OK, back to the Bears all-time franchise QBs… OK, the ONLY franchise QB the Bears have ever had. I finally finished that book, Tough Luck, about Sid Luckman; great book by the way. I was flying through it before I stalled; the fact that his dad was arrested for murder and ended up dying in jail without seeing him play one snap in the NFL was an interesting twist that I had never known… I don’t think most people know this. This fact, along with Luckman’s role in revolutionizing the NFL, makes for a good movie in my opinion. But for today’s book report, we’re going to stay more focused on Mr. Luckman’s play on the field, and why he is the one and only franchise QB in Bears history.
“To be a Bear is something very few people understand” This has to be one of my favorite lines in the book; something that Luckman said late in his life. One of the coolest things was his relationship with Papa Bear. With his father out of his life, Halas stepped into that role for him; although Halas did have a son of his own (and a daughter… Virginia), he treated Sid like his son as well. This was evident in a letter Halas wrote Luckman back in 1983, 37 years after their last NFL championship together; “I love you with all my heart”. One of the patriarchs of the NFL and the guy who played QB for 4 of the Bears 9 total NFL championships/Super Bowls… pretty cool. Of course, the fact that Luckman helped make Halas look great by living up to his great expectations must have helped that love evolve.
I’m not going to sit here and give you all Luckman’s stats over his career; they’re out there… you can look them up. They may not be the best in NFL history, probably because the NFL is an ultra passing league these days. They may still be the best in Bears history, probably because the Bears QBs have pretty much sucked since then. But for the decade that he played in, the way the NFL was back then, his stats are tremendously impressive… if stats are your thing. Stats do tell a good part of the story, but certainly not the whole story. And to be a franchise QB, a true franchise QB, you need much more than stats.
These are symptoms that occur as online ordering viagra you age. Knowledgeable health practitioner can levitra properien modify herbal remedies for any digestive problems. Each pulse is an indication of a pump and each pulse is carried to the brain http://appalachianmagazine.com/page/39/ cialis for sale india and recorded. Kamagra Tablets help achieve cialis canadian pharmacy maximum satisfaction with your partner.He made everyone better. This is the true measurement of a franchise QB in my opinion. Imagine for a second, the QB of the Bears making the entire team better. I know it’s hard… McMahon was that guy for that magical year in my lifetime, but he didn’t last. Who else? Nobody, that’s who. Sid Luckman was in the middle of the T-formation, the offense that began the evolution of the NFL. Although I still love defense, and a good smash mouth running game, it was back in the 1940s, under Halas’ watch, with Luckman at the helm, when the transition to a passing league began. It didn’t happen overnight… it took some time to really blow up, but the seeds had been planted. Hall of Fame coach Marv Levy understood Luckman’s significance: “He understood the whole game, the burdens of the other players. He was that era’s Peyton Manning and Tom Brady- innovative, bright, team oriented.” Imagine that.
Oh yeah, he wasn’t so bad of a guy off the field either. I want to go to Gibson’s to see if they still have the room named after him. His generosity, his persona, his positive impact on all the people in his life… that making everyone around him better quality was one he carried with him everywhere. There are many, many stories of this in the book, but I think I need to end this book report now.
I started my search for Bears franchise QBs a while back, going through the QBs of all the Bears championship teams. Pard Pearce for #1, Keith Molesworth for #’s 2 and 3… in a time where the QB of your team didn’t matter. But then I found Sid Luckman; I knew about him, but I didn’t really know about him. His family history certainly piqued my interest, but more importantly, was the fact that he was at the helm for championship #’s 4 through 7; that’s right 4 titles. And yes, when Luckman started, the QB finally started to matter; the QB began to grow into the position it is today… Sid was at the ground level of that. I wanted to learn more about Luckman, so I picked up the book “Tough Luck” by R. D. Rosen from the library; I can now finally return it. It was a great book that only confirmed what I believed: Sid Luckman was a franchise QB. We can talk about Billy Wade in 1963 and of course Jimmy Mac in 1985, the guys that played QB for #’s 8 and 9; we can even talk about some honorable mentions, but I already have figured it out. When it comes to franchise QBs in Chicago Bears history, it starts and ends with Sid Luckman. Hey, at least we had one right?
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