"He probably feels a lot like Peyton Manning did 10 years ago when his arm was hanging by a thread and the Denver Broncos beat Carolina 24-10 in Super Bowl 50 at Levi's. Or Tom Brady in Super Bowl 53 when the New England Patriots beat the Los Angeles Rams 13-3. How about Terry Bradshaw (9 of 14, 86 yards) for Pittsburgh in a 16-6 win over Minnesota in Super Bowl 9?"
"Heck, take it all the way back to the most impactful championship game of all time when Joe Namath (17 of 28, 206 yards, no TDs, no interceptions) played a cool and efficient game that belied his showtime throw-it-deep persona in a 16-7 win over the Baltimore Colts in Super Bowl 3 in Miami. Not every winning quarterback dominates the biggest event statistically like Joe Montana."
"Montana, Manning, Brady, Bradshaw, Griese, Elway and Namath are in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. But when former Jets coach Herm Edwards went on his famous 2002 rant ("You play to win the game"), he could have been talking about all of them in the games referenced earlier. And it was Darnold to a tee against New England. Darnold didn't shatter the modern-day myth of the game manager or system quarterback."
Sam Darnold operated as a game manager and embraced a system-quarterback role during the Sunday evening game. Several Hall of Fame quarterbacks won championships with efficient, low-volume passing performances, including Peyton Manning, Tom Brady, Terry Bradshaw, Bob Griese, John Elway, Joe Namath and Joe Montana. Those quarterbacks produced modest statistics in their Super Bowl victories yet secured titles and lasting legacies. The maxim "you play to win the game" applies to controlled quarterbacking and situational decision-making. Darnold matched that approach against New England, while the 'system quarterback' label continues to persist, fueled by stats-driven fantasy narratives and public perception.
Read at The Mercury News
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]