Quarterbacks are driving force in the NFL

By Jennifer Floyd Engel

Star-Telegram Staff Writer


JACKSONVILLE, Fla. - The question before the assembled panel of Super Bowl MVPs on Monday was supposed to be whether the quarterback is back as the sexy, headline-grabbing focus of the NFL.

"You all played in an era when great quarterback play was a precursor to winning ..." had barely been spoken when former 49ers quarterback Steve Young interrupted.

"What era is that not the case?" he asked, drawing laughter.

Well, until very recently, that era appeared to be this one. How else do you explain Baltimore lifting a Lombardi Trophy with Trent Dilfer as its quarterback. That, coupled with the St. Louis Rams winning with a grocery store stock boy and the Bucs winning with a journeyman in recent seasons, lent credence to the idea that somehow you don't need that Steve Young-esque quarterback. You can build a good team and stick in whoever you want, a bus driver so to speak, and still win.

"She's from Dallas. She's been listening to [coach Bill] Parcells," former Cowboys quarterback Troy Aikman explained, when Young looked befuddled by that explanation.

"Well," Young said, "I can guarantee you Bill doesn't believe it. He might be spouting it, but he doesn't believe it."

Hardly anybody does. Almost everybody jumped off that bus, so to speak, this season as the teams with the best quarterbacks made the playoffs and those without did not. Super Bowl Sunday is just an exclamation point. It matches the best teams who, not coincidentally, are led by two of the best quarterbacks in the game with the Eagles' Donovan McNabb and the Patriots' Tom Brady.

"I think in our system and, probably I can speak here also for the Patriots, for our systems, I think it is very important that you have a franchise quarterback," Eagles coach Andy Reid said. "Both teams are fortunate enough to have that, but again, for what we are trying to do, I think it is very, very important."

The debate comes with the wording, not so much with the theory.

Former Cowboys coach turned NFL analyst Jimmy Johnson stumbles on the term "franchise," for it implies a No. 1 draft pick must be used or lots and lots of money must be spent to snare somebody else's former No. 1 pick. He does not believe first equals best. He believes best equals best, and the key is to find a quarterback who can win wherever he might come from.
"You have to have a quarterback. That is the key position," Johnson said. "He might not be the key player for the offense, but he has to be able to win games."

This is a characteristic not determined simply by talent, but by talent and moxie and coolness and guts.

It was a combination of these characteristics which made the likes of Joe Namath and Aikman, Joe Montana and Young, Terry Bradshaw and Bart Starr the standard by which everybody else will be judged and the reason behind building around a quarterback, not vice versa.
Not that everybody agrees.

"We weren't saying that last year," Patriots coach Bill Belichick said. "We weren't saying that a couple of years ago in the Oakland scenario. We weren't saying that with Baltimore. I think every team is it's own team. I don't think there is anything you have to do."

Of course, he can say that. He has Brady, who is definitely not a bus driver. For those who don't, they are looking for somebody like him.

"I think you look at whether it is Tom Brady or Brad Johnson or Rich Gannon and some of the journeyman trips he made around the league, Jake Delhomme, and those guys that have been able to take their team to the Super Bowl, that is what all of a sudden has put the thought in some people's minds that they don't have to have a first-round pick to make it to the Super Bowl," Aikman said. "Which is obvious because these guys have been able to do it.

"But what I would argue, is that all of those quarterbacks have played like first-round picks, so your chances of getting a quarterback to play like a first-rounder goes up dramatically when you draft that guy in the first round."

Of course, leave it to the running back to perfectly summarize the quarterback debate.

"I think the reason you have some coaches saying certain things like talk about bus drivers kind of guys is because they don't have guys like these kind of guys who are playing for them," former Cowboys running back Emmitt Smith said.SUPER BOWL XXXIX

Patriots vs. Eagles 5:30 p.m. Sunday Jacksonville, Fla. TV: KDFW/Ch. 4

• Late roster additions get lucky breaks. 11D

• Union's grievance against Cowboys to be heard. 11D

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