May 7
1933
Hall of Fame quarterback Johnny Unitas was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Roughly 80 years later, his son Joe announced that he had co-written and would be producing a screenplay about Johnny’s childhood and early football career with then-Baltimore Ravens quarterback Joe Flacco (sort of) playing the role of his father.
Johnny Unitas’ road to the NFL took some detours.
He attended a local Pittsburgh high school where he played halfback and quarterback. His plan was to attend college at Notre Dame and play quarterback there, but Notre Dame passed on Unitas after a tryout.
He ended up at Louisville instead and weighed 145 pounds leading into the start of practice. (Keep that in mind.) His first start came in 1951. He threw five touchdowns, but the Cardinals losts 22-21. He finished the year with 46 completions on 99 attempts (46.5%) for 602 yards and 9 touchdowns.
In 1952 he was forced to play defense at Louisville at well, so he was a safety and linebacker in addition to being starting quarterback.
By his final year of college in 1954, Unitas was team captain but missed the majority of the season with an injury.
Unitas ended up being drafted by the Pittsburgh Steelers in the 9th round of the 1955 NFL draft. They cut him without his seeing taking a snap in a team game, or even a snap in one of their practices.
Things worked out for Johnny Unitas. He was quickly signed by the Baltimore Colts and put up Hall of Fame numbers over an 18 year (17 with the Colts) career: 2,830 passing attempts on 5,186 attempts (54.6%) for 290 touchdowns. Unitas made 10 Pro Bowls, was a 5 time First Team All-Pro, lead the league in total passing yards and yards per game four times, led the league in completions three times, led the league in passer rating three times, led the league in passing touchdowns four times, and won three AP MVPs.
I had to pare his list of accolades for time and space purposes. That should suffice.
Johnny Unitas was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1979.
This is all well known. So, back to that movie…
Joe Unitas’ 2013 film announcement, and in particular his choice of Joe Flacco to play Johnny, was poorly received. Most of the criticism came from Unitas’ family, including Johnny’s son John, Jr. and Johnny’s grandson J.C. Unitas, who referred to the choice as “embarrassing”.
Flacco had just won Super Bowl XLVII with, appropriately, Baltimore (by then a different franchise altogether and named the Ravens), and earned the game’s MVP. He’d also been awarded a massive six-year, $120,000,000M contract as a result.
J.C. was unimpressed:
“My grandfather and his legacy deserves only the best, and this is not it. Has Baltimore forgotten that Trent Dilfer also won a Super Bowl while playing for Baltimore?”
Johnny’s son John, Jr. also hated the idea of Flacco portraying the NFL great:
“If you want a quarterback, go with Peyton Manning,. My father was just like that. This is a joke.”
Junior additionally referred to Flacco as a “goofball.”
This all seems a bit harsh on Joe. (Though I suppose a nastier word than “goofball” could have been used. The same goes for the word “turd”, which is what Junior called his half-brother Joe Unitas.)
There was more going on than just an irrational dislike for Joe Flacco.
There was the size difference between Joe Flacco and Johnny. While Unitas weighed less than 150 pounds during his first NFL practice, Flacco measured 6’6″ 232 pounds at his combine. That inaccuracy could have been genuinely distracting, and also unfitting, some in Unitas’ family believed, in other ways. They took great pride in Johnny as a small, scrappy guy who had to battle for everything he had — not a massive beast like J.F.
Even the Lithuania Tribune (Johnny Unitas’ parents were both of Lithuanian descent) hated that part:
“There is probably no one more deserving of being the subject of a movie as Unitas who symbolises that perseverance, hard work and decent values can ultimately lead to success. Johnny’s son, Joe Unitas with some associates have now transformed the Callahan book into a movie script.”
There were existing financial, NIL, licensing, and estate tensions among the Unitas family at the time Joe went public with news of the film. Johnny’s second wife and Joe Unitas’ mother, Sandra Unitas, had already sued (unsuccessfully) John, Jr. for control of United management as use of Johnny’s name.
John, Jr. was further unhappy that Joe Unitas had never even seen Johnny play football and yet was attempting to profit off Johnny’s career. (Johnny didn’t marry Joe’s mother, Sandra, until 1979, Johnny’s final year with the Colts.) Junior had definitely seen Unitas play – he was on the sideline as a Colts ballboy when Joe was on the field.
J.C. didn’t like that, either. He also didn’t like the book Joe had based the screenplay on because he believed it was an inaccurate biography:
“It disgusts me that one of the son’s of my grandfather would put his hands out and ask for donations to make a movie based off of a book that was mostly built off of non-factual events in my grandfather’s life . . . Moreover, a movie of my grandfather conceptualized by a son who never saw my grandfather play a down of football. The Unitas family is a family that never asked for handouts, although it appears there is a hand out, shaking a proverbial soup can for money to fund a movie.”
The fundraising page for the project is still accessible. (I was very excited.) It raised a total of $3,631 on a $100,000 ask on IndieGogo., and estimated that production of the film would cost around $10M. You can find a lot more information about Unitas We Stand (oh, I should have mentioned: the title of the movie was Unitas We Stand; I’m sorry, and also I’m sorry) on that site, and you can listen to Joe discuss Unitas We St–you can listen to Joe discuss it here.
One final thing should be noted before I of course tell you that the movie was never made. There’s no indication that Joe Unitas intended for Joe Flacco to act in the movie in any real sense of that word. He would be a stand-in during the football action scene for the actor playing Johnny dramatically. He’d be wearing a helmet. They’d probably have made Flacco look smaller on screen, just as they make Tom Cruise look larger on screen, as one Reddit user pointed out.
Junior even seemed (listen to the linked audio at the end of the above paragraph) that Flacco would be featured only in the final sequences of the portion of the the movie that covers the Colts’ 1958 victory in the NFL Championship game against the New York Giants. (That game is largely considered one the greatest ever played, but that’s a different article.)
Oh, yeah, the movie was never made. I’d have watched it, though. Mainly for Joe Flacco. There’s plenty of other good Johnny Unitas biographical content out there. I do like the idea of a Unitas biopic that focuses only on Johnny’s childhood and his career up to the end of the Giants game in 1958. That’s a neat angle. (Taken from a book.)
May 6
2013
Forbes named quarterback Tim Tebow “America’s Most Influential Athlete”.
The results were based on a Neilson and E-Poll survey that asked adults in the United States which athletes they considered most “influential”, though respondents were also questioned about which were “most approachable”, “most handsome”, and “the best leaders”.
Tebow was then as much known for his personal convictions and religious beliefs as he was for his quarterbacking. He was regarded as a role model who led a clean life and who commanded the respect of athletes and of members of the general public. Tim Tebow became a national and even global “phenomenon” as people of faith began Tebowing, or praying in public even if those around you are “doing something completely different”. (Tim himself did not create the term, but be did generate it through his characteristic positive actions on and off the field.)
His profile is considerably lower today, but Tim Tebow has for over a decade since demonstrated that his high character image was not a PR campaign but a true reflection of who he is a human being.
Inspired by his childhood experiences on a Mission to the Philippines (also Tebow’s birthplace), The Tim Tebow Foundation, which Tebow founded in 2010, continues to give 100% of its public donations directly to its outreach initiatives.
“Whether it is spending a weekend encouraging a child with a life threatening illness through a W15H, helping a family adopt an international child with special needs, crowning kings and queens of the prom, or by showing God’s love through our four other outreaches, our goal is to let people know that God loves them and that they are worthy.” (https://www.timtebowfoundation.org/about).
In fact, by the time he was announced as the most influential athlete in America in 2013, Tebow’s contributions as a football player qua football player were almost zero.
In 2009, Tim Tebow emphatically punctuating his four year college football career at Florida by leading the Gators to a 24-14 victory in the National Championship Game over Sam Bradford and the Oklahoma Sooners.
He finished his time in Gainesville 661-985 (67.1%) for 88 passing TDs against just 16 interceptions. He added 692 rushing attempts for almost 3,000 and another 57 TDs on the ground. By the end of his college career he had amassed 47 NCAA records and dozens of other college football accolades. (Partial list HERE. Yes, it’s Wikipedia, but the section is well sourced.)
Tebow was drafted in the first round of the 2010 NFL Draft by the Denver Broncos but played only three seasons in the league. His best year as a pro came in 2011 when despite ending the season on a down note with three consecutive losses he took the Broncos to the playoffs. He went 7-4 as a starter with 126 completions for 1,729 yards and 12 passing TDs, along with 660 yards and 6 TDs rushing.
In 2012 the Broncos signed Peyton Manning and traded Tebow to the Jets with a 7th round pick in exchange for a 5th and a 6th. He saw little action in New York, attempting just 8 passes. He was released by the Jets in 2013.
Despite being unemployed in the NFL, Tebow just a week later was recognized as America’s most influential athlete — a pretty remarkable occurrence.
He did sign with the New England Patriots a month afterward but was cut prior to the beginning of the regular season. In 2021 he attempted a NFL comeback with Urban Meyer’s Jacksonville Jaguars, but as with everything Meyer touched in Jacksonville it did not work out.
Tim Tebow played 5 years of professional baseball with New York Mets minor league affiliates starting in 2016. He also appeared in major league spring training games with the Mets and hit his first MLB home run on February 25, 2020. He retired from baseball the following year.
Donations to the Tim Tebow Foundation can be made here.
May 5
2012
A few months after Eli Manning inexplicably won not his inexplicable first Super Bowl but his inexplicable second Super Bowl, inexplicable future Hall of Famer Manning was inexplicably invited to host SNL, which inexplicably was and (sort of) is still on the air. (Due to the writers’ strike, inexplicably famous Pete Davidson will not be hosting this year as he was inexplicably scheduled to do.)
Manning’s inexplicable acting was repeatedly bailed out by some inexplicably decent writing by NBC.
His brother’s 2007 SNL hosting appearance was explicably awesome.
Peyton is an explicable and unquestioned Hall of Famer and was inducted in 2021.
May 4
2020
Don Shula, former NFL player, coordinator, and Hall of Fame coach died at the age of 90.
Shula was selected in the ninth round of the 1951 NFL Draft by the Cleveland Browns. He played seven seasons in the league as a defensive back with Cleveland, the Baltimore Colts, and the Washington Redskins.
For his career, Shula played in 73 games, starting 60 of them. He recorded 21 interceptions and forced 4 fumbles.
After his retirement Don Shula spent two years as college defensive backs coach, one at Virginia and one at Kentucky, before moving on to the NFL’s Detroit Lions as defensive backs coach in 1960 and defensive coordinator from 1961-1962.
Shula took his first head coaching job in 1963 with the Colts, rejoining the team with which he spent the majority of his playing career. Under Shula the Colts compiled a 71-23-4 regular season record (.755) and were 2-3 (.400) in the playoffs. He led the Colts to a NFL Championship victory in 1968.
In 1970 Shula was named head coach of the Miami Dolphins, where he would spend the rest of his career. Over 26 years as Dolphins head coach Shula went 257-133-2 (.677) and 17-14 (.548) in the playoffs. With Shula the Dolphins finished in first place a dozen times, and won 5 AFC Championships (seasons 1971, 1972, 1973, 1982, and 1984) and 2 Super Bowls (VII and VIII).
Don Shula holds the NFL record for most regular season wins as a head coach (328) and most total wins as a head coach (347).
He was inducted into the NFL Hall of Fame as a coach in 1997.
Shula is perhaps best known for coaching the 1972 Miami Dolphins, who remain the only team in NFL history to go undefeated through the regular season (14-0) and the playoffs (3-0, 17-0 overall). They defeated the Washington Redskins 14-7 in the 1973 Super Bowl to complete the perfect season.
May 3
2018
Atlanta Falcons quarterback Matt Ryan became the first NFL player to earn $30M/season.
At the time $100M of that money was guaranteed.
ESPN’s Chris Mortensen first reported the deal.
In 2022 Ryan was traded to the Indianapolis Colts, who elected to pick up his $7.5M roster bonus and to guarantee the final two years of his contract, almost $54M.
The Colts released Ryan on March 15, 2023.
On April 27 they drafted Ryan’s replacement, Florida quarterback Anthony Richardson, with the fifth overall pick in the draft. The selection was widely criticized by no one except CassandraFuture/CassandraPicks.
CassandraPicks 