Charlie Conerly
Charlie Conerly is one of the best quarterbacks of the era before the Super Bowl, but he is not well-known today due to being left out of the Hall of Fame, but he did win a championship and an MVP during his long career.
Conerly was drafted in 1945, before he had even played a game of college football, while he was stationed with the Marines on Iwo Jima. He returned from war to play two seasons in college with Ole Miss, then joined the New York Giants, where he played his entire pro career.
He was named the Rookie of the Year in 1948 after throwing for 2175 yards and 22 touchdowns, both of which would turn out to be career highs. He still owns Giants franchise records for most passing yards, attempts, completions, and touchdowns by a rookie more than 70 years later.
Back when he played, making the playoffs was a pretty rare thing because there was only a championship game. Conerly led the Giants to 5 title games during his time in New York, winning twice. The biggest one came in 1956, when he was serving as backup to Don Heinrich, who threw for only 21 yards in the title game before Conerly replaced him and tossed 195 and 2 touchdowns in a 47-7 blowout of the Bears.
He helped the Giants reach the title game again in 1958, which came after he scored the only touchdown in a divisional tiebreaker game against Cleveland. He again backed up Heinrich in the title game, and came in to throw the only passing touchdown for the Giants in an overtime loss to the Colts.
The next year he was named the full-time starter again, after splitting time for the past several seasons. That year he was named the MVP after leading the Giants to a 10-2 record while throwing 14 touchdowns and only 4 picks, and the Giants reached their third title game in 4 years, where they fell to the Colts again.
Conerly spent the final decade of his career as the oldest quarterback in the league, and though his numbers are mediocre by today's standards, they were pretty good for the era, and his performance in title games, especially the 1956 championship, are the biggest reason that he is a part of this list of the greatest quarterbacks of all time.
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