CULVER CITY, Calif. -- I'm traveling down a corridor Tuesday with Warren Moon, a man who -- as I admit to him -- ruined many a Sunday during my childhood.
Growing up a Cleveland Browns fan, the enduring image I have of Moon is that of a quarterback who rescued the Houston Oilers from one jam after another -- especially against my team in the old AFC Central.
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Third-and-17? No problem. Here's an 18-yard pass to Haywood Jeffires, drilled between two baffled safeties.
Maddening. Every time. For some reason, Moon feels no need to apologize for this. We move on.
It's easy to forget how productive Moon was in the Oilers' run-and-shoot attack. It was a peculiarity back then but has its fingerprints all over today's game. And the numbers tell the story: Way back in 1990, Moon threw for 4,689 yards, with another 4,690 in 1991.
I ask Moon, a Pro Football Hall of Famer, if he sees himself in any of today's young signal-callers.
"I would say maybe Aaron Rodgers, just because he's a guy who can throw from the pocket," Moon says, "but he has enough movement that he can still make throws outside the pocket. I wasn't a great runner or anything like that, but I had enough movement that I could make plays outside the pocket -- throw on the run. He'd probably be a guy that I would compare myself to."
Rodgers grabbed the No. 1 spot in NFL Network's "The Top 100: Players of 2012," but Moon isn't convinced the Green Bay Packer is the game's best passer.
"It's just hard for me to go against (New England Patriots quarterback) Tom Brady, just because of the body of work that he's done," Moon says. "Peyton (Manning) would be right there, but I don't know what Peyton is going to be when he comes back (with the Denver Broncos), so until he gets back out on the field again, I'm just going on what Tom has been able to do with his team over a long period of time."
