Mr Popular

If you’ve ever enjoyed a good teen flick, particularly one from the Eighties, you’ll know the quarterback-jock character all too well. He’s the guy with the perfect mane of hair, the Cruise-esque smile and the blonde-cheerleader girlfriend. Yes, life is delightful for the high school QB; he can wear painfully tight stone-washed jeans and still claim the respect of his friends. They were more innocent times my friends.

It’s not until the QB hits the pro ranks, however, that he comes into his own. He’s no longer dating the head cheerleader but rather, a supermodel; he’s paid in millions of dollars instead of free cafeteria hamburgers; and most importantly, he competes in a world that offers immortal status. (This is even higher than being the coolest kid in school!)

To help you with this picture, there are a couple of NFL characters that suitably fit the movie-QB persona. Jim McMahon of the 1985 Chicago Bears immediately comes to mind. McMahon, a wise-cracking, showboating goofball, who had a penchant for headbands and big sunglasses, was an incredibly skilled quarterback. Possessing a good arm and an uncanny knack for reading game, McMahon mostly took things into his own hands—much to the disgust of Head Bear, Mike Ditka. At Super Bowl XX, in fact, when asked by reporters about a buttock injury, McMahon dropped his pants and mooned them. Now that’s nifty play-calling!

While McMahon's the guy who has his popular-but-bullying-ways come back to bite him at the end of the movie, Brett Favre is the perfect-gentleman-popular-QB. Since his his turn in Something About Mary, I can’t help but think of Brett “Fav-re” as the ultimate popular high school jock. He’s got the build, the rugged looks, the stylish name—something just tells me he was prom king. I wouldn’t be surprised if made an appearance as an Alpha Beta jock in one of the Nerds movies actually. Anyway, Favre’s NFL heroics, which thankfully don’t including mooning, position him as one of the coolest QBs ever.

When you think popular quarterbacks throughout NFL history, you’re most often looking at Joe “Cool” Montana of the 49ers, Dan "Laces Out" Marino, John "Super 7" Elway of the Broncos, or maybe the Bills Jim “Machine-Gun” Kelly. You might even cast you’re mind back to New York’s Broadway Joe Namath, or the crew-cut Colts captain, Johnny Unitas. There aren’t many as loved as these guys anymore.

In the last few weeks though, two great QB names have come to the forefront of the pro football world; Warren Moon and Damon Allen. Moon, you may recall, was a star play-caller with the old Houston Oilers. Versatile, smart and with a great arm, he was always fun to watch.

But before Moon entered the NFL, he played for the Edmonton Eskimos in the Canadian competition, the CFL. Many pundits say Moon went undrafted in the NFL because he was black. This was probably true, though I still contest that I was never drafted because I’m only 5’8. Still waiting on the results of that one. Anyway, you can’t keep a good Moon—I mean man down. Moon went on to lead the Eskimos to an unprecedented five consecutive Grey Cup championships and threw for 21,288 yards and 144 touchdown passes. Trust me, that’s more than you and your brother are throwing down at the park, lifetime.

Moon, surprise-surprise, was suddenly coveted by the NFL. He moved to Houston and the rest is history. Amongst his many achievements in the American game, Moon joined “Laces Out” and Dan “the Wolfman” Fouts as the only quarterbacks to post back-to-back 4,000-yard seasons. Hey, tough.

The reason I’m going “full Moon” on this post, is because the dynamic Oiler No.1 was recently inducted into the NFL Hall of Fame. In doing so, he became the only player ever to be inducted into both the CFL and NFL Halls of Fame.

Moon’s CFL and NFL yards thrown combined, are a staggering 70, 613 yards. That’s like driving through your neighborhood Burger King, like, 14,000 times. Think about it. I mention this feat because on Saturday night, at Toronto’s Skydome, I saw the Argonauts’ Damon Allen literally leap for the Moon. In accumulating 70,112, as of Saturday, Allen became only the second pro QB ever to pass for 70,000 yards.

The beer-chugging and cheerleader-hugging must be fun for a while, but surely becoming a legend leaves the rest a blur.