Smart, tough, wiley, and mean. No one, not even coaches like Shula and Eubanks, fu**ed with him.

He also was driven primarily by a blue-collar devotion to his craft, not money or notoriety.

He was not a particularly warm and fuzzy personality with the press or the fans, but he was generally civil. Above all, he was respected.

My assessment goes against my heart, which would like to give the nod to Otto Graham. I was a Browns fan since 1948, and he was my childhood hero. But I think Unitas played in an era in which there was far more competition and in which defenses and offenses became far more sophisticated. Unitas “kept up” and excelled throughout his career.

PS. I was listening on the radio to the game when Shaw was hurt and Unitas replaced him. He threw an interception right off the bat, and the announcers were not too kind. They thought Shaw’s injury was the end of the world for the lowly Colts. How wrong they were.