To me, Montana got the job done when it had to be done. Seemed like you could count on him like no one else. Steve Young was great, but I'd take Montana in his prime over Young. I'm no expert on football, not even close. Just familiar with the local, bay area guys. I started with the Raiders because my dad had season tickets. Stabler was not the greatest, but he was damn good. Even George Blanda was awesome in the clutch when Stabler was hurt (or was that Lamonica?). And George would kick the extra point or field goal as well.

What about bradshaw. Didn't he win a bunch of bowl games

I Was living in Paris then, watching that game with some French friends in a packed bar at 3 in the morning.
There were 3 Americans crammed in the booth with us wearing 9er's gear.
Probably about the moment Joe was looking at John Candy I asked one of the 9er fans if he thought Montana could do it again.
Calmly and quietly above all the screaming he said "I know he will"
And from the way he said it and the look he gave me I knew he would too.

After that it was a joke with my French friends - "I kneow he veel"

Faith - it's a beautiful thing.

Lots of great QB's over the years.
I like the old school tough guys - Johnnny U was my favorite.

Think he will retire to Omaha? Seems like its always on his mind...

What I find amazing about Peyton Manning is how accurate he is even though he throws wounded ducks.

He did win four, but that was more on the strength of their defense and running game.

The best all-around football player there ever was and ever will be:

Sammy Baugh: Sammy Baugh: The Greatest Overall Football Player of All Time | Bleacher Report

Many years ago I played against all 3 of his sons in TX high school football wars. He would come in the visiting teams locker room after games and just saying something to the effect of "good game"....

Just a little bit more on P. Manning:
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http://blogs.**********.com/broncos/2014/01/16/peyton-manning-voted-nfls-most-respected-player/25237/
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Peyton Manning has it, from players across the NFL.

As part of ESPN’s NFL Nation Confidential survey of more than 320 players, the questions were asked: “If you had to start a team with one player, whom would it be?” and “Which player do you respect the most?”

Manning topped the list in both categories. When asked what player would be best to start a team, Manning got 62 votes (19 percent). Andrew Luck, the QB who replaced Manning in Indianapolis, was second with 56 votes, and Patriots QB Tom Brady, whom Manning will duel against in Sunday’s AFC title game, was third with 41 votes.

Manning got even more votes as the NFL’s most-respected player. Eighty-six players (27 percent) chose Manning, followed by Brady and Vikings running back Adrian Peterson who tied for second with 24 votes each.

More on Manning:
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2013 NFL playoffs -- Peyton Manning stands alone - ESPN
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Watching Manning play quarterback is a joy and a privilege. At a time when passing-game concepts are soaring to complex new levels, Manning maintains an unprecedented, unparalleled mastery of his offense. There's no other quarterback who carries the same level of pre-snap responsibility and handles it so deftly.

Combine that with his work ethic, his physical gifts, his intelligence and (most critically) his ability to apply that intelligence in the most chaotic moments, and you check all of the boxes for quarterback greatness. Coaches would teach their young quarterbacks to play the game the way Manning does except for one small problem -- they can't. He is unique in his combination of abilities. And quite honestly, his accomplishments reflect that.

Those do include a Super Bowl title, which used to be enough to certify all-time greatness, but these days, apparently one isn't enough. Manning's punishment for leading his teams to 13 postseasons is having to answer for why he hasn't won more titles -- as though he could will himself three more Lombardi trophies the way he checks to a run play or draws a defense offside.

We've reached the point at which we've somehow put way too much importance on this one game while also underestimating how much goes into trying to win it. It's lunacy, and it's time to step back from the edge.

No I'm not the prez of the P. Manning fan club.
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Richard Sherman on Manning:
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Richard Sherman smartest QBs: Peyton Manning, Drew Brees, Andrew Luck | The MMQB with Peter King
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When we played Peyton in the preseason, I found a new appreciation for the way he makes adjustments at the line of scrimmage; he controls the protections, and if he sees the blitz coming he slides it. The thing that sets him apart is that he'll change it to a run play if you don't have enough players in the box, and they'll get five or six yards because you're not ready for it. Nobody else has both the authority to do that within their offense and the understanding to know when it's appropriate.
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1. Peyton Manning
2. Drew Brees
3. Aaron Rodgers
4. Russell Wilson
5. Andrew Luck
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Honorable mention: Tom Brady
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Superlatives

Who’s next: Cam Newton

Hardest to intercept: Tom Brady

Most conservative: Alex Smith

Toughest to sack: Tony Romo

Biggest trash-talker: Jay Cutler

Best arm: Andrew Luck

I should have put that in green. Aikman woulda easily been in my top 10, if he didn't play for those dallas criminals. He was a great QB and did it with class.
Darned good announcer nowadays.

I've heard the name but doan know anything else about him.
Musta been a looooong time ago.

Edit: did a search, very impressive rezoomay. But Cleveland?????

As about as exciting as dish water, IMO. :cool:

No question he's one of the best. And he's clearly one of the smartest, if not the smartest QB ever, and his preparation and respect by others is legendary. But leading up to his first round playoff game against the Chargers the big question was "Will Manning get bounced in the first round AGAIN after being the 1 seed?" I just don't think this would be the leadup question to a player who is said to be the "greatest" at his position.

I thought football was a team sport. ;) It's amazing to me how much the other 21 guys don't matter when it comes to evaluating Manning.

Here's a fantastic Grantland piece on Manning from earlier in the season.

http://grantland.com/features/quarterback-peyton-manning-37/

I agree. From the media coverage you'd think he was going out there all by himself. :)

Another knock against the "greatest" argument, according to Chuckie Barkley yesterday: only 2 prior SB appearances with a .500 record. For comparison, some of the other QB's that get lumped in to the top ten lists below.

SB Appearances
Brady - 5
Elway - 5
Montana - 4
Bradshaw - 4
Staubach - 4
Kelly - 4 (Consecutive)
Aikman - 3
Marino - 1 (Considered by many as the "best")

Nice!

No doubt he's vanilla, but compared to the illiterate gangsta ex-jocks they parade around the NFL games nowadays, vanilla is a welcome and refreshing thing indeed.
He's intelligent, informed, prepared, and well-spoken and not at all obnoxious.
He's too reserved and careful about what he says and should loosen up a bit, but at least he's thinking before he opens his yap.

I'll take that any day over the likes of howard Cossell, Dennis Miller, Key-shon "give me the damn ball" johnson, Ray lewis, shannon sharpe or that dimwit bimbo jullian whats-her-face.
Even Jimmy Johnson is getting obnoxious trying to "fit in" with his co-hosts.
One of these days we'll see him flash gang signs on national TV.

My favorite currently working is Lou Holtz.

A couple months ago they had Keith Jackson (soph-a-more) do a guest appearance on one of the college pre-game shows.
I was in awe, on my hands and knees bowing to the greatest ever.

He and Gifford were in a class by themselves.

Oh, I don't mind Aikman at all, really. As you said, better than some others.
Sho do miss Madden/Summerall!
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I remember back when Bill Walsh retired and spent three seasons with Dick Enberg in the booth.
Enberg said (on air) at the close of their last game together that he (Enberg) learned more about pro football in one season w/Walsh than he had his entire career.
Walsh gave great inside details during those games. ('89 - '91)
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Madden sucked. He sounds almost as obnoxious as Vitale on college hoops.

You won't like this:
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BTW, Aikman is #14
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The 25 Greatest NFL Announcers of All Time | Bleacher Report
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Edit: Oh hell, can't help myself. :D
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#1.
John Madden is one of the most important men, not just announcers, in the history of the NFL.

Madden has done more for the game of football than any one man should ever be able to do, and much of his reach and impact is because of his work as a television commentator after retiring from coaching.

Madden is one of the great television characters of all time, and yet, he was as real as they come. What you saw was what you got with Madden: an honest, learned and excitable analysis of professional football.

From Lead Writer Will Carroll: "While he got to be a caricature at the end, Madden changed how a lot of people looked at the game by giving an angle we weren't used to seeing. Color went from telling stories like Gifford and Meredith to analyzing the game because of Madden."

Sure, Madden had a tendency to get worked up in his own exuberance, but that was part of what made him so affable. Madden made watching football fun, from his outlandish use of the telestrator to his sound effects when replaying a tackle to the Turducken on Thanksgiving.

His All-Madden teams changed the way fans looked at the game's best players—the dirtier the player got, the better he was—and the video game franchise that bears his name changed the way young fans connected to the game.

In how many ways do I owe my fandom to John Madden? Too many to count.

Let's look at it this way. In 2010, the Indy Colts were 10-6 with Manning and won the division. In 2011, with no Manning and no good QBs, they were 2-14. In 2012, with Andrew Luck, another very good QB, they were 11-5.

As for Denver, they were 8-8 without Manning in 2011, then 13-3 in 2012 with Manning.

Good points. The fact that Manning could get the Broncos to 13-3 in his first season and then the SB in just his second year is a testament to his greatness. The Broncos hadn't gone this far in a season since '98 when they won it all. Actually, they haven't really sniffed at any real success since then.

While I find both Madden and Vitale to be annoying, both have done a huge amount to benefit the games that they love. They are also charitable and by all accounts genuinely good people. I don't care for their style, but definitely respect their positive impact.

dumb old list.


Marv Albert #11 makes the voices angry. I don't like it when the voices get angry.
Keith Jackson wasn't even on that list.
OK, he didn't do the NFL thing but the voices still ain't cool with it.

Keith Jackson's too-often comment: "He's a big ole boy!"
But I liked his style.

I think Madden is one of those love um or hate um kind of guys... personally I loved listening to him... yes he is/was loud, obnoxious, bombastic... but somehow that seemed to fit nicely with the NFL.

Just MHO.

I heard that when Madden walked into the dressing rooms of the teams prior to the games, the players all swarmed him. Lots of love and respect, I guess.

Peyton as the best ever? He's good but I don't think I would call him the best there ever was at QB. Here are a few that have not been mentioned that I feel deserve a little more adulation in my opinion:

Roger Staubach, Fran Tarkenton, Bart Starr, Ken Stabler, Ken Anderson, Dan Fouts and Jim Plunkett.

Peyton is on par with Aikman and Bradshaw. Good in their time but not the end all be all.

Heard a Manning interview on ESPN this morning. He thinks he has not yet reached his full potential, that he is still learning how to play the QB position. He shows no inclination to retire, and says he still really enjoys the prepartation. With an O-Line that gave up the fewest sacks in the league, and a perspective that he has yet to peak.....hmmm

Decker probably gets the "Franchise" tag this off season to keep the offensive skill position talent in place, just like they did with Clady this year. Reasonable chance the Broncos are in position to contend for a couple more years.

"Best of all time" debate might need to be revisited after Manning reaches his potential.

I hope I can find a clip of that recent guest appearance he did. he's very old, and has obviously slowed his speech a little, but his whit is still sharp as a tack. He was telling stories about learning from Pop Warner etc, and he COMMANDED the direct attention of everyone in the room.
He talked about the day he was told to do the announcing/play by play for olympic ice skating or some other obscure "sport". His last minute partner asked, do you know anything about ice skating?
And he replied in the deep booming voice, No but I know television!

The other sportcasters in that room were all in awe. When they switched back to the ESPN desk back east or wherever, the commentator stood up and walked out saying jokingly, I can't follow that.

It was a very special and memorable experience.
Kinda reminded me of Chick Hearn, another man I never met but admired a great deal and who I miss.



wiki


BTW, I did not realize it but Jackson did the very first monday night football broadcast September 21, 1970.

Wasn't espn, it was fox sports network.



Keith Jackson on Fox College Saturday : Outkick The Coverage


Keith Jackson celebrates 85th birthday with FOX | Video County

From the Grandland piece that I linked to earlier today:

"At this stage in his late career, really for the whole season-plus he’s been with Denver, Manning makes being a midlevel IT manager look like a form of ruthless conquest. It’s as if he wrote a script to install automatic PC updates, and somehow it made him the god-emperor of hell. This is how he plays football: He goes out every week with a graphing calculator and a stack of forms, and he just audits teams to death.

III.
George Orwell wrote that by the age of 50, everyone has the face he deserves. Manning is 37, well past 50 in football years, and his face increasingly looks like something that was squeezed from a tube of Crest. But watching him this past month, I couldn’t shake the feeling that his whole career has been pointing toward this moment — that somehow, this is the first time we’ve truly been able to see him. Which is strange to say, since, of course, he played in Indianapolis for over a decade, won four MVPs and a Super Bowl, broke half the passing records in the NFL, and will always be more associated with the Colts than with the Broncos. But still. Some athletes get old and become faded copies of themselves, diminished versions of what they once were. Think of David Beckham before he retired, or of Tiger Woods now, to name two athletes around his age. But Manning has become, if anything, an intensified version of himself. And not just because he’s playing next-level-even-for-him football right now — his whole temperament resonates in middle age in a way that it never did when he was 22. He doesn’t seem old, because he never seemed young in the first place."

RIP to one of the greatest game callers ever.

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Okay, so not quite all accounts ...

http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/football/woman-reiterates-sexually-harassed-peyton-manning-article-1.3600171

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Babe Ruth struck out 1,330 times.

...and everybody knows that Joe Montana is the greatest QB of all time:
Montana holds postseason records for most games with a passer rating over 100.0 (12) and is second in career postseason touchdown passes (45), passing yards (5,772) and games with 300+ passing yards (6, tied with Kurt Warner). In his four Super Bowls, Montana completed 83 of 122 passes for 1,142 yards and 11 touchdowns with no interceptions, earning him a passer rating of 127.8. Montana led his team to victory in each game, and was the first player ever to win three Super Bowl MVP awards. Montana also held the record for most Super Bowl pass completions (83) and still holds the record for pass attempts (122) without throwing an interception.
In his four Super Bowls, Montana completed 83 of 122 passes for 1,142 yards and 11 touchdowns with no interceptions, earning him a passer rating of 127.8. Montana led his team to victory in each game, and was the first player ever to win three Super Bowl MVP awards. Wikipedia

Tom Brady is an excellent QB, no doubt. But nobody performed in the post season like Mr. Montana. It looks like Mr. Brady's Superbowl win percentage is 71%. Mr. Montana's is......let's see here....

.....oh yeah, 100%.

Finally, something we can agree on.

One Keith Jackson comment I remember...at a Cal game, camera shots of "deadbeat hill", a hill overlooking the stadium. People atop it watching the game for free.

Jackson: "That hill has been there since the stadium was built."

Fouts: "Probably since before the stadium was built, Keith."

Score one for Dan Fouts. Not many did against Keith...

Agree. It's biting.