Bob Gill wrote:JameisLoseston wrote:Was that the stupidest trade in NFL history? Jim Ninowski had one of the worst starting tenures in history with the Lions.
And in both seasons the Lions had Morrall, who was at least twice as good, sitting on the bench while Ninowski played the bulk of the time. I've never understood that.
It's interesting to compare Ninowski and Morrall. They were teammates at Mich State in 1954. Both were born and raised in Michigan and considered "hometown boys."
Ninowski was considered the Lions' bright hope when they got him in 1960 after Tobin Rote bolted for the CFL and Morrall (who came to Detroit 2 games into the '58 season as part of the Bobby Layne trade) hadn't lived up to expectations. One has to remember that, when the Lions acquired Ninowski, Morrall had already played for 3 teams---SF, Pitt & Detroit---and hadn't really made much of a splash. Ninowski was big, had a strong and accurate arm, was a good runner, and his teammates liked him. Moreover, he had an appealing backstory---the first Detroit kid (he starred at Pershing High) ever to QB the Lions....the MSU stud who had picked apart the Lions' famed secondary in the '58 College All-Star Game...a vocal basher of Paul Brown's messenger system (which is why he was traded). But Ninowski never really made it, becoming just one more journeyman QB who usually was rated a 2 or 3 (out of a possible 5) on my old APBA cards. The knock, from what I could gather, was that he always locked in on the primary receiver and was bad at finding the other guy. Forcing the ball resulted in a lot of interceptions.
George Wilson's carousel approach to QBs didn't help. He freely alternated Layne and Rote in his first season (1957) as HC and it worked well enough to deliver a title, so why change? At one point in the '61 season Wilson threatened to alternate his QBs between downs---that's how inconsistent both Morrall and Ninowski were as they basically split the starts that year and often wound up subbing for each other as the game progressed. The only season in the 8 that Wilson coached in Detroit where one QB started all the games was Plum in '62---but then the following year Wilson was back it, starting Plum one week and Morrall the next.
For some reason I never was a big fan of Morrall, though it's hard to argue against a guy who was part of three SB champs and the only 17-0 team in history. I've often wondered how SB III would've turned out if Unitas had relieved Morrall much earlier than he did. Or even started the game (though I admit Morrall deserved to start based on the season he had and the title-game wipeout of the Browns). All these years later, I still have visions of a wide-open Jimmy Orr frantically waving his arms, and Earl...oh, never mind.
