10 best individual player rivalries in NFL history
By Kinnu Singh
4. Bart Starr vs. Johnny Unitas
It didn’t take long for the NFL to reproduce another quarterback rivalry with the familiar question: who wins between the more successful passer and the more decorated champion?
In the 1960s, the Luckman-Baugh dynamic took hold again, this time with Baltimore Colts quarterback Johnny Unitas and Green Bay Packers quarterback Bart Starr.
Starr was signed by the Packers in 1956, the same year that the Colts picked up Unitas. Starr played until 1971, while Unitas retired with the San Diego Chargers in 1973. That meant that the 1960s were dominated by these two quarterbacks and teams, with Unitas winning four championships to Starr’s seven. Like Luckman, Starr won more championships, and like Baugh, Unitas boasted superior individual statistics. Unitas was a 10-time Pro Bowler, a three-time league MVP and a five-time first-team All-Pro quarterback who made the All-1960s team. Starr also made the All-1960s team, but as a four-time Pro Bowler who only won league MVP and first-team All-Pro once in his career. In fact, Starr was named Super Bowl MVP more than he was named league MVP, while Unitas was not named Super Bowl MVP when he won Super Bowl V in 1970.
“The best in the West and indeed, in all football, are Unitas and Bart Starr,” reads a 1966 issue of Sports Illustrated. “As everyone knows, Unitas is one of the finest quarterbacks of all time; as everyone should know. Starr is one of them, too.”
Placing today’s value on championships is anachronistic to how past quarterback rivalries were viewed. Luckman would be considered the better quarterback by today’s standards because championships exude total dominance of a sport more than individual statistics. And while individual statistics indicate an athlete’s improved ability to perform, wins trump all other arguments these days. That being said, Baugh is more famous today for his passing, and in the 1960s, Unitas was seen as the better player, not Starr. Unitas was included in the NFL 100 list; Starr was not. Notably, the NFL 100 list favors the better passers in these debates: Sammy Baugh, Johnny Unitas and Dan Marino made the list while their respective rivals did not.
Still, for NFL fans in a changed era of football, re-examining Unitas versus Starr isn’t as straightforward as it may have seemed in the 1960s. A Reddit post detailing the careers of both quarterbacks notes that Starr did play under Vince Lombardi alongside ten Hall of Fame teammates, which certainly makes the difference in terms of championship wins. “It would be valid to argue that Johnny [Unitas] has done more with less, and he did considerably more in the regular season than Starr ever did,” the author surmised.
In 2001, Salon’s Alan Barra argued that Starr is the greatest quarterback of all time. ” If by best you mean most likely to win championships, then the man you want in back of your center is Bart Starr,” Barra wrote.
Unitas himself may have said it best: the two quarterbacks offered alternate versions of greatness.
“We’re different types,” Unitas said in 1966. “Bart’s an excellent quarterback, but he calls plays to control the ball, and I gamble. I throw anytime. But he’s a line passer. Look at his statistics.”
Unitas was known for his big arm, while Starr was known for his cerebral decision-making. Who’s better is still debated by some, but it’s clear that their back-and-forth propelled the sport through the creation of the modern-day NFL and the Super Bowl.