Brees-Manning: the sexy perfume of pigskin

Brees-Manning: the sexy perfume of pigskin
Cold, Hard Football Facts for January 26, 2010

The otherwise passionless Cold, Hard Football Facts are engaged in a tawdry love affair with quarterbacks (at least those who don't hijack their team's hopes year after year with critical picks in the playoffs).

More specifically, we're in love with stats and data and numbers – and quarterbacks are awash in more of them than any other players at any other position. So it's kind of an affair-by-default: we're smitten by the intoxicating pigskin perfume of statistics that surround quarterbacks, not necessarily the players themselves.

We're hardly alone: quarterbacks generate all the attention, especially here at Super Bowl time.

And Drew Brees vs. Peyton Manning shapes up as a refreshing body wash of success: Brees was the highest rated passer in the NFL in 2009 and set a single-season record for accuracy (70.62%); Manning is on pace to become the all-time record holder in everything. In fact, our instant instinct was that this would be the greatest clash of high-powered quarterbacks in Super Bowl history. So we ran the numbers.

Actually, it's close. But it doesn't quite top the list. That honor goes to a game a quarter century ago that even the most devout Saints and Colts fans must admit was a shade ahead of Brees-Manning. That game, of course, was the showdown between Joe Montana and his 15-1 49ers vs. Dan Marino and his 14-2 Dolphins in Super Bowl XIX.

That's not just the booze talking, either. It's the irrefutable declaration of the Cold, Hard Football Facts, as well. We compiled the passer ratings of every starting Super Bowl quarterback in history to determine the greatest match-up of gunslingers in the history of America's Game (the chart appears below).

Montana-Marino tops the list – but only by margin so thin that our otherwise well-perfumed girlfriends could shave their mustaches with it. Montana (102.9) and Marino (108.9) entered Super Bowl XIX after regular seasons in which they averaged a 105.9 passer rating.

Brees (109.6) and Manning (99.9) boast an average passer rating of 104.8. It's a match-up for the ages. It will deserve the hype that it will continue to generate over the next 12 days. But it falls just shy of the standards set by the Montana and Marino shootout, each of whom were at or nearing the height of their statistical powers in 1984.

One other QB tandem shockingly deserves mention as the greatest pairing of gunslingers in Super Bowl history: Green Bay's Bart Starr and Kansas City's Len Dawson, who met in the very first Super Bowl back in January 1967.

Starr, who Cold, Hard Football Facts readers know is the greatest quarterback of all time, entered Super Bowl I with an NFL-best 105.0 passer rating, the highest mark of his Hall of Fame career. Dawson entered Super Bowl I with an AFL-best 101.7 passer rating, also the highest mark of his Hall of Fame career.

Other than the Montana-Marino meeting 18 years later, Starr-Dawson is the only Super Bowl match-up in which each quarterback boasted a passer rating of better than 100.

The fact that these quarterbacks produced these marks in the mid-1960s, a virtual Stone Age of passing offense compared with the inflated passing stats of the 2000s, makes Starr-Dawson in Super Bowl I one of the greatest and most improbable statistical match-ups in the history of football.

Imagine if the Super Bowl back then produced the same kind of nationwide multimedia hype that we will get out of Brees-Manning here in Super Bowl XLIV.

QBs in SUPER BOWLS ranked by average passer rating

(league passer rating leaders in bold)

Year	SB	QB	Rating	QB	Rating	Avg
1984	19	Joe Montana, SF	102.9	Dan Marino, MIA	108.9	105.9
2009	44	Drew Brees, NO	109.6	Peyton Manning, IND	99.9	104.75
1966	1	Bart Starr, GB	105.0	Len Dawson, KC	101.7	103.35
2004	39	Tom Brady, NE	92.6	Donovan McNabb, PHI	104.7	98.65
2005	40	Ben Roethlisberger, PIT	98.6	Matt Hasselbeck, SEA	98.2	98.4
1971	6	Roger Staubach, DAL	104.8	Bob Griese, MIA	90.9	97.85
1991	26	Mark Rypien, WAS	97.9	Jim Kelly, BUF	97.6	97.75
1994	29	Steve Young, SF	112.8	Stan Humphries, SD	81.6	97.2
1998	33	John Elway, DEN	93.0	Chris Chandler, ATL	100.9	96.95
1976	11	Ken Stabler, OAK	103.4	Fran Tarkenton, MIN	89.3	96.35
2007	42	Eli Manning, NYG	73.9	Tom Brady, NE	117.2	95.55
2002	37	Brad Johnson, TB	92.9	Rich Gannon, OAK	97.3	95.1
2001	36	Tom Brady, NE	86.5	Kurt Warner, STL	101.4	93.95
1999	34	Kurt Warner, STL	109.2	Steve McNair, TEN	78.6	93.9
1981	16	Joe Montana, SF	88.4	Ken Anderson, CIN	98.4	93.4
1989	24	Joe Montana, SF	112.4	John Elway, DEN	73.7	93.05
1988	23	Joe Montana, SF	87.9	Boomer Esiason, CIN	97.4	92.65
1990	25	Jeff Hostetler, NYG	83.2	Jim Kelly, BUF	101.2	92.2
1995	30	Troy Aikman, DAL	93.6	Neil O'Donnell, PIT	87.7	90.65
1997	32	John Elway, DEN	87.5	Brett Favre, GB	92.6	90.05
1983	18	Jim Plunkett, LAR	82.7	Joe Theismann, WAS	97.0	89.85
1996	31	Brett Favre, GB	95.8	Drew Bledsoe, NE	83.7	89.75
1993	28	Troy Aikman, DAL	99.0	Jim Kelly, BUF	79.9	89.45
1973	8	Bob Griese, MIA	84.3	Fran Tarkenton, MIN	93.2	88.75
1987	22	Doug Williams, WAS	94.0	John Elway, DEN	83.4	88.7
2008	43	Ben Roethlisberger, PIT	80.1	Kurt Warner, STL	96.9	88.5
2006	41	Peyton Manning, IND	101.0	Rex Grossman, CHI	73.9	87.45
1992	27	Troy Aikman, DAL	89.5	Jim Kelly, BUF	81.2	85.35
1978	13	Terry Bradshaw, PIT	84.7	Roger Staubach, DAL	84.9	84.8
1977	12	Roger Staubach, DAL	87.0	Craig Morton, DEN	82.0	84.5
1975	10	Terry Bradshaw, PIT	88.0	Roger Staubach, DAL	78.5	83.25
2003	38	Tom Brady, NE	85.9	Jake Delhomme, CAR	80.6	83.25
1968	3	Joe Namath, NYJ	72.1	Earl Morrall, BAL	93.2	82.65
1980	15	Jim Plunkett, OAK	72.9	Ron Jaworski, PHI	91.0	81.95
2000	35	Trent Dilfer, BAL	76.6	Kerry Collins, NYG	83.1	79.85
1972	7	Bob Griese, MIA	71.6	Billy Kilmer, WAS	84.8	78.2
1970	5	Johnny Unitas, BAL	65.1	Craig Morton, DAL	89.8	77.45
1982	17	Joe Thiesmann, WAS	91.3	David Woodley, MIA	63.5	77.4
1986	21	Phil Simms, NYG	74.6	John Elway, DEN	79.0	76.8
1985	20	Jim McMahon, CHI	82.6	Tony Eason, NE	67.5	75.05
1969	4	Len Dawson, KC	69.9	Joe Kapp, MIN	78.5	74.2
1967	2	Bart Starr, GB	64.4	Daryle Lamonica, OAK	80.8	72.6
1974	9	Terry Bradshaw, PIT	55.2	Fran Tarkenton, MIN	82.1	68.65
1979	14	Terry Bradshaw, PIT	77.0	Vince Ferragamo, RAM	49.0	63

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North

West