Feb. 7, 2026, 6:11 p.m. ET
Joe Theismann has a unique perspective of Sonny Jurgensen.
Jurgensen, who passed away early Friday, had been the Washington quarterback from 1964-1974. However, he broke his shoulder in a 1971 preseason game, and veteran Billy Kilmer took over. There was Jurgensen’s 1972 torn Achilles that ended that season, but the ol’ redhead could still come off the bench at ages 39 and 40 in 1973 and 1974 to win NFL games, going 11-2 in games he started from 1971-74.
Enter Joe Theismann. Theismann had been a mobile quarterback at Notre Dame, then went to the Canadian Football League to develop his passing for a few seasons, and arrived in Washington in 1974. Theismann on 106.7 the Fan Friday with “Grant & Danny” told part of the story.
Theismann talked way too much then, saying he didn’t come to sit, but to play. Joe recalls how that (rightly) united both Kilmer and Jurgensen even more “in a common force against a loud-mouth young kid”…himself.
“When you’re competing against someone, you don’t really reflect on their greatness or the qualities they have. Both Billy and Sonny, as I look back in time, I learned so much from them……..I was basically forced to learn an aspect of the game I hadn’t spent a lot of time with.”
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Jurgensen, then 40, could still impress a young Theismann in practice. “I just loved to watch Sonny throw a football. I thought it was majestic in its nature. So, one day I walked up to him and said, ‘Sonny, just tell me, how do you throw such a beautiful spiral?’ I watched him in practice throw 40 yards, go behind his back, and the ball would land perfectly.”
Theismann told of how Jurgensen joked with the youngster, “Well, Joe, I pick the ball up, I find the laces, I take my arm back, and let it go.” Theismann continued regarding Sonny’s great passing ability, “When you look at his delivery, he’d step to the left, lead with his chest and his belly, the ball was about three-quarters (height of delivery arc), and it would land perfectly. It was an incredibly catchable ball…”I just marveled at what he could do with a football; that was just special to me.”
Sonny still has Redskins fans marveling at how he remains the last quarterback in franchise history to throw 30 touchdown passes in a season. It was 1967, Sonny threw 31 touchdown passes, with those rules and in only a 14 game regular season schedule.
It’s completely understandable why Theismann marveled watching Sonny throw a football. Vince Lombardi reportedly stated that if he had coached Jurgensen in Green Bay, the Packers would never have lost a game. I doubt he meant that literally, but Lombardi was still making a literal point.