Collision of Wills
Johnny Unitas, Don Shula, and the Rise of the Modern NFL
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3.4 • 9 Ratings
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- $10.99
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- $10.99
Publisher Description
In their seven years together, quarterback Johnny Unitas and coach Don Shula, kings of the fabled Baltimore Colts of the 1960s, created one of the most successful franchises in sports. Unitas and Shula had a higher winning percentage than Lombardi’s Packers, but together they never won the championship. Baltimore lost the big game to the Browns in 1964 and to Joe Namath and the Jets in Super Bowl III—both in stunning upsets. The Colts’ near misses in the Shula era were among the most confounding losses any sports franchise ever suffered. Rarely had a team in any league performed so well, over such an extended period, only to come up empty.
The two men had a complex relationship stretching back to their time as young teammates competing for their professional lives. Their personal conflict mirrored their tumultuous times. As they elevated the brutal game of football, the world around them clashed about Vietnam, civil rights, and sex. Collision of Wills looks at the complicated relationship between Don Shula, the league’s winningest coach of all time, and his star player Johnny Unitas, and how their secret animosity fueled the Colts in an era when their losses were as memorable as their victories.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Journalist Gilden expertly captures the heady days of the Baltimore Colts in an entertaining profile of Johnny Unitas and Don Shula, who were part of one of the NFL's most exciting and winningest teams of the 1950s and '60s. When Unitas came to Baltimore in 1956, the town celebrated him for his blue-collar qualities: he had worked in a steel mill in Pittsburgh after the Steelers cut him the previous year. The young quarterback worked tirelessly on the field and off watching game films with his young daughter on his knee and he quickly became the team's best play caller and an outstanding field general. Shula was a brusque, all-business coach who tolerated no opposition to his calls or to his approach to the game. He and Unitas often clashed fiercely, but, as coach and quarterback, they led the team through several championships and to one of the most memorable games in football history: Super Bowl III in 1969 against the New York Jets (although the Jets came out victorious). Gilden's detailed book captures the excitement of the Unitas-led Colts drives and provides a glimpse into one of pro football's greatest player-coach relationships.
Customer Reviews
A Flawed But Ultimately Decent Read
A very good read for anyone interested in the professional football history and two of the men who historically are a huge part of what the modern era NFL has become.
I will say the author was obviously overtly skewed in who was the hero I this “Collision of Wills - Johnny Unitas. He’s treated with a reverence that anyone who knew the man would know is not deserved for his off the field behavior, actions, and attitude. Johnny Unitas was extraordinarily embittered and unpleasant to almost everyone who was in contact with him after he retired. He went bankrupt multiple times on ridiculous business endeavors. He was my father’s hero and I was with him at a event in the late 1980’s when he met him. Suffice it to say, my Dad never spoke much about Johnny U again. I myself was aghast after hearing and reading all these heroic glowing stories about Johnny Unitas growing up.
The guy was an embittered bastard and I have heard and read horrific things about him beyond what I’ve seen with my own eyes.
The author spends almost whole chapters on social issues and events in the 1960’s as an attempt to tie them in with Johnny Unitas and Don Shula....it comes off totally disconnected. Interesting information at times but readers will wonder, why did he spend a whole chapter on...that? I can see he was going for a clever narrative structure but more often than not it’s just confusing.
And he really never gets to the point about Don Shula and why he didn’t replace Earl Morrall with Unitas at halftime of Super Bowl III. There are several references to it in the interviews with Colts players and Joe Namath himself. Unitas simply couldn’t throw the football - it’s that simple. There wasn’t any real decision to make. Shula put Unitas in the game with 4 minutes left in the third quarter. He went three and out, and the Jets ran the ball in the fourth quarter to keep the lead (Namath never attempted a pass in the entire 4th). Unitas was intercepted in the end zone and the Colts scored their only touchdown with 3 minutes left in garbage time. The author really wanted to make an issue of Shula’s decision about putting in Unitas - Unitas shouldn’t have even been the backup that game, his arm was so injured. But he was Johnny Unitas...back then Shula had to keep his big mouth and ego active.
Indeed he never threw the football well again after his arm was injured before that season began. The author alludes to Unitas finally winning the Super Bowl once Shula was gone. Unitas didn’t win Super Bowl V. The author just glides right past that fact...Unitas was injured early in the second quarter. Earl Morrall came in and led the Colts to their VERY ugly victory. Unitas was playing awful before he was knocked out - 3 of 9 for 88 yards, one touchdown and 2 interceptions. But those statistics are even misleading. Early in the second, after two ugly incompletions, he threw an even uglier pass that sailed over the intended receiver, was then tipped by a Cowboys DB (Hinton), and then ricocheted wildly off another Cowboys DB (Renfro)...and landed in Colts WR John Mackey’s hands. The stunned Mackey ran untouched 75 yards for the TD. So Unitas was really 2-9, for 13 yards and 2 interceptions...except for that wild touchdown. Super Bowl V was known as The Blunder Bowl for years. Morrall wasn’t heroic, but he was the QB for nearly three quarters, and was 7-15 for 147 yards. The Colts won despite 7 turnovers...this wasn’t heroic redemption, Unitas had his Super Bowl Ring despite his own play as well as his team’s horrid play.
He’d be traded two seasons later and lived out a rather ugly retirement. His many troubles after his career are skipped - as are Shula’s many triumphs.
Missed opportunity for an objective and deeper look at an incredibly fascinating relationship in the history of professional football.