Living in Korea, I am not as attuned to big-time college and pro sports as I was before. This is probably good because I had become increasingly disaffected if not alienated by the sometimes sleazy, sometimes inane stuff that went on. Nonetheless, I still read the online versions of Sports Illustrated and ESPN every day. This being the case, I dearly miss Paul “Dr. Z” Zimmerman—silenced by a stroke in late 2008.
He had played football at Stanford and Columbia, and honed his journalistic skills with three New York newspapers. Author of a fine book entitled The Thinking Man’s Guide to Pro Football (published in 1970), he spent nearly 30 years at SI before his stroke. Zimmerman was different from the new generation of sports writers. He was occasionally gruff, stating his opinions in ways that might cause offense to some readers. But he did it in a sly, humorous and understated way that I found compelling. As the title of his book indicates, he looked at football in an intelligent manner with special focus on line play—the big guys in the middle who got scant attention but often meant the difference between victory and defeat.
He had also been around long enough to have a sense of history, something sorely lacking in today’s young fellas. I have read too many “retrospectives” that go all the way back to, for example, 1983. Some of them seem to think pro football did not exist before instigation of the Super Bowl. Dr. Z knew otherwise. He could tell you convincingly of the best players and teams of the past as well as the current ones. He knew about such greats as Marion Motley, Bobby Layne, Jim Brown and Gene “Big Daddy” Lipscomb, and made references to them in his columns. If I am not mistaken, he sometimes went back before his own time to give props to real old-timers like Johnny McNally, Mel Hein and Clyde “Bulldog” Turner. Now, that is context.
In honor of Dr. Z, I would like to recall a seemingly forgotten man: Otto Graham, whose life spanned the years 1921-2003. I focus on Graham because I recently read an article in SI about the 10 best-ever quarterbacks, and he was listed in ninth place—among the also-rans. Each of the others was younger and with one exception, much younger. Zimmerman would have told you in no uncertain terms that the most important thing is winning games and more than that, winning championships. Graham had a sterling career at Northwestern University and was a star on the Wildcats’ football and basketball teams. Before he played a down of pro football, he spent a season with the Rochester Royals who won the 1946 championship of the National Basketball League, forerunner of the NBA. It was the start of a unique career.
Graham signed with the Cleveland Browns of the All-American Football Conference shortly thereafter. The upstart AAFC was a rival to the established National Football League, and Graham had the good fortune to join the best team, the best coach (Paul Brown) and the best organization by far. So I acknowledge that he had plenty of help; of that, there can be no doubt. Zimmerman, if he were here, would find a glib way to point the reader to the most basic of facts—that Graham was a stone-cold winner. He played 10 years in the AAFC/NFL (they merged before the 1950 season), and not once did his team fail to reach the championship game. Ten out of 10 times, they were in the title game. And in seven of those instances, Cleveland prevailed. This record is so staggering that no embellishment is required. It speaks for itself.
The above-cited Sports Illustrated story about the 10 best QBs in pro football history had a variety of reasons for why other men are worthy of this accolade. Statistical explanations were given, to which I paid little attention. Here are some stats, then: he was all-AAFC four times and all-NFL five times, finishing second once. In no fewer than five seasons was Graham named MVP of the two leagues. Impressive, but even that fails to do him justice. The bottom line, gentlemen. Let’s go to the bottom line. Otto Graham carried his team to 10 out of 10 championship games and the Browns won seven of them. You can have your Montana, your Brady, your Unitas. He has no rival in terms of winning percentage, and thus I say without fear of contradiction that Graham was the finest quarterback who ever played the game.
The chance of somebody coming along and matching his record is microscopic, but if it happens I have a ready-made response. Did he also play on an NBA championship team?
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