HOF QBs discuss current passers, rules

NEW YORK – There was a marketing group known as The Quarterback Club in the 1980s consisting of the NFL's top passers at the time, such as Dan Marino and John Elway. During a meeting of representatives of The Quarterback Club, which included Marino's father but none of the actual quarterbacks, marketing executives started to bemoan the difficulty of dealing with the players.

The executives didn't like all the stipulations and started to talk about how the quarterbacks were prima donnas, forgetting that Dan Marino Sr. was in the room. As the conversation hit a lull, the elder Marino said in deadpan voice, "Well, if they're such a pain in the [butt], why don't you go find some other ones."

The executives quit their complaining. Finding great quarterbacks is harder than finding common ground between Bill Maher and Glenn Beck.

Elway and Marino following a matchup in December 1998.

(Robert Sullivan/Getty)

This is part of what made the latest edition of "Joe Buck Live" so interesting Tuesday. Assembled were Hall of Famers Joe Namath, Marino and Elway, the veritable Father, Son and Holy Ghost of the profession. While Joe Montana's absence was glaring (he was invited, but had a prior engagement) and some people could argue that Terry Bradshaw or Troy Aikman could have been on that stage as well, there was one underlining point: there aren't many guys who belong on that stage, period.

At one point, Buck observed that Namath, Marino and Elway's former teams (the New York Jets, Miami Dolphins and Denver Broncos, respectively) all had problems replacing them. That's an understatement. The Jets have practically spent 40 years in the wilderness searching for a long-term solution at quarterback. The Dolphins have gone through a myriad of passers this decade, including selecting three (John Beck(notes), Chad Henne(notes) and Pat White(notes)) in the second round of the past three NFL drafts. And Denver seemingly had found a long-term answer until Jay Cutler(notes) kicked and screamed his way out of town this spring.

With that in mind, the three discussed, both on and off the air, the state of quarterbacking, who they like to watch and whether they could play in today's game. Frankly, about the only topic they didn't discuss was the tired drama regarding a certain aging quarterback.

"We could get into the [Brett] Favre stuff," Buck said.

"Don't," Elway said, sounding impatiently bored with the subject. Nobody seemed to mind.

On other stuff, the discussion was smoother:

Who are the quarterbacks you really enjoy watching these days?

Elway: "Obviously, Tom Brady(notes) and Peyton Manning(notes) are great and everybody knows that. But when I'm watching now, I really like some of the younger guys, like Philip Rivers(notes) and Ben Roethlisberger(notes). With Rivers, the way he attacks the game and competes is really fun to watch. With Roethlisberger, he creates so much, sustains plays. Yeah, he reminds me of some of the stuff I did and he's really gotten so much better at it over the past couple of years. He can extend a play a long time and make something happen."

"I want them to protect quarterbacks, but at times it goes too far. I used to hate it when Jack Lambert said they should put the quarterbacks in skirts. [But] now, they should put them in ballerina outfits."

– John Elway

Marino: "I like the guys who can throw it, so obviously I like Peyton and Tom Brady and Eli [Manning], those guys. The bottom line to me is, can the guy throw the ball? There are guys who can move around and do other stuff. That's fine. But you have to be able to make throws. That's what the game is about. The guys who just try to run around, that's not enough. The defense is going to catch up with that."

Namath: "I love the way Roethlisberger plays, the toughness, the fun, the kind of wild approach to the game. He looks like he really has fun with it. He likes to play and that's what I always loved. I loved to play. I just wanted to play and when I got that chance, I took it and ran with it. That's what Roethlisberger does."

Is the game more complex than when you played?

Elway: "The game really isn't different, but it's played at a different speed. There's so much more that's going on with every play. The defense is bringing in different personnel to disguise the stuff they're doing. All the pre-snap stuff has really gotten amped up because of all the packages the offense will bring in. The offense is doing a lot more each week, so the defense has to counter it. With [the] offense, the coaches are expecting a lot more capability to run different stuff. That's come with all the offseason work, the voluntary, offseason workout stuff that's really mandatory. They're putting more things in and working so much stuff off the five-wide [receiver] look. The offseason has just expanded the playbook, which was already really thick.

Marino: "I'll agree with a lot of that. You have a lot more looks from the defense. It's not that the coverage is any different because there's only so much you can do. But, as a quarterback, it's sorting through what's really there. Is this guy really in this coverage or is he trying to trick you? I think you see with a lot of quarterbacks that (the offensive coordinator) will only have them read one side of the field so that it doesn't get too complicated."

Namath remains a big hit in the Big Apple.

(Jarrett Baker/Getty)

Namath: "I look at the size of the guys today. You look at these two guys [Elway and Marino] and you see how much bigger they are than me and it's extraordinary. We're talking about some big people out there. There are some smaller guys who play, like Drew [Brees] and Jeff Garcia(notes), but it's much different than when I was out there. … Back when I played, they Jets signed me without a physical. I hurt my knee five times during my senior year at Alabama, but the Jets didn't give me a physical until I signed. Years later, I was talking [with the Jets team doctor] and he said, 'We wouldn't have even signed you' if they had given me a physical."

What about the rules protecting quarterbacks? Has it gone too far?

Marino: "I understand it. You're talking about a franchise guy and you saw what happened last year with Tom Brady and that deal there. New England lost him and it was a catastrophe for their season."

Elway: "I want them to protect quarterbacks, but at times it goes too far. I used to hate it when Jack Lambert said they should put the quarterbacks in skirts. [But] now, they should put them in ballerina outfits. Some of the plays I watch and they call penalties, I'm thinking, "He's a quarterback, he's part of the 'hood."

Who were the guys you looked up to when you were growing up?

Marino: "Of course, I grew up a Steelers fan in Pittsburgh, but [Namath] was a guy I looked at. Joe made it kind of cool to be a quarterback, with the long hair, the Namath-style beard, the fur coat, the white shoes. The whole thing. I always thought the white shoes made me faster, at least look faster … and I remember as a kid, my dad used to tell me to look at Joe, the way he released the ball, and told me to emulate him."

Elway (pointing at Namath and Marino): "You're looking at the guys with the best releases in the history of the game. That's how you want to get rid of the ball … for me, it was Joe and guys like [Johnny] Unitas and [Roger] Staubach. My dad was a coach and he always worked with me and talked with me about the right way to do things, the things to pick up from other guys."

Namath: "Being a Western Pennsylvania guy, it was Johnny Unitas who I watched. Johnny was such a tough guy, a winner. Focus[ed]. Now, Johnny was a little gruff and I'm not really that way. It's like I said, I had fun with it. I wanted to play and I wanted to enjoy it. … They used to say, 'You can't hoot with the owls and soar with the eagles.' I changed it to, 'It's tough to hoot with the owls and soar with the eagles.' "