The best quarterbacks are celebrated for the strength of their passing arms, their accuracy in winging a ball to receivers, their wisdom in recognizing defenses, their agility in escaping blitzing linebackers, their instinct for changing a play at the line of scrimmage and their command in the huddle.
Another quality is seldom mentioned: how quickly the best quarterbacks have led their teams to multiple N.F.L. championships during or before theSuper Bowl era.
If Ben Roethlisberger guides the Steelers to a Super Bowl XLV triumph against the Packers on Sunday in Arlington, Tex., he will have earned a ringin his second, fifth and seventh seasons. That is fast, although not as fast as Tom Brady of the Patriots less than a decade ago and Sid Luckman of the Bears seven decades ago.
Roethlisberger, Brady and Luckman are the only quarterbacks whose team won the championship in their second season. Luckman also won the league title in his third, fifth and eighth seasons for a total of four. Brady also earned a ring in his fourth and fifth seasons for a total of three.
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Remember that a quarterback is only as good as those around him. Not only the other offensive players, but the defense, the special teams, and the coach and his staff.
For all the ability of Luckman, Brady and Roethlisberger, each had the good fortune of joining a franchise with a coach and a roster capable of winning the championship in his second season. In Luckman’s second season, the Bears won the 1940 championship, 73-0, a milestone game in N.F.L. history.
Some young quarterbacks struggle for years with inferior teams or must wait for an opportunity. Aaron Rodgers, in his first Super Bowl in his third season as the Packers’ starter, stood on the sideline for three years behind Brett Favre. The Broncos’ John Elway got to the Super Bowl in his fourth and fifth seasons but lost both times and did not win one until his 15th and 16th.
If the Jets were in Super Bowl XLV, quarterback Mark Sanchez would have had a chance to be measured for a ring in his second season, but for all of Coach Rex Ryan’s persistent proclamations, it was not to be.
Even the best usually need more than a season. When Troy Aikman was a rookie as the overall No. 1 draft choice, the Cowboys were 1-15, but they later won three Super Bowls in his fourth, fifth and seventh seasons.
Johnny Unitas guided the Baltimore Colts to the N.F.L. title in his third and fourth seasons. Joe Montana took the 49ers to Super Bowl victories in his third and sixth, but not again until his 10th and 11th. Terry Bradshaw led the Super Bowl champion Steelers in his fifth and sixth seasons, and again in his 9th and 10th. Bart Starr of the Packers and Bob Griese of the Dolphins each won titles in their sixth and seventh. (Starr added rings in his 10th, 11th and 12th seasons.)
Winning the Super Bowl in their fourth season were Joe Namath of the Jets, Jim McMahon of the Bears and Eli Manning of the Giants. New Englanders argue that the Patriots won their first Super Bowl when Brady was a virtual rookie. As a sixth-round choice out of Michigan in 2000, he played only in that season’s 12th game; he threw three passes and completed one, for 6 yards, but he had a full season to absorb the Patriots’ offense. In 2001 he replaced the injured Drew Bledsoe in the second game and never looked back.
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Others insist that the 1999 Rams won the Super Bowl in Kurt Warner’s second season, but he had bounced around. Out of Northern Iowa, he was drafted and cut by the Packers in 1994 before developing in the Arena League with the Iowa Barnstormers and maturing in N.F.L. Europe with the Amsterdam Admirals before finally spending the 1998 season as the Rams’ third-string quarterback.
Otto Graham led the 1950 Cleveland Browns to the title in his first N.F.L. season, but he was hardly a rookie. He had passed the Browns, organized by and named for Coach Paul Brown, to all four All-America Football Conference titles from 1946 to 1949 before the Browns were absorbed, along with the 49ers and the Colts, into the N.F.L.
The only pure rookie quarterback whose team won the N.F.L. title was Bob Waterfield of the Cleveland Rams in 1945, the year World War II ended. Another rookie to engineer a title team was Sammy Baugh of the 1937 Redskins, a single-wing tailback out of Texas Christian two years before the Bears sculptured Luckman, an all-American tailback at Columbia, into a T-formation quarterback.
In Luckman’s era, it was easier to win quickly. Except for 1941, when the Bears had to beat the Packers in a divisional playoff, his postseasons consisted of only one game: the N.F.L. championship. Brady had to guide the Patriots through nine postseason victories to earn three rings. If Roethlisberger gets a third ring against the Packers, his Steelers will have prevailed in 10 postseason games.
But whatever the details, on their way to multiple championships, only those three quarterbacks earned that ring in their second seasons.
