Josh Thornton

​The landscape is forever changing for NFL franchises. Front office positions, coaches and roster spots are never a guarantee and generally turn over often. Players usually hold tenure with franchises for shorter periods of time, with the average career in the NFL being a mere 3.3 years. This trend does not escape the most important position on the field, thequarterback. Sometimes, though, you get the outliers. The guys who rack up 10 years with a team. They become synonymous with the team itself. Linked in NFL matrimony.  That is, until one side files for divorce.

​Throughout the history of the NFL, there has been a handful of notable quarterbacks to make the move and “re-marry” themselves to another team. The reasons for this vary from player to player. Love of the game will keep guys on the hook longer than father time wants to allow. Look no further than the career of one Brett Favre as an example of this. Sometimes, players want to prove a point. Show the world that they can achieve success without their estranged partner. Whatever the reason may be, going down this path rarely works out.

​The league has been littered with second-marriage failures going all the way back to George Blanda’s move to Oakland,after the Houston Oilers released him. He went from a prolific passer, winning 2 titles with Houston as the main guy, to a back-up quarterback and place kicker with Oakland. I don’t want to completely discredit his time with Oakland because he did have some success, just not the success he had with Houston. Blanda had a long career and ended up being the oldest player to play in the NFL at 48. He also holds the total seasons played record with 26 seasons. 

​Blanda isn’t the only quarterback to leap and miss the mark. Some more notable names include Johnny Unitas and his move from Baltimore (Colts) to the Chargers, Namath’s move from the Jets to the Rams, Montana’s move from San Francisco to Kansas City and Warren Moon’s move from the Oilers to the Vikings. All of these moves resulted in ZERO additional titles for the respective quarterbacks; let’s use titles as the benchmark for success.

​Some quarterbacks get it right. A select few swing for the fences and make contact. (Yes, that was a baseball analogy in a football article.) Kurt Warner brought to us the “greatest show on turf” when he led the Rams to a Super Bowl victory during the 1999 season, the first of his 2 Super Bowl appearances with the Rams. After 6 seasons with the Rams, Warner eventually found himself with the Cardinals. Guess what? He reached the big game again with his new team in 2009 where he lost to the Steelers. Not a title, but he got there. We’ll give it to him. I’ll give you one more example of a successful team change, Peyton Manning. He is arguably one of the greatest to ever play the position. Peyton spent what seemed like for-ev-er with the Indianapolis Colts. 14 years to be exact. In that span Manning went to 2 Super Bowls, winning 1 of them. After his marriage ended with the Colts, Manning landed with the Denver Broncos.  There he found himself in 2 more title games, winning 1 of those as well. Again, a successful team swap.

​Tradition holds true as we see the shift taking place again. Continents on the move. Let’s take this moment to give honorable mention to Eli Manning, who retired this year. I’m sure he is happy somewhere, looking like he is about to cry or shit himself? I never quite pinned it down. I digress… Phillip Rivers is one who made the switch though. The long time Charger is now an Indianapolis Colt. It will be weird seeing him shot put footballs around in the same jersey Manning wore for so long. 

​Probably the biggest move to date, other than Manning’s, is Tom Brady’s decision to sever ties with New England and jump on board with Tampa Bay. A shocker of a move, certainly. Oh, and Brady received a 2 year 50-million-dollar contract… FULLY guaranteed! 

​Its hard to tell what will ultimately become of this new crop of quarterbacks on the move. Using history as an indicator, they have a larger chance of failing than seeing a title with their new teams. Maybe a title isn’t all that is at play for them. I mean, it is surely a pretty big factor, but there could be something more. Maybe, it’s also about going out on your terms. Doing it your way.

Yeah, that has to be some of it.

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