When the 2025 NFL season kicks off on Thursday, with the Dallas Cowboys visiting the Philadelphia Eagles, undoubtedly, fans and broadcasters watching the game will make comparisons of current players to greats of the past. When discussing the greatest quarterback of all time, Hall of Famer Johnny Unitas’s name should enter the conversation.
NFL teams are stacked with talented, young quarterbacks with promising careers. At the top of the list is Cincinnati Bengals’ Joe Burrow, Trevor Lawrence of the Jacksonville Jaguars, Buffalo Bills’ Josh Allen, and Kansas City Chiefs’ Patrick Mahomes, who has led his team to five Super Bowl appearances, winning three. Highly successful, no doubt. With their careers in progress, labeling any as the greatest or among the “best of the best” might be a bit premature.
Unitas, who played for 18 seasons (1956–1972 Baltimore Colts and 1973 San Diego Chargers), dubbed “the Golden Arm,” had an impact on what is now the modern-day passing game and team leadership that current signal-callers Lamar Jackson and Jared Goff display in their repertoires.
How successful was Unitas? Three times selected as the NFL MVP, four times the NFL passing leader, and a member of the Colts’ Super Bowl V championship team—this only touches the surface of how influential Unitas was. Perhaps an open-and-shut case of arguing who is “the greatest of all-time” when the subject is broached this season, is the company that Unitas is forever paired with. Selected among the NFL’s 1960s All-Decade Team, Unitas is also a member in good standing with the NFL’s 50th Anniversary All-Time Team (1969), the 75th Anniversary All-Time Team (1994), and is among the 100th Anniversary All-Time Team (2019).
Unitas, who died in 2002 at age 69, was drafted in the ninth round by the Pittsburgh Steelers, then steered the Colts to a 23–17 victory over the New York Giants in 1958 to capture the NFL championship. Known as “the Greatest Game Ever Played,” it was the first NFL game to go into overtime.
In speaking with John Unitas Jr. on Tuesday, the late quarterback’s son told The Epoch Times that his father took nothing for granted and worked hard at being at the top of his profession.
“My father loved practicing, and the camaraderie with his teammates. He loved everything about football.”
Not a fan of lifting weights as is the norm in today’s NFL with lavish weight rooms in team facilities, Unitas Jr. says his father did build up his upper body—arms and shoulders—to increase his passing powers. As for Game 1 on an NFL schedule, Unitas, according to his son, treated it as any other game of the season.
“My dad never showed emotion, only to animals and children. He just went out and did his job and expected everyone else to do the same. Leading up to all games, Dad would be in our home’s basement watching film on the next team the Colts were to play. As he would run the projector forward and in reverse, and review his playbook, I'd be sitting on his lap as he would be jotting down notes.”
Strong. Tough. Dedicated. Total teammate. Although Unitas, who had his college uniform No. 16 retired by the Louisville Cardinals and his No. 19 retired by the Colts, wasn’t “fleet of foot” as his son recalls, success surrounded him on the field. He still found a way to rank No. 1 in the NFL history in passing attempts, pass completions, and touchdown passes at the time of his retirement.
Unitas Jr. keeps busy steering the Johnny Unitas Golden Arm Education Foundation. The Golden Arm Award is presented annually to the top senior or upperclassman quarterback who is on track to graduate with their class. This year’s list showcases 58 of the nation’s premier quarterbacks.
Now in its 39th year, the Golden Arm Award continues to honor excellence both on and off the field. This year’s award presentation is scheduled on Dec. 12 at the Four Seasons Hotel Baltimore.
With Mahomes starting Week 1 of the 2025 NFL season having played eight seasons and 112 games, and Allen having led the Bills to five consecutive AFC East titles (but no Super Bowl victories), both are exciting inside the sidelines, for sure. However, in studying the trail that Unitas and players from his era blazed for current players to enjoy, the quarterbacks of today know to dig deeper to understand how high the bar was set for them to chase.
The NFL’s high standards of excellence have a starting line, and the name Unitas remains front and center.
