The wrong read

Sporting News, The, Oct 21, 1996 by Paul Attner

Aikman already has been eliminated from the great numbers derby. Because the Cowboys have such offensive balance, he doesn't throw as much as other elite quarterbacks. In this era of West Coast offenses, five receivers and put-it-up-without-a-conscience approaches, Aikman's offense is almost a relic. "He plays in the most conventional offense in the league," Peccatiello says. "With them, the running game keeps everyone off balance. And then Troy has this tremendous decision-making ability to make the passing game work and not have things slowed down by turnovers."

But his offense still deprives him of the opportunity to generate the quantity of statistics produced by pizazz quarterbacks. The Cowboys were champions after the 1993 and 1995 seasons and he threw only 15 and 16 touchdown passes, respectively, Smith scored nine and 25 in those same seasons. Marino's fewest TD passes in completely healthy seasons is 20. Aikman's season-high attempt total is 473; Marino has been below that total twice in 12 complete seasons. Marino has had no running game, so he threw a lot; Montana used short passes instead of runs, Aikman hands off to Smith. At the end of his career, Aikman won't be among the leaders in attempts, completions, touchdowns or yards. And, whether fair or not, numbers influence how we view a player.

But in playoff games, where defenses have had more success against Smith, Aikman has the best numbers of all time. Only Montana and Bradshaw, with four, have more rings, but no one has equaled Aikman's four straight conference title appearances. His playoff completion percentage (68.3) is almost incomprehensible; it's the highest in history, as is his average yards per gain (8.65). And he is in a virtual tie with Starr for the top quarterback rating (Aikman with 104.3 and Starr at 104.8).

"You put him in a position where he had to throw a lot more and his numbers would be off the board," says Archie Manning, the former Saints quarterback who has studied all the greats. "He would have 40 touchdowns a season. But he is a terrible fantasy football pick because Emmitt scores all the touchdowns. He hasn't needed to always showcase the brilliance of everything he can do."

With Aikman, we need to step away from the numbers and understand the pizazz factor for what it is. Do that and hell be remembered as he should be. As one of the five best who've ever played.

RELATED ARTICLE: Troy's story

Troy Aikman knows he is very good. But he stares at you with those steely blue eyes and tells you quite seriously he is not concerned about his place in history after he retires. "It has never been important to me," he says, "for people to say, `Arguably he may be the best to ever play.'"

But he adds quickly: "I would like to play well enough and have achieved enough as a team and individual that if someone wanted to make that argument, they could somehow find a way to make it based on some of the things I have done." In other words, he hopes to supply enough evidence to make the best-ever contention plausible.