Bob Griese

[Slater]

MSNBC had this write-up on Griese as part of a feature on Super Bowl quarterbacks:

Griese stands as proof that football prizes team accomplishments over individual statistics. He was ushered into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1990, but he rarely did anything more notable than hand the ball off while leading arguably the most lethal ground attack in modern NFL history. Even his Hall of Fame bio describes him as ?the poised leader of a classic ball-control offense that generated an awesomely efficient running attack.? This legacy was never more evident than it was in Griese?s three Super Bowl appearances. In his two victories, Griese attempted just 18 total passes. His Super Bowl passer rating of 72.7 is only slightly below his pedestrian career passer rating of 77.1.

An accurate assessment?

[dfwabel]

MSNBC had this write-up on Griese as part of a feature on Super Bowl quarterbacks:

Griese stands as proof that football prizes team accomplishments over individual statistics. He was ushered into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1990, but he rarely did anything more notable than hand the ball off while leading arguably the most lethal ground attack in modern NFL history. Even his Hall of Fame bio describes him as ?the poised leader of a classic ball-control offense that generated an awesomely efficient running attack.? This legacy was never more evident than it was in Griese?s three Super Bowl appearances. In his two victories, Griese attempted just 18 total passes. His Super Bowl passer rating of 72.7 is only slightly below his pedestrian career passer rating of 77.1.

An accurate assessment?

In the 5th game of the 1972 season, Griese broke his leg as was replaced by Earl Morrall. Basically, it was Earl's team until Super Bowl VII. Morrall had more attempts for that season. HOF voting is very odd since the Cowboys had the most wins in the decade of the 70's, but have less HOF members than the Raiders, Steelers or dolphins.

[Mac the Knife]

Just like the Dolphins teams of the era, simply put Griese was terribly overrated. He was better than average at best, but had the benefit of playing for a two-time SB champ and perennial contender that focused on a solid ground game and defense far moreso than the pass.

The Pro Football HOF tends to be far more liberal in their inductions than other sports, for good or bad. Every year they are required to elect at least 4 new members - meaning that potentially undeserving players make it in (Joe Namath and Lynn Swann come to mind), while others that many would consider locks (Rayfield Wright, for example) don't right away.

If you look at their playing statistics exclusively, admittedly you're doing them a disservice... but football tends to look at the stats far less than the other sports, and I'm not entirely sure that's a good thing.

[NJTank]

Well part of Griese's poor Super Bowl numbers come from Super Bowl VIII where they just ran the ball down the Vikings throat he only attempted like 6 passes, as Csonka could not be stopped.

[Lee.]

Another little-known fact is that without his glasses, Griese is legally blind. He needed those coke bottles to function on the field at all times.

Yeah, Griese was my favorite NFL player as a kid. Dad was/is a rabid Dolphins fan. I didn't know any better.

[Cyclopsis Joe]

Ugh, he's from around these parts (if I remember right), so anytime he's brought up it's "Man he's awesome!" yet I could never figure out why everyone loved him.