From the Bench
UNITAS MADE SUNDAY AFTERNOONS MEMORABLE
Those of you under thirty never saw him play, except, perhaps, on ESPN Classics. Those under forty never saw him, unless you were a dyed-in-the-wool football fan at a very early age. But any fan over fifty remembers.
We remember the early years, simpler times, when hippies were unheard of, and nobody knew where Viet Nam was. Or cared. It was the "Happy Days" that TV tried to take us back to, but never could. General Eisenhower wore civvies and took a paternal interest that made us feel comfortable. They were the good ol’ days of black and white……television, that is. (The other "black-and-white" issue was beginning to rumble and disturb our white comfort.)
John Unitas was someone to remember. He "made" NFL football on TV. His contemporary, Arnold Palmer, did the same for golf.
The memorable battles between Unitas’ Baltimore Colts and Y. A. Tittle’s New York Giants in the late 50’s are the stuff of legend. Before Vince Lombardi…..before America’s (self-anointed) Team, the Dallas Cowboys……..before the Super Bowl was even dreamed of…….the spark of Colts vs. Giants lit a flame which has grown into a wildfire.
Now that he’s gone, it is appropriate to look back on a career that probably shouldn’t have been, for, you see, Unitas did not make the early cut. Fresh out of the University of Louisville, virtually unheard of, he was cut by the Steelers. He played out the season in semi-pro. Six dollars a game.
By the end of the following year, he was a Baltimore Colt, and within three years he was on National TV, playing for, and winning, the NFL Championship.
Just as that first Masters made Palmer, that NFL Championship game made Unitas, and the six-dollar-a-game semi-pro became a household word to football fans around the world.
What a difference a year makes.
It was rumored that Unitas wrote the anonymous letter to the Baltimore coach advising him to look at that guy Unitas, the year after John was cut by the Steelers. Whether he did or not, it is a pretty good story. And it makes a point.
All of us remember times in our lives when we didn’t "make the cut." When we don’t make the cut, we have two choices. We can sit in our poop and cry. Or we can clean it up and move on.
John Unitas set an example all of us could follow.