Loyalty

Johnny Unitas became my hero when I was 8 years old. Johnny U. was the quarterback of the Baltimore Colts from 1956 to 1972.  After Johnny’s death in 2002, Sports Illustrated dedicated a cover to him declaring “The Best There Ever Was.”  Legendary sports writer Frank Deford, a Baltimore native and like me a kid who revered Unitas, recounted the first time he met Johnny.  Deford wrote [Quote] “When we were introduced Unitas said, ‘It’s nice to meet you, Mr. Deford.’  That threw me into a tailspin, the sportswriter reminisced, ‘No, no, no.  Don’t you understand?  I’m not Mr. Deford.  You’re Mr. Unitas.  You’re Johnny U.  You’re my boyhood idol.” [End quote]  I recently purchased an autographed picture of Johnny.  I spent the money out of loyalty: loyalty to a team, to an exceptional football player, and loyalty to an ideal.  Now we live in a day when athletes are paid millions of dollars just for signing to play with a team.   Johnny Unitas simply played football for the love of the game.

The Wall Street Journal reported loyalty is fundamental to human relationships whether in romance, business, or sports.  What struck me most in the study was the loyalty that fans have even after a job change moves them elsewhere.  Out of loyalty, folks continue to root for their hometown team rather than shift allegiances to their new city.[1] Sometimes people ask me if I became a Colts’ fan when I moved to Indianapolis.  I tell them this story: “When I was eight I found out that Johnny Unitas shared my birthday.  When you’re eight, birthdays are pretty important; so my love affair with the Indianapolis Colts began with Johnny Unitas in 1965.”

The weekend after Johnny’s death, Peyton Manning, current famed quarterback of the Colts, had a chalk-line circle drawn behind the end zone during a home game.  He placed Johnny Unitas’ black high-top football shoes in that circle, paying homage to the man who had inspired him.  For those who know football, Johnny Unitas gave us the two-minute drill and made the NFL a permanent fixture on Sunday afternoon television in the fall.  The players in those days received very small salaries for their gridiron efforts.  Like Unitas, they played for love of the game, loyal to their hometown and their hometown fans.  That kind of loyalty inspires me still.  I’ll never engineer a fourth quarter come back to take a championship like Unitas did in 1958.  However, that signed picture of Johnny in my office reminds me that loyalty, playing for love of the game, is an ideal I can live every day.

For Moody Radio, this is Dr. Mark Eckel, personally seeking truth wherever it’s found.  To be broadcast on Moody Radio, September 2011.

[1]https://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304887904576397801582783690.html?mod=djemLifeStyle_h