In All Fairness To Rex...

First of all, I don't know anything about Rex Grossman's college career as I'm not much of a college football fan. What I know about him as a pro is that he gets hurt at the beginning of the season and then misses the rest of it - with the exception of this year. Oh yeah, and he's as inconsistent as they come. All that being said - I genuinely feel bad for the guy. Like I said yesterday, the language that used to be for AM Talk Radio and cable opinion shows has now infiltrated the network shows and halftime at the Super Bowl. "He's terrible" is something for the fans to say to each other. I just cringe when an ex-Super Bowl quarterback says it to zillions of people. I don't know why it bothers me - it just does. So, in all fairness to Rex, I thought I'd point something out. Rex took the loss like a man and didn't point fingers. He called his picks mistakes - one a bad decision and one a bad throw. I remember last year when a certain menacing defense flattened our newly crowned SB MVP the entire game and he threw his offensive line under the bus. It would have been very easy for Rex to point out that Indy went on drives of 80, 47, 58, 56 and 62 to score points. The Bears defense is hiding behind Rex's reputation right now as they did little to stop Indy's running game. I'm not a fan of Rex Grossman. I just think he's getting piled on unfairly. I'm also not calling him Joe Montana. I pointed out yesterday that I only had 3 QBs below him in the history of the Super Bowl. Thing is, the guy that graduates last from medical school is still a doctor.

26 from 51

No, no and no. Boomer said some things that made me feel bad for Rex Grossman, his family and his friends. He said "Awful Rex" showed up or something to that effect - but he did use the word "awful". The other guys were measured in their responses but Boomer was not and this was BEFORE the two picks. My thoughts are that 10 years ago, maybe more like 15, we wouldn't have seen that on national TV during halftime. We could have heard it on an ESPN opinion type show or AM radio sports talk....but not during halftime of the big game itself. He could have said inconsistent or inexperienced under pressure - but he chose the low road. What does that have to do with 26 and 51? Well, I went back and did some research wondering if Rex Grossman was potentially the QB with the worst reputation that ever played in the big game. There have been 51 starting QBs in the Super Bowl and only 26 winning QBs out of the 51. I'll run down the list of the 26 winners first and then we'll see how Rex stacks up against the guys that never got the ring. It would be too hard for me to put the two lists together but it's crying to be done (Still A Dog?). Maybe Dog can give us the list from 1 to 51 in order if he had to choose today his starter. It's going to be hard as Steeler fans to place Big Ben in that list because his legacy is just beginning (hopefully). Clearly, there will be QBs that never won the game on this list who are far superior to some who did win. Obvious examples would be where to rank Dan Marino and Fran Tarkenton. They absolutely rank higher than your Doug Williams and Jim McMahons. Dog has been around a few (a lot?) more years than me so he saw all of these guys play. The ranking of the 26 winners is just my opinion. If you disagree, please don't thorw QB ratings at me as they mean nothing comparing QB's from different eras. Those guys threw less passes and didn't dink and dunk to raise their completion percentages. Here goes:

(Player/SB Played/SB Won)
01. Montana 4/4
02. Bradshaw 4/4
03. Elway 5/3
04. Favre 2/1
05. Starr 2/2
06. Brady 3/3 (Future Pending)
07. Young 1/1
08. Staubach 4/2
09. Aikman 3/3
10. Manning 1/1 (Future Pending)
11. Namath 1/1
12. Dawson 2/1
13. Griese 3/2
14. Warner 2/1
15. Simms 1/1
16. Theismann 2/1
17. Stabler 1/1
18. Plunkett 2/2
19. Roethlisberger (Future Pending) 1/1
20. McMahon 1/1
21. Hostetler 1/1
22. Johnson 1/1
23. Dilfer 1/1
24. Williams 1/1
25. Rypien 1/1
26. Morral/Unitas - Didn't Rank - Morral Started, Unitas Finished

That was really hard because some of them are great and some of them are very efficient and had long careers. I have no idea what I based those rankings on other than a gut feeling and watching most of them play. Some had outstanding receivers most of their careers like Bradshaw and Montana while people like Tom Brady went into Super Bowls with far less fire power and still won. I have little doubt that Steve Young could have won 4 SBs had he played there the same years Montana did. I feel the same way about Brett Favre had he played for the Steelers in the 70's. What can I say, this is my list.


Of the 25 Losers, I have the following, again - according to me only:

01. Marino 1
02. Unitas 1
03. Kelly 4
04. Tarkenton 3
05. Boomer 1
06. Gannon 1
07. Hasselbeck 1
08. Bledsoe 1
09. McNabb 1
10. McNair 1
11. Anderson 1
12. Jaworski 1
13. Chandler 1
14. O'Donnell 1
15. Delhomme 1
16. Lamonica 1
17. Morton 2
18. Kilmer 1
19. Collins 1
20. Humphries 1
21. Grogan 1
22. Grossman 1
23. Ferragamo 1
24. Woodley 1
25. Kapp 1

I don't know a lot about some of these guys that were 0-1 in the Super Bowl, so maybe Dog can expand on them a little. I may have placed them all far too low. Who knows? After doing the losers, I looked at some of their stats and I only made 2 or 3 adjustments to my list so I think I did pretty good. So, what I set out to see was how all other SB QBs stacked up against Rex Grossman. I don't think he was the worst ever. Ten years from now he may move far up the list if he has a better than average career. Wow. Dog, do some homework and take us 'oldschool'. You up to sorting the combined list for us?