Jack Kemp

Like Len Dawson and George Blanda, Jack Kemp was one of the “rejects”, an NFL castoff who found success in the fledgling American Football League (AFL).  To date, he remains the only quarterback to bring Buffalo a championship… and he won two of them.  But before he was a starter in the pass-emphasized AFL, Kemp was a 17thround pick out of Occidental College.  He would throw just 18 passes for the Pittsburgh Steelers during his lone NFL season in 1957, and he’d spend a year playing for the Calgary Stampeders of the CFL in ’59.  With the AFL in need of immediate legitimacy, the hometown boy lined up under Center for the Los Angeles Chargers in 1960, the league’s inaugural season.

Mike Livingston

Everyone associates Len Dawson with Kansas City’s Super Bowl IV triumph, the final game prior to the AFL-NFL merger. But the man who led the Chiefs to the majority of their regular season wins in 1969 was third-stringer Mike Livingston, an unseasoned second-year player thrust into the midst of a title run. Taken by K.C. in the second round of the 1968 Draft out of Southern Methodist, he spent his rookie year riding the bench behind Dawson and veteran Jacky Lee. In an shocking turn of events, both players would go down in September with injuries, leaving the fate of the ’69 Chiefs in the hands of a kid who’d never thrown a pro pass.

Daryle Lamonica

The whole purpose of writing this blog was to look at quarterbacks compared to their era, not my personal opinion. So, yes, even I was shocked that Daryle Lamonica finished ahead of guys like Favre, Marino, and Elway. I had to check his numbers four or five times, but yes, based upon my formula, he’s the tenth greatest quarterback, since 1950. That’s because when he became the starting QB for the Oakland Raiders in the late ‘60s, he was putting up numbers that were simply remarkable for the time. He lived up to his nickname, “The Mad Bomber”, given to him by Howard Cosell for his penchant to throw the ball deep. While unlikely to get his bust in Canton, if there’s one thing I’ve learned about Daryle Lamonica, is that he’s the most criminally underrated passer in the history of the game.

Len Dawson

He was the best of a great bunch. Along with guys like George Blanda, Babe Parilli, and Jack Kemp, Len Dawson was an NFL castoff who became a legend during the ‘60s in the American Football League. Had he called it a day after fizzling out with Pittsburgh and Cleveland, we would have never gotten the nickname “Lenny The Cool”, a quarterback known as much for his poise under pressure as his exemplary accuracy. He’s also the subject of one of my favorite sports photos of all time. Pro football is filled with stories of guys who never quit, despite rejection after rejection, to go on and have incredible careers. Few were better than Len Dawson.

Bob Griese

Bob Griese is a name that regularly pops up on lists of “Most Overrated” NFL players, or players who are least deserving to be in the Hall of Fame. And on the surface, if you look at quarterbacking as a pure passing exercise where cumulative stats are most important, then you’re probably right. Others will point to the talent around him for his success, as though that’s his fault. But, Bob Griese may be the ultimate case of “it’s not what you do, it’s when you do it.” In other words, he didn’t always throw a lot of passes, but when he did, he made them count.

George Blanda

A lot of people will say that George Blanda is only in the Hall of Fame because he played so long. Turns out that, statistically, he’s much better than he often gets credit for. He was one of the pioneers of the pass-emphasized play that made the AFL so much fun and put up some tremendous numbers that were little-seen in pro football before 1960. An NFL castaway who didn’t even start playing in the AFL until his thirties, he managed to redeem himself and provided the league with much-needed early legitimacy before the arrival of future stars like Joe Namath, John Hadl, and Daryle Lamonica.

John Hadl

John Hadl was one of the last quarterbacks to wear a number higher than #19. He was #21. That’s awesome. But his legacy is far greater than just a guy who wore a really weird number for his position. He was another top quarterback to provide the AFL legitimacy. He shunned the NFL team that drafted him in the first round, Detroit, for the San Diego Chargers. There, he would put up some huge numbers that helped give the AFL its fun reputation as a pass-oriented league. His success would continue into the NFL, and by the time he retired, he was one of the most prolific passers in pro football history.

Joe Namath

Joe Namath’s place among the greatest quarterbacks of all time is among the most hotly debated. His defenders point to his role in the greatest upset in pro football history, and his ridiculous 4,000-yard passing season in an era when 2,500 yards was considered pretty elite. His detractors point to the fact that his career completion percentage is just a hair over 50% and he threw nearly 50 more interceptions than touchdown passes. Regardless of the stats though, his role is one of the most important in the evolution of football overtaking baseball as the country’s most popular spectator sport. This is emphasized by the NFL Network naming him the #1 “character” in the league’s first 100 years. So, pro or con, it is impossible to dismiss the legacy of Broadway Joe.

Vito “Babe” Parilli

Vito “Babe” Parilli, like Tom Flores and Tobin Rote, was an NFL castaway that revived his career by providing a heavy dose of legitimacy to the American Football League when it desperately needed it. Originally drafted fourth overall by the Packers in 1952, he was expected to be the man to make Green Bay a champion again. It didn’t work out that way. But nearly a decade later, he would make the Boston Patriots one of the most formidable teams during the first half of the 1960s.

Tom Flores

Wasn’t Tom Flores a head coach? Uhhhh, yeah. And a damn good one in fact. In nine years as Raiders head coach, he took them to five playoff appearances and two Super Bowl titles. His three years in Seattle were less successful, but he finished up 12 year of NFL coaching with a 97-87 regular season record, and an 8-3 playoff total. But we’re here to talk quarterbacks. And for the 10-year existence of the AFL, Flores was one of the best and most consistent. He never played QB for the NFL, retiring just before the merger. But for a league desperately searching for legitimacy from the get-go, Flores was a key player for the fledgling AFL.