I see that Earl Morrall has passed. Dead at 79.
There’s a story in The Miami Herald.
Not a guy we think of as being one of the great quarterbacks, but Morrall won a lot of games. He was the NFL’s MVP in 1968, leading the Colts to a 13-1 record. And when Don Shula left Baltimore for Miami, he took Morrall with him. When Bob Griese got hurt in 1972, it was Morrall who started 9 of the 14 regular-season games on the only team that’s gone through an entire season undefeated.
Among quarterbacks with at least 100 career starts, only 12 have better all-time winning percentages.
Of the 12 listed in front of him, three are active players – Tom Brady, Peyton Manning, Ben Roethlisberger. All but two of the others are in the Hall of Fame (Ken Stabler and Jack Kemp being the exceptions).
WINNINGEST QUARTERBACKS | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Player | G | W | L | T | Pct |
Tom Brady | 191 | 148 | 43 | 0 | .775 |
Roger Staubach | 114 | 85 | 29 | 0 | .746 |
Joe Montana | 166 | 117 | 49 | 0 | .705 |
Peyton Manning | 240 | 167 | 73 | 0 | .696 |
Terry Bradshaw | 158 | 107 | 51 | 0 | .677 |
Ben Roethlisberger | 142 | 95 | 47 | 0 | .669 |
Ken Stabler | 146 | 96 | 49 | 1 | .661 |
Steve Young | 143 | 94 | 49 | 0 | .657 |
Johnny Unitas | 186 | 118 | 64 | 4 | .645 |
John Elway | 231 | 148 | 82 | 1 | .643 |
Jack Kemp | 105 | 65 | 37 | 3 | .633 |
Jim Kelly | 160 | 101 | 59 | 0 | .631 |
Earl Morrall | 103 | 63 | 37 | 3 | .626 |
Brett Favre | 298 | 186 | 112 | 0 | .624 |
Norm Van Brocklin | 101 | 61 | 36 | 4 | .624 |
Joe Theismann | 124 | 77 | 47 | 0 | .621 |
Bob Griese | 151 | 92 | 56 | 3 | .619 |
Bart Starr | 157 | 94 | 57 | 6 | .618 |
Philip Rivers | 128 | 79 | 49 | 0 | .617 |
Len Dawson | 159 | 94 | 57 | 8 | .616 |
Dan Marino | 240 | 147 | 93 | 0 | .613 |
Donovan McNabb | 161 | 98 | 62 | 1 | .612 |
Randall Cunningham | 135 | 82 | 52 | 1 | .611 |
Bobby Layne | 135 | 80 | 51 | 4 | .607 |
—Ian Allan