“He'll never become anything.”

-- 1950s Pittsburgh Steelers coach Walter Kiesling about the young, third-string quarterback he'd recently cut from the team—a guy named Johnny Unitas. Per Joe Posnanski's countdown of the 101 greatest players in NFL history. Unitas, befitting his jersey number, comes in at #19.

Why did Kiesling feel this way? Apparently he liked running up the middle. This Unitas kid was supposedly a hot-shot passer and he saw no point in that. He also didn't seem to see much point in winning. During his three years with the Steelers, the team never had a winning record, nor finished higher than fourth of six. Posnanski adds a footnote about the general ineptitude of the Steelers of that era: “In a short span, the Steelers passed on Johnny Unitas, Lenny Moore and Jim Brown, and they drafted but released Len Dawson. That's impressive.”