Old-School Comparison Column: Joe Namath or Jim Kelly: Who's the Best?

This 'Old-School' Comparison Column looks at the very distinct careers of two Hall of Fame quarterbacks - Joe Namath and Jim Kelly - who each, left their indelible impressions on the annals of NFL history in two very different fashions.

While Namath was the ballyhooed "Broadway Joe," known as much for his off-field exploits as his on-field performance, Jim Kelly will likely be remembered as the gun-slinging master of the hurry-up offense who led the Buffalo Bills to four consecutive Super Bowl appearances.
Here is a look at each quarterback, followed by my analysis and selection on which player I believe was the better of the two. So without further adieu, let's get busy.

Joe Namath

While I only caught the final five seasons of "Broadway" Joe Namath's professional career, there is no denying the Hall of Fame quarterback's impact on the game, no matter how brief.

While Namath is remembered as much for his good looks, charming ways and off-field lifestyle, the former No. 1 draft pick also had plenty of moxie and courage on the field to go along with his big arm.

Namath, you may have heard, led the New York Jets to one of the most memorable performances in league history by guiding the Jets to a stunning 16-7 upset victory over the powerful Baltimore Colts in 1968 in Super Bowl III.

Namath also became the first quarterback to throw for 4,00 yards in a single season, accomplishing the feat in 1967 before winning the 1968 AFL Player of the Year award along with a unanimous All-Pro selection and MVP honors in Super Bowl III.

Namath's pre-game "guarantee" of victory remains one of the most memorable in sporting history. Unfortunately, Namath was plagued with knee injuries throughout the majority of his career though he still managed to throw for 27,663 yards and 173 touchdowns in 12 seasons with the Jets and one with the Los Angeles Rams.

Namath was an all-pro four times in his career, (1967, 1968, 1969, and 1972) and was named to the all-time AFL honor team in 1969. He was also elected to four AFL all-star games and one AFC-NFC Pro Bowl.

Namath retired with an uninspiring career record of 77 wins, 108 losses and 3 ties, with 173 touchdowns and 220 interceptions. Namath played on three division champions (the 1968 and 1969 AFL East Champion Jets and the 1977 NFC West Champion Rams), earned one league championship (1968 AFL Championship), and one championship (Super Bowl III).

After not missing a single game because of injury in his first five years in the league, Namath's body succumbed to a series of injuries as he played in just 28 of a possible 58 games because of various injuries between 1970 and 1973.

Namath was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame despite being just a 50 percent career passer and throwing 50 more interceptions for his career than touchdowns.

Jim Kelly

Jim Kelly, a former star at the University of Miami, was selected in the first round of the 1983 NFL Draft but instead, decided to sign with the now-defunct United States Football League, where he played for the Houston Gamblers for two seasons, throwing for a whopping 9,842 yards and 83 touchdowns. Kelly signed with the Buffalo Bills just prior to the start of the 1986 NFL season and the rest, as they say, is history.

Kelly was a strong-armed quarterback who looked just as equally suited to play linebacker as quarterback. During his NFL career in Buffalo, Kelly literally rewrote the Bills' franchise record book for quarterbacks.

Only three players in NFL history reached the 30,000-yard career passing mark faster than Kelly who also passed for more than 3,000 yards in a season, eight times. Kelly threw for more than 300 yards in a single game 26 times with a career-high of 403 passing yards coming against the San Francisco 49ers and their Hall of Fame quarterback Steve Young in 1992.

Kelly's quick-thinking and accurate passes helped him lead the league in passing in 1990 and the AFC in 1991. Kelly was the leader of Buffalo's powerful offense of the 1990s that also featured Hall of Fame running back Thurman Thomas and a Hall of Fame-like wide receiver in Andre Reed.
Kelly led the Bills to the playoffs eight times in 11 seasons in Buffalo and passed for 3,863 yards and 21 touchdowns in 17 career playoff games, including those four consecutive Super Bowls.

By the time Kelly retired, his career 84.4 percent passer rating ranked sixth all-time, including a surprising second, when compared to the other quarterbacks already inducted in the Hall of Fame.

Kelly's 35,467 career passing yards ranked tenth in NFL history at the time of his retirement and his 2,874 completions ranked eighth all-time. Kelly's 237 touchdowns are also ranked thirteenth in NFL history. At the time of Kelly's retirement, only three Hall of Fame quarterbacks, Fran Tarkenton, Dan Fouts, and Johnny Unitas, had passed for more yardage than Kelly and only Tarkenton, and Fouts had completed more passes.

Analysis: I'll 'keep it real' by admitting that this was one of the easiest 'Old-School' Comparison Columns I have ever written. The more I wrote and thought about both of these quarterbacks, I realized that this decision was going to be a definite 'no-brainer'. As a matter of fact, I'll go a step further and say that I am shocked that Namath was ever elected into the Hall of Fame in the first place after viewing his mediocre career passing statistics.

While many people may want to point out the fact that Namath did manage to win one Super Bowl title in his career and Kelly finished his career without one, I say that fact is totally overvalued, when looking at the overall accomplishments of their respective careers. (Just think Trent Dilfer people).
Namath's career passing statistics are a joke when compared to Kelly's in every single category. How Namath, with 50 more career interceptions than touchdown passes, managed to sneak into the Hall is far beyond my understanding.

Besides, I'll maintain until the day I died, that Kelly actually won a Super Bowl for the Bills in 1990, but his feeble-minded kicker, Scott 'Wide-Right' Norwood, decided to take one of the biggest choke pills in sports history before missing the game-winning field goal.

Still, no Super Bowl or Not, Jim Kelly was far and away, a better quarterback than Joe Namath - no ifs, ands or buts about it!

Pick: Jim Kelly