Johnny Unitas
Declining Years
Though he would continue to play until 1973, Unitas had his last great season in 1969-70. During that time, he completed 166 of 221 pass attempts, gaining 2,213 yards and 14 touchdowns, and he finished out the season by earning the NFL Man of the Year Award. The Colts even went to Super Bowl V against the Dallas Cowboys, but a bruised rib in the middle of the second quarter took Unitas out of the game.
The early 1970s were not a good time for Unitas. Long-term arm problems appeared in 1971, the same year in which he tore his Achilles tendon. In 1973, he divorced Dorothy after nearly two decades of marriage, and within a scandalously short time, he married Sandra Lemon. (He would remain with Sandra, by whom he fathered a child, until his death in 2002.) In 1973 he also saw the end of another long-term relationship, when the Colts traded him to the San Diego Chargers. Unitas
spent a year as backup quarterback for San Diego before retiring.
Additional topics
- Johnny Unitas - Related Biography: Football Player George Shaw
- Johnny Unitas - Another Historic Game
- Other Free Encyclopedias
Famous Sports StarsFootballJohnny Unitas Biography - Humble Beginnings, Laboring In Obscurity, First Years With The Colts, A History-making Game