Great replies! Some intangibles I didn’t think of like the "it" factor. And I don’t make it to shows, but I can see how the cards not showing up much could create some mystique around the set.
Someone asked about the top 25 - there’s lots not to like about ranking lists - difficulty of comparing across eras, football being a team game, statistics can be much more deceptive than say baseball where there really is a large individual aspect especially on offense, etc.
But, for the sake of discussion, the NFL top 100 ranked 19 QBs (I was a bit surprised it wasn't the most at any position - there were actually 20 RB on the list):
1. Joe Montana
2. Johnny Unitas
3. Otto Graham
4. Sammy Baugh
5. John Elway
6. Dan Marino
7. Sid Luckman
8. Roger Staubach
9. Bart Starr
10. Terry Bradshaw
11. Brett Favre
12. Peyton Manning
13. Tom Brady
14. Steve Young
15. Fran Tarkenton
16. Troy Aikman
17. Norm Van Brocklin
18. Kurt Warner
19. Joe Namath
So it would take 7 guys to squeeze Joe out of the top 25. I guess a case could be made, but I don’t think I would make the case. Here is what HOF says:
http://www.profootballhof.com/hof/me...tab=Highlights
If I did have to choose 7 more QBs though, off the top of my head: Bobby Layne, Ken Anderson, Len Dawson, Dan Fouts, Sonny Jurgenson, Jim Kelly, and John Brodie make 7. I'm sure I forgot some.
And I just realized, what about some of the guys from the early days? (Dutch Clark, Paddy Driscoll, Benny Friedman, Arnie Herber, etc.) I think they mostly threw out of the single-wing, so may be considered more tailback than quarterback, but shouldn't players from every era be on the list? That would make it interesting, not sure what the methodology would be for say comparing Dutch Clark and Drew Brees.