Some consider Dan Marino to be the best NFL quarterback ever. He is certainly the best athlete to wear the NFL jersey number 13.
Like several of our other quarterbacks on this list, Dan Marino was drafted to play professional baseball. The Kansas City Royals took Marino in 1979. Luckily for us, after a stellar college football campaign with the University of Pittsburgh, Marino was drafted by the Miami Dolphins (27th overall pick in the 1983 NFL draft,) and chose to play professional football, rather than baseball.
Marino burst onto the NFL scene in 1983, playing in 11 games and totalling 2,210 passing yards and twenty touchdowns with only 6 INTs. (He also rushed for two touchdowns that season.) Although Marino had a excellent rookie campaign, he lost the NFL Rookie of the Year award to another future Hall of Famer by the name of Eric Dickerson.
In Marino's sophomore NFL year, he had the most prolific passing year of his 17 year career. He threw for 5,084 yards and 48 touchdowns in 1984. He set an NFL record for the most passing yards in an NFL season that year. His 48 passing touchdowns that season was also an NFL record that stood until 2004 when Peyton Manning surpassed it.
Over his seventeen year career, Marino passed for 61,361 yards; an NFL record for a career. His 420 career passing touchdowns was also an NFL record until Brett Favre surpassed it in 2007.
In 1984, with the support of his stellar passing statistics that year, Marino was named the NFL MVP. Over his career, he was a nine-time Pro Bowler. He led the Dolphins to Super Bowl XIX, after the 1984 regular season (in which he was matched against the great Joe Montana.) He is also our pick for the best professional athlete to wear the number 13.
Did you know.....Dan's NFL jersey number 13 was retired by the Miami Dolphins in 2000?
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Dan's BIGGEST ACCOMPLISHMENT as an NFL QB----he led his Team to 1 Conference Championship. That's all there is. Compare that to #13--QB Kurt Warner. Warner led his Team to 2 Super Bowls ('99 and '01 ), is the only QB ever to lead a Team (in 2000) into the playoffs whose defense was so bad that they gave up over 400 points (471 actually), and led his '99 Team to a Super Bowl win, was named MVP, and threw for over 400 yds.(414 actually). That is currently a Super Bowl Record (as of 1/30/08). As far as BIGGEST ACCOMPLISHMENTS go--it's Kurt Warner-#13.
ReplyDeleteDan is still a better athelete.
ReplyDeleteKurt Warner versus Dan Marino??? Are you Serious???
ReplyDeleteWarner pretty good. Super Bowl MVP! Marino a LEGEND. Not even close.
Warner did great things at an older age. If he would of caught on right out of college who knows.
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