Poise and leadership don't come with knowing X's and O's. It is a trait that is built within a person's character. ol' puddnhead makes a good point about Grossman.
Of course your correct however the QB in football equals Pitcher in baseball and they get credit for the wins and losses even if the real star of the team is a Slugger.
Favre doesn't have intimate knowledge by any means of the Jets offense and he leads the league in several categories and has already tied one Jet record that has stood 35 plus years. Not sure your comment is completely accurate. I still contend Favre is finally playing with some really high caliber people, in some cases better than what he had in GB overall and these guys are going to make each other look really good. I'm fired up and have been since Stuckey played the ball and scored in Miami.
All stats are flawed. Lets look at some others. Rushing yards.......Parcells said when he traded for Martin, and had Murrell, who had just rushed for 1,000+ yards. "Don't tell me how many yards a back has, tell me when he gets them." How many times do you see a back pad his stats in a game in the 4th quarter when his team is losing badly, and the coach calls draws. Sacks....Lets look at Abraham. Who I didn't like. He had a habit of racking up multiple sack games. Usually when the Jets were winning big, and get 2 sacks in the 4the quarter in a 38-10 game, then go very silent for three weeks in big, close games. What is more important. Three sacks in a blow out, or one sack in a 17-14 game on a 3rd and 4 with under a minitute left? NT's...Jenkins stats probably are not as impressive as D-Rob's were, but when you see him play, you know he is dominating the line of scrimmage. It is a different game when he is not in there. The only way to judge a player is to watch him a lot. Stats are great for Madden and Fantasy football, but are only a guide in the real world JMHO
If any QB can satisfy all three category throughout his career, he's a lock for HoF. I know these goals are difficult to achieve. I don't expect good QBs to meet all three conditions simultaneously - more likely, 2 out of 3 would be the most prevalent. 1 out of the 3 doesn't quite cut it though.
That's surprising, but I missed the 60s, only saw him in the 70s when we almost never won with him. My point stands, however, Namath's numbers on their own are spotty for the Hall-of-Fame. He did have the first 4,000 yard season back when that was nearly impossible, but more INTs than TD. But he belongs in the Hall because of how he played the game and what he did.
Compare him to his contemporaries. From what I remember seeing the TD to INT ratio's in those days were a lot closer to 1 -1. The West Coast offense was not around. The Short 3 to 5 yard passes and always taking the safe route was not thought of. QB's gained big chunks of yardage in passing attacks designed to put the defense backpeddling so the running backs could eat them alive. The Top three completeion % for Career all start in 1987 (Steve Young) or later. The West coast mentality has spread through the game. Don't make mistakes. Don't take chances. Always take waht the defense gives you. It leads to high Completion percentages and QB ratings, but you lose a lot of the big play aspect and gunslinger mentality that the star QB's of the 60's and 70's were made on. To a similar extent guys Like Elway and Favre still kept that alive. On the otehr side QB's like Montana and Young transformed the game into a short passing, timing routes and run after the catch for big yardage game. As the west coast spread through the league you see more and more QB's looking this way. Thats how a Chad Pennington, who has been a good QB in the past, is your NFL all time completion % leader. Sure he completes more throws the Jow Willy, Elway, or Favre, but who would you rather hand the ball to with 2 mins left needing a TD? Give me a gunslinger of old.
I know his stats aren't quite there but I was 11 and football was just coming into my sights with the pee wee league etc. and he guaranteed victory against the 3 TD favorite Colts and delivered. He just had personality and man was he cool. More of a defensive battle as I recall. 4000 yds in 14 games. He was a gamer because he played football all his years in the pros on BAD knees. Deserves the HOF.
I'm not disagreeing with that, just pointing out how stats don't always reflect the player. Joe is why I'm a Jet fan. When you're 7, your dad is a Jet fan and Joe is your QB, it's a slam dunk.
When I was in college in Texas there was an older guy named Greg Lens finishing his degree who played a couple of years with Atlanta and a preseason and practice squad with the Jets, he had some good stories to tell about Namath.
