Excerpted from "Collision of Wills: Johnny Unitas, Don Shula, and the Rise of the Modern NFL" by Jack Gilden by permission of the University of Nebraska Press. Copyright 2018 by Jack Gilden.
From Chapter Five The Colts' Greatest Season Yet
Vince Lombardi himself seemed to hold just one team in high esteem, and that was the Baltimore Colts under Weeb Ewbank. Despite some painful losses to Baltimore, he was generous in his praise of Johnny Unitas. After a 1959 Colts victory over the Packers, Vince told reporters that Johnny U was "the best quarterback I've ever seen." In 1960, when Lombardi finally beat the Colts for the first time as a head coach, he called it "my greatest day in football." In 1961, in the midst of his first championship season, he told reporters that Unitas was "the greatest football player in the world."
