Back to Starr, Unitas is clearly better only if you look at cumulative yards and TD's. Starr is better if you look at things like completion percentage, yards per attempt, QB career rating, big game performances, and total championships won.
The differences between completion % and passer rating are very small. 57-54% comp, and 80-78% rating. When you look at 40,000+ yds compared to 24,000, and 290 tds compared to 152, that's huge. By the way, Unitas won 3 world champonships. He also holds a record that may never be broken, 47 straight games throwing a TD, and he did it over 5 seasons, starting his rookie year (1956-1960).
No need to pimp Unitas. Nobody's questioning whether he's one of the greatest, if not the greatest, QB of all time. It's Starr we're debating.Starr was born about 8 months after Unitas and Unitas clearly got off to the better NFL start, winning two titles in '58 and '59. But his numbers really dropped off, as did his team's record, for several years while Starr kept getting better and better, taking his team to the title game for three straight years, winning two (and leading his team to the NFL's 2d-best record in 1963 but missing the postseason). Starr's total of 5 titles and 6 title-game appearances were not just a by-product of his mere presence on a superior team. The record shows Starr was a big game quarterback. Here's the regular season records for the Packers and Colts between 1964-1967:
Colts 42-11-3
Packers 39-14-3
The Colts were actually a bit better, yet Green Bay won three championships in those four years. The Colts none. The Colts were certainly better in 1964. They led the league in offense and defense and were big favorites to beat Cleveland in the title game but in one of the biggest playoff upsets ever the Browns crushed the Colts 27-0 and Unitas threw for only 95 yards. Starr's Packers were never upset in a postseason game.
The next year Green Bay and Baltimore tied for the best record in the Western Conference and had a playoff. The Pack won 13-10 in OT. Unitas was injured and didn't play in the game while Starr got hurt early in the game and never returned, so the result tells us little about either man though it does suggest the teams were very close in talent without their starting QB's. However, there would have been no need for a playoff if the Colts could have beaten Green Bay in either of their regular season matchups. Instead they got swept. In the title game Green Bay easily defeated the same Browns team that blanked Unitas the year before.
In 1966 Green Bay finished 3 games ahead of the second-place Colts to earn another Western Conference title. Green Bay again swept the Colts in the regular season. Had it been the other way around, the Colts would have gone to the playoffs not the Packers. Green Bay went on to win the NFL championship and the first Super Bowl.
In 1967, the NFL split into 4 divisions, with the Colts and Packers in different ones. The Colts were an amazing 11-0-2 heading into the last week of the regular season. But the Rams were just a game behind at 10-1-2. The two teams met in week 14 and the Colts picked a really bad time to lose their first game of the year, getting crushed 34-10. The Packers won their division "only" going 9-4-1, but they easily beat the Rams the next week in the playoffs 28-7. Starr then led the Packers to their 3d straight NFL title in the legendary "Ice Bowl" Game and then a 2d Super Bowl win.
Unitas had great teams from 1964 to 1967. He couldn't get it done. Time after time in the 60's we see Starr winning the big games and Unitas losing them. Starr either beat Unitas, or beat the teams the Colts couldn't get past, or both.
Both men played in 2 Super Bowls. Here are the numbers:
Starr 29 of 47, 452 yards, 3 TD's, 1 INT (2 MVP awards)
Unitas 14 of 33, 198 yards, 1 TD, 3 INT's
Sure, Unitas was past his prime by then but if you're going to give him credit for a title in 1970 then you have to count the stats too. And they would look even worse without that flukey twice-deflected 75-yarder to Mackey that was Unitas' only Super Bowl TD pass. (Personally, I think giving Unitas credit for the Colts' 1970 title is a bit of a stretch. The team got moved to the AFC and beat up on inferior competition, Unitas had one of his worst seasons ever, he split time with Earl Morrall, and he was playing horribly in the Super Bowl when he got knocked out of the game).
Yes Unitas threw for many more yards and touchdowns than Starr. Unitas also had Berry, Mackey, and Lenny Moore to throw to. Three Hall of Famers. That's three more HOF targets than Starr had.
I'm not arguing Starr was better than Unitas, only that you can make a reasonable argument either way, and if you can do that then Starr can't be overrated. Obviously I have too much time on my hands and have put way too much effort into researching this. But I find the suggestion that Starr is overrated to be really annoying. He's actually underrated. When both players were their in their primes, their teams were of comparable talent but it was Starr's teams that consistently won the big games. I think Starr was the difference.
If you read this thread, how can you not poke fun at JimmyU? As for you....
Some of us are old enough to have seen him. He was a winner, plain and simple...no flash, no big stats, just did whatever it took to win. His numbers won't compare to guys who threw 400 times a year when he never threw even 300 passes in a year, but he threw AND COMPLETED passes when they were necessary, which means it was usually on 3rd and long and the other team was looking for a pass. I still remember one of the more amazing stats of my youth: 294 consecutive pass attempts without an interception. From a guy who only threw about 250-270 times a season, that means he went an entire year without an interception! Personally, I was always a Unitas fan (probably because his stats were so impressive to my young mind), but Starr was a close #2, even though watching the Packers win at the time was about as enjoyable as watching the Yankees win.
