterbacks, never has reached the Super Bowl in his seven productive seasons. Yet Ben Roethlisberger was a Super Bowl winner in his second season, and a major reason he made it was because he saved a victory with a tackle.

Every team in the NFL passed on Joe Montana before he was picked off in the third round of the draft. Then after winning four Super Bowls, the 49ers dumped him.

The Quarterback Mystique is the strangest, weirdest, most unpredictable riddle in all of sports. It contains a phantom quality that changes its form, turns invisible, then bites a curious coach in the softness of his butt - and then skitters away. It defies all reason.

Yet, the three Ms running the Detroit Lions figure now that they have solved The Quarterback Mystique.

Matt Millen, Rod Marinelli and Mike Martz have concluded that cornering the market on backup quarterbacks will do the trick. Picking up an array of vagabond quarterbacks might well produce the next Jeff Hostetler or Trent Dilfer. Jon Kitna or Josh McCown or Shaun King might just become the catalyst for a triumphant surge to the Super Bowl.

Who knows? Wayne Fontes tried it with Rodney Peete, Erik Kramer and Andre Ware. And Wayne almost found the answer to the riddle. Then along came Scott Mitchell.

And then, a bit later, along came Joey Harrington.

And The Quarterback Mystique continues.

Detroit is Detroit. The Lions are the Lions.

Detroit remains Detroit because no matter who plays quarterback for the towns favorite professional football team, the individual is unwanted, abused, vilified by the madding crowd.

It happened 50 years ago on chilly autumn Sundays at Briggs Stadium when the patrons build bonfires in the bleachers and soaked the whiskey from their flasks and serenaded the quarterback. Goodbye Bobby, goodbye Bobby, they chanted as Bobby Layne struggled into the third quarter, himself trying to shake off the affects of his Saturday night drinks. And when he did and he rallied the Lions in the fourth quarter, the fickle fans stopped their chants, and they cheered and roared and reveled in the magnificent exploits of Bobby Layne.

And five decades later, the grandsons, and granddaughters, of these ancient fickle fans delivered their own chants. Joey s----s, Joey s----s.

If there is to be fault tossed around for the departure of Joey Harrington from the Lions, the fans are the top culprits. En masse, they must be blamed for driving Harrington from town. The power of the people. The people who masqueraded themselves in the orange and black of the Cincinnati Bengals, the Lions foes in their final home game. The ultimate fickle fan disloyalty. And in wondrous irony, the colors of Jon Kitna's uniform that afternoon as the Bengals support quarterback stationed on the sidelines.

The Lions remain the Lions because there must always be dissidents on the defense who hate the quarterback of their own team.

It happened more than 40 years ago when Milt Plum threw a forward pass in the late moments of a game at Green Bay with the Lions trying to protect a one-point lead. The receiver, Terry Barr, slipped in the Green Bay muck. The ball was intercepted. The Lions lost on a field goal. And in the locker room, the defense attacked - attacked Plum. Alex Karras fired his helmet and openly admitted that he missed by this much. His hands were inches apart. Joe Schmidt charged at Plum, according to some in that divided locker room.

If there is more fault to be tossed around for the departure of Joey Harrington from the Lions, it must be tossed at Dre Bly. This is the same Dre Bly, who went on Jim Brandstatter's postgame radio show after the defense failed to thwart Michael Vick on Thanksgiving and vilified his teammates. He said henceforth he would be playing for Dre Bly, the individual, not the Lions, the team. Then days later, interviewed on television, he accused Harrington as being the reason for the firing of Steve Mariucci.

Mariucci and Marty Mornhinweg never tried to build their West Coast offense around the talents of Joey Harrington, their most qualified quarterback. Rather they tried the force their putt-putt offense onto Harrington.

Only Rod Marinelli had some feel for what Harrington might become. I think he's a great, young talent, Marinelli said a little more than a month ago in a media session.

By then it was much too late. Another new cast for the Ford Field Follies. Joey Harrington is fleeing the Lions, to a team somewhere, happy to escape. He never belonged in Detroit, with its fickle, never accepting fans, with its split locker rooms, with its inflexible head coaches.

The Quarterback Mystique remains a continuous bafflement. Joey Harrington leaves, his future unknown - perhaps to a team that with his skills he might just quarterback to priceless victories, or perhaps to a sad destiny as just another roustabout, vagabond quarterback.
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060325/SPORTS08/603250347/1126/SPORTS

I read all the way until it started blabbing about the Lions :grin:


You don't have to be the best QB of all time, all you have to do is be the better QB for one day 16 times or more a year.

"fromos" wrote:

"Del Rio" wrote:

I read all the way until it started blabbing about the Lions :grin:

Me too, the point of the article was to give some insight on worthless QBs who did great things and vice-versa, which is why i was disappointed to see it merged with this thread.

I guess the real question is, if they did great things are they worthless? The answer is an obvious no.

This isn't rocket science, we don't need to intercept planetary orbits in conjunction with the angle of sunlight radiating from the sun........this is a TEAM sport. You can take Ryan Leaf put him on the Giants and he would have 10 superbowls.

That's why this puzzles people. Because they cannot grasp the idea that this is not an individual sport. That is why this sport is great. Was Trent Dilfer worthless? Not on your life, he was the perfect fit for a TEAM, and that is all that matters he has won games that the great Dan Marino couldn't.

You can bet your ass that ever single QB in the NFL is great. Every single one of them. Getting the one that will click with your team on AND off the field in a way that maximizes every single player to play to their potential and as a team......that is tha hard part.

"Del Rio" wrote:

I guess the real question is, if they did great things are they worthless? The answer is an obvious no.

This isn't rocket science, we don't need to intercept planetary orbits in conjunction with the angle of sunlight radiating from the sun........this is a TEAM sport. You can take Ryan Leaf put him on the Giants and he would have 10 superbowls.

That's why this puzzles people. Because they cannot grasp the idea that this is not an individual sport. That is why this sport is great. Was Trent Dilfer worthless? Not on your life, he was the perfect fit for a TEAM, and that is all that matters he has won games that the great Dan Marino couldn't.

You can bet your jiggly butt that ever single QB in the NFL is great. Every single one of them. Getting the one that will click with your team on AND off the field in a way that maximizes every single player to play to their potential and as a team......that is tha hard part.

Exactly what I was trying to get at, and this seems to be a concept that even coaches don't seem to understand very well. Brady Johnson 9th round pick, Brady 6th round pick, Warner undrafted. You just never know for sure what you are gonna get when you give a guy a chance.

There. Even cleaned it up.

"ultravikingfan" wrote:

There. Even cleaned it up.

Thanks, running this board must be hard work. :shock: I thought it had to do some with the Free Agency/Draft so that's why I originally put it there but it has just as much to do with NFL in general if not more.

Thats a great article

It appears to me that the article, in a convoluted way, is showing what happens when people try to interpret a team's success by looking at an individual player. Sure, the QB is an integral part of the offense and his leadership qualities are very important, but without a solid supporting staff and coaching the team isn't going anywhere regardless of who the QB is.

I think it's:
1)because they're all young, around 22-23 and they don't peak till about 30
2)because the hot draft picks are all from the top College teams which made them look better than they really were, most of them were in the Rose Bowl - and once they try to play with a mediocre or losing team they have a hard time adjusting enough to make those big plays

"Prophet" wrote:

It appears to me that the article, in a convoluted way, is showing what happens when people try to interpret a team's success by looking at an individual player. Sure, the QB is an integral part of the offense and his leadership qualities are very important, but without a solid supporting staff and coaching the team isn't going anywhere regardless of who the QB is.

I definitely agree. I'm not a big fan of judging individual quarterbacks on how many games/championships they "won" (apparently without teammates, judging from what I hear). You judge them by what they do and how they do it, not by simply wins and losses. Wins and losses are how teams are judged, not individual players (although PLAYING to win is important).