Birthday/Quarterback Ramblings

Well, it's my birthday.  Last year, I was dreading my birthday.  This year, I just don't care about turning 31.  I actually forgot about it yesterday until a parent wished me a happy birthday after our basketball game.  If you didn't know, I'm coaching girls basketball this year.  It's the first year our school has had a team and it shows.  We're 0-9.  But we played our best game yesterday.  And all of my best players are 6th or 7th graders except for one 8th grader.  They had played no organized basketball before this year so they had a lot to learn.  We did not get called for a single foul in the first game.  When I told the team that, they thought that was good.  I had to explain that it meant that they're not being aggressive enough.  Yesterday, I had a player get called for four fouls for the first time.  I took her out when she got called for her fourth.  I told her I was going to put her back in, but she couldn't foul again.  Secretly, I was hoping she would foul out (we weren't going to win and it would have been funny), but she managed to play the last four minutes or so without fouling.  So that's how girls basketball is going.  Practices are more fun than games for me, but we haven't had a practice since before Thanksgiving (packed schedule combined with limited gym availability).  I think after the season ends, I'm going to practice with them once a week and try to get them ready for next year.  They don't know basketball, but there are some decent athletes on the team so hopefully next year will be better.

My students were much more excited about my birthday than I was.  They brought in ice cream cake that we had during recess.  I greatly would have preferred this workplace birthday celebration recognition.  I'm totally serious.

Random thought:  I've had enough of winter.  It took until January 7.  I don't mind cold during Christmas (it would be really weird to be in Australia where it's summer for Christmas), but after that it's just annoying.  Summer is easily the best season and winter is its opposite.  I really should just move to southern California.

Famous people I share a birthday with:  Kate Middleton, Richard Nixon, Chad Johnson, Pope Gregory XV, Dick Enberg, Mehmet Ali Agca, Muggsy Bogues, and Joey Lauren Adams.  You probably know my feelings about the royal family so Kate Middleton does nothing for me.  If you know about my interest in history and politics, it might surprise you that I don't have any strong feelings about Richard Nixon.  The Jets beat Chad Johnson (it might have been Ochocinco back then) in the playoffs on our birthday five years ago so that was fun.  I don't know anything about Pope Gregory XV.  I do like Dick Enberg, but it's not like he's my favorite play-by-play guy.  Mehmet Ali Agca is the guy who shot St. John Paul the Great so that's lame (but of course, John Paul II forgave him, he was awesome).  I can't say I was ever a big Muggsy Bogues fan, but I have to respect anybody that was several inches shorter than me (and I'm not tall) who played 14 seasons in the NBA.  And Joey Lauren Adams was in Big Daddy, which was a fantastic movie.

But I left out my favorite famous person that I share a birthday with.  He's the answer to this question:  Which quarterback has the highest career quarterback rating in the postseason?  Surely it must be somebody that's in the NFL today in these pass wacky times, right?  Tom Brady?  Drew Brees?  Peyton Manning?  Aaron Rodgers?  Nope.  Maybe Kurt Warner, he put up some big passing numbers, right?  Close, but no.  Then it has to be like Joe Montana, John, Elway, or Terry Bradshaw, right?  Nope.  It's Bart Starr.  I know quarterback rating is a little bit of a silly stat (Why is 158.3 a perfect rating?), but that says something.  If you look at the all time regular season leaders, seven of the top 8 are still active because it's so much easier to pass today than it was decades ago.  Tony Romo is second at 97.6.  Tony Romo might have had a great season and maybe sometimes he gets criticized too much, but he's nowhere close to the second greatest quarterback of all time.  John Elway ranks 65th all time at 79.9.  John Elway is much much closer to the second greatest quarterback of all time than Tony Romo (some people might even put Elway at 1 or 2 on their lists).  Bart Starr is tied at 56th with the immortal Jeff Hostetler at 80.5.  Chad Pennington, Matt Schaub, Carson Palmer, David Garrard, Andy Dalton, Jay Culter, Brad Johnson, Jason Campbell, and Kyle Orton all rank ahead of Starr.  But Fran Tarkenton, John Elway, Johnny Unitas, Bob Griese, Terry Bradshaw, and Joe Namath all rank behind him.  Bart Starr is also the all time playoff leader in lowest percentage of passes intercepted (1.41%).

It's not like this is due to small sample size.  There weren't as many rounds of playoffs, but the Packers were always there.  Starr went 9-1 in the playoffs.  Among quarterbacks with at least three starts in the playoffs, that's the best winning percentage of all time.  Now, the Packers had the greatest NFL coach of all time and I'm sure that they were loaded in those days, but that's impressive.  Check out his postseason game log.  He completed 61.03% of his passes in the playoffs and had 15 touchdowns and only three interceptions.  Bart Starr won five championships (three NFL championships and two Super Bowls).

Add all that up, and I think Bart Starr is the most underrated quarterback in NFL history.  If you asked football fans who the greatest Packer quarterback of all time, they'd probably say Brett Favre (or maybe Aaron Rodgers).  I think Starr is the best and it's pretty close between Favre and Rodgers for second (I think Rodgers will eventually do enough to pass Favre pretty easily and maybe even enough to pass Starr).  Here are Bart Starr's regular season stats.  Yes, I'm telling you a guy who never threw more than 16 touchdown passes or 2,438 yards is better than a guy who has thrown for more yards than anybody else in NFL history (Manning will pass Favre next year as long as he doesn't retire and stays healthy).  As I already covered, it's a different game today.  Starr led the league in completion percentage, lowest interception percentage, and quarterback rating three times.  He led in yards per attempt twice.  His 1966 season was outstanding (14 touchdowns, 3 interceptions, led the league in completion percentage, lowest interception percentage, yards per attempt, and quarterback rating).

There are all sorts of rankings of quarterbacks that you can find.  The most recent one that I found when I googled it had Favre number 5 and Starr not in the top 10.  I don't know where I'd rank Starr all time (I never saw Unitas or all sorts of other Hall of Famers and I don't remember Montana or Marino until the ends of their careers), but I do know I'd rank him ahead of Favre.  I saw him throw enough terrible interceptions to not rank him as high as a lot of folks would.  That list also has Favre ahead of Johnny Unitas and Peyton Manning.  I know Favre ahead of Manning is ridiculous.  I haven't looked closely at Unitas's career, but a lot of people would rank him number one so I'm pretty sure having Favre ahead of him also is ridiculous.  Let's finish up with my quarterback power rankings.  I'm only ranking quarterbacks that I can remember watching in their primes:

12.  Eli Manning
11.  Drew Brees
10.  Ben Roethlisberger
9.  Jim Kelly
8.  Kurt Warner
7.  Steve Young
6.  Brett Favre
5.  Troy Aikman
4.  Aaron Rodgers
3.  John Elway (you might make the case that I don't even remember him in his prime, but I remember him winning two Super Bowls, I don't remember any of Montana's Super Bowls)
2.  Peyton Manning
1.  Tom Brady

If I were to dig deeply into the greatest quarterbacks of all time, I'm starting with Joe Montana and going from there.  I just did some quick googling and there are only five quarterbacks a National Championship in college and a Super Bowl in the NFL:  Joe Namath, Ken Stabler, Joe Montana, Troy Aikman, and Tom Brady.  Stabler split time in college, Aikman started four games at Oklahoma in 1985, but then he was injured.  Tom Brady was the backup for the half championship that the forces of evil won in 1997.  So that leaves Joe Namath and Joe Montana as the only two legitimate starters for both a National Championship team and a Super Bowl winning team.  Pretty cool.

Happy Birthday Bart Starr!  I'm sorry that scumbag Brett Favre gets more recognition than you.