CS Knowledge Base

Earl Edwin Morrall (/ˈmɔːrəl/; May 17, 1934 – April 25, 2014) was an American professional football player who was a quarterback in the National Football League (NFL) for 21 seasons. He was the last remaining player from the 1950s still active in the NFL. He started for six teams, most notably the Baltimore Colts and Miami Dolphins. He became known as one of the greatest backup quarterbacks in NFL history, having served in the capacity for two Hall of Fame quarterbacks in Johnny Unitas and Bob Griese. An injury to Unitas in 1968 saw Morrall step in to become the starter; he guided the Colts to a 13–1 record and won league MVP. He also led them to their first NFL Championship win in nine years before ineffective play in Super Bowl III saw him benched for Unitas. Two years later, in Super Bowl V, Morrall came off the bench for an injured Unitas and kept the Colts in the game before they ultimately won on a last-second field goal. In his first season with Miami in 1972, he came off the bench when Griese became injured early in the year, with Morrall winning all nine starts; Morrall started the first two playoff games, with Griese playing in each game before being named the starter for Super Bowl VII, where the Dolphins completed the only perfect season in NFL history.

Morrall led Muskegon High School in Muskegon, Michigan to a state football championship in 1951 and state baseball championship in 1952 (where he stole home). He attended Michigan State University, where he played under head coaches Biggie Munn and Duffy Daugherty. He played three seasons for the Michigan State Spartans football team, leading them to a 9–1 record in the 1955 season. He capped his senior year with a victory over the UCLA Bruins in the 1956 Rose Bowl. Morrall also played baseball at Michigan State and played in the College World Series as a shortstop and third baseman. He was offered the opportunity to play professional baseball but chose instead to play football.

In his more than two decades on the professional gridiron, Morrall played for six different teams, starting with his rookie year in 1956 as the second overall selection in the draft, taken the San Francisco 49ers. He made appearances in the first four games, then started the fifth game of the year on October 28, passing 7-of-12 for 148 yards with a touchdown and an interception. Morrall started the next three games before appearing sporadically in two further games. In total, he went 38-of-78 with 621 passing yards with a touchdown and six interceptions. On the punting side, he kicked 45 of them for 1,705 yards (he would make occasional appearances as punter in seven seasons to total 106 for 3,995 yards with one block).^[1] On September 16, 1957, he was traded along with guard Mike Sandusky to the Pittsburgh Steelers in exchange for linebacker Marv Matuszak and two first-round draft picks. He would appear in all twelve games that year for the Steelers (with eleven starts), helping them to a 6–6 record while throwing for 1,900 yards with eleven touchdowns to twelve interceptions.^[2] Despite the high cost of the transaction, the Steelers traded him just over a year later to the Detroit Lions in order to obtain future Hall of Famer Bobby Layne. He started the first two games of the 1958 season for the Steelers (both losses) before the trade, then appeared sporadically in six games for Detroit.^[3] Morrall was with the Lions for the next six years, having his best season in 1963 by throwing for 24 touchdowns and more than 2,600 yards. The following year, he suffered a season-ending shoulder injury in an October 18 contest against the Chicago Bears.

After spending the off-season rehabilitating from his injury, Morrall was dealt by the Lions to the New York Giants for Mike Lucci who had been acquired from the Cleveland Browns, Darrell Dess and a draft pick as part of a three-team transaction on August 30, 1965. The Browns obtained defensive back Erich Barnes from the Giants to complete the trade.^[4] Enduring his role during the Giants' rebuilding phase, Morrall threw for 2,446 yards and 22 touchdowns that season, but after breaking his wrist in 1966 but only saw spot duty over the next two years after the Giants acquired Fran Tarkenton. He was traded to the Baltimore Colts for an undisclosed draft choice on August 25, 1968. Butch Wilson was sent to the Giants to complete the transaction eight days later on September 2.^[5][6]

During the 1968 season, Morrall turned in the best performance of his career. As the replacement for an injured Johnny Unitas (who had won league MVP the previous season), the veteran quarterback guided the Colts to a 13–1 record, passed for 2,909 yards and an NFL-high 26 touchdown passes, all of which earned him league Most Valuable Player honors.^[7] Baltimore won the NFL Championship with a 34–0 road shutout in Cleveland, but were upset in Super Bowl III by the New York Jets, where Morrall was benched for Unitas midway through the third quarter after throwing three interceptions.^[8] Prior to the 1969 season, Morrall briefly considered retiring from pro football to accept a lucrative business offer,^[9] but re-signed on September 18, three days before the start of the regular season, despite Unitas reclaiming the starting quarterback job.^[10] Morrall had a chance to redeem his past woes the next season in Super Bowl V. With the Colts trailing the Dallas Cowboys 13–6 in the second quarter, he was tasked to step in for Unitas, who was knocked out of the game on a rib injury, and passed 7-of-15 for 147 yards and an interception. However, a series of turnovers and luck (Craig Morton, his counterpart, went 12-of-26 with 127 yards, one touchdown, and three interceptions, with the last two resulting in eventual Colt points) allowed the Colts to stay in the game, and Jim O'Brien kicked a 32-yard field goal with seconds remaining to give the Colts a 16–13 victory. He started the first nine games of the 1971 season for the Colts (while appearing in one further game). He threw for 1,210 yards with seven touchdowns and twelve interceptions as the Colts posted a 10–4 record with Unitas handling the duties for the playoffs.^[11]

For the following year, he moved on to the Miami Dolphins under head coach Don Shula, who had led Baltimore through 1969. After starting quarterback Bob Griese was hurt during the October 15 home win over the San Diego Chargers, Morrall was tasked to start for the team, and he went 8-of-10 for 86 yards with two touchdowns while Miami won the game.^[12] With Miami at a 5–0 record, he proceeded to start the nine remaining games of the season and won all of them while throwing eleven touchdowns to seven interceptions on 1,360 yards as the team was buoyed mostly by its rushing attack (two of his starts had no touchdowns while two others didn't have an interception).^[13][14] The 1972 team achieved the first undefeated regular season in the NFL since 1942. In the playoffs, he started the divisional round game at home against the Cleveland Browns and went 6-of-13 for 88 yards; the Dolphins won 20–14 (on the strength of a blocked punt returned by Charlie Babb, two field goals, and a Jim Kiick touchdown).^[15] Morrall started the AFC Championship Game at Pittsburgh, passing 7-of-11 for 51 yards with a touchdown pass and an interception. He was later relieved by Griese and the Dolphins won 21–17 on the road; Griese started two weeks later in Super Bowl VII, which resulted in a 14–7 victory over the Washington Redskins and a Super Bowl ring for the Dolphins.^[16] Overall, he filled in for eleven games for an injured Griese, winning all of them. Together, Morrall and Griese won three postseason games (including Super Bowl VII) to complete the only perfect season in NFL history.

Over the next four seasons, he made occasional appearances in games, with three starts; the Dolphins won consecutive Super Bowls in January 1974, both with Griese at quarterback. Morrall announced his retirement on May 2, 1977.^[17] Until Doug Flutie and Vinny Testaverde almost thirty years later, Morrall was the oldest quarterback to start and win an NFL game. In those 21 seasons, he was part of 255 games, completing 1,379 passes for 20,809 yards and 161 touchdowns with an 63–36–3 (.632) record as a starter. In 2015, Morrall, Griese and Dan Marino were voted to the fifty greatest players in the Miami Dolphins' 50-year history.

Morrall made Pro Bowl appearances following the 1957 and 1968 seasons, was named the NFL MVP in 1968,^[7] and was the runner-up in 1972.^[18] He led the league in passing in 1968 and the AFC in 1972.^[19]

In 2018, the Professional Football Researchers Association named Morrall to the PFRA Hall of Very Good Class of 2018.^[20]

During the 1960s, Morrall sold automobiles in Detroit during the NFL offseasons.^[9]

Morrall became the quarterback coach at the University of Miami in 1979.^[21] During his time there, he worked with Jim Kelly, Bernie Kosar, Vinny Testaverde and Mark Richt. In 1989, he was elected to the Davie, Florida city council and eventually became mayor.^[22] Morrall resigned as mayor to run for the Florida House of Representatives District 97 seat as a Republican in 1992 but lost the election.^[23][24]

During a 1989 interview, Morrall was asked what it took to come off the bench and be an effective quarterback and team leader. His response was, "When you get the chance to do the job, you have to do the job. That's all there is to it."^[6]

He died on April 25, 2014, at his son's home in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.^[25] He was 79.^[24][26] After death, examination of his brain disclosed that he had grade 4 (the most serious stage) chronic traumatic encephalopathy.^[27] He is one of at least 345 NFL players to be diagnosed after death with this disease, which is caused by repeated hits to the head.^[28][29]

In 2026, Morrall's name gained attention in Spain due to the television game show Pasapalabra, after becoming the final answer in el rosco from Rosa Rodríguez, granting her a €2,716,000 jackpot (the show's all-time highest)^[30]. The difficulty of the question, as American football has little following in Spain, led to criticism in social networks, with theories of the game being rigged, especially after Rodríguez stated his approval with the taxes paid from the prize^[31]. Rodríguez assured she had checked the answer during her training^[32], and her rival, Manuel Pascual, affirmed it as well^[33].

• Muskegon Area Sports Hall of Fame profile Archived August 28, 2008, at the Wayback Machine
• Career statistics from NFL.com · Pro Football Reference
• Earl Morrall at IMDb