From 99-0, TeamFB7 is looking back on the greatest players in NFL history to don each jersey number. No ties allowed, tough decisions will be made — next is No. 89 and Gino Marchetti.
The challenge of comparing eras — especially early eras to the present — is as difficult in football as any sport.
The game has changed and evolved so substantially in every way from its origins. Stats are useless when debating the NFL in the 1950s vs. the modern era — either because they’re as apples-and-oranges as comparing …. well, the prices of apples and oranges from then to now, or because they simply don’t exist in the case of sacks and other metrics that weren’t officially tracked back then.
There is at best grainy video, perspective from those who were there and then parsing the stuff of legend.
That’s how Hall of Fame defensive end Gino Marchetti was regarded during his storied career with the Baltimore Colts franchise from 1952-66 and how he is remembered now — a legend.
But mythology alone isn’t the reason “Gino The Giant” takes the top spot here as the greatest No. 89 in NFL history.
No, it’s simply undeniable that he was one of the most impactful players of his era — and that’s the only true way to compare the present to the past.
The Lore Of Gino ‘The Giant’ Marchetti
Marchetti was the most dominant defensive end of the 1950s through early 60s. He made 11 straight Pro Bowls, and in that same stretch earned seven first-team All-Pro honors and second-team All-Pro recognition three times.
When NFL Network compiled “The Top 100: NFL’s Greatest Players” in 2010, as determined by a panel of current and former players, coaches, executives and media, Marchetti landed at No. 39. He was the third-highest defensive end on the list behind Reggie White and Deacon Jones.
Marchetti, the son of Italian immigrants, fought in the Battle of the Bulge in Europe in World War II and didn’t make his NFL debut until he was 26 years old, wasting one of his early seasons being moved to offensive tackle before Hall of Fame coach Weeb Ewbank took over the Colts and put him back where he belonged.
Sacks didn’t become an NFL stat until 1982, and even the unofficial tracking of sacks doesn’t reach back far enough to reflect Marchetti’s dominance. Pro Football Reference has him credited unofficially with 56 sacks over his final five full seasons but nothing on record the first eight years of his career.
Per the Washington Post’s obituary of Marchetti when he died in 2019, Baltimore’s coaching staff unofficially tallied 43 sacks for the Hall of Famer over one 12-game season. Marchetti himself said he had 9 sacks in one game.
If full records existed, he’d likely be far and away the all-time sacks leader.
The Larger Than Life Figure That Was Gino Marchetti
Even though his 6-foot-4, 245-pound frame is modest by today’s NFL standards, he was an imposing figure on the field in that era.
“He was the real-life version of the John Wayne characters — he was strong and silent, just this towering presence,” longtime NFL general manager Ernie Accorsi said on “The Top 100” special aired by NFL Network.
Marchetti helped the Colts win back-to-back NFL Championships — pre-Super Bowl era — in 1958-59.
The 1958 championship between the Colts and New York Giants is historically known in NFL lore as “The Greatest Game Ever Played” and Marchetti delivered one of its defining moments.
Late in the fourth quarter, he tackled running back Frank Gifford just short of a first down to set up a pivotal fourth-and-inches on the New York 40-yard line with the Giants protecting a 17-14 lead. They elected to punt, and Johnny Unitas drove the Colts down for the game-tying field goal to force overtime, where Baltimore won 23-17.
Marchetti broke his ankle on the play but refused to leave the Colts’ sideline until the end of that game-tying drive.
“Roosevelt Brown, who I consider one of the two greatest left tackles in the history of the National Football League, along with Jim Parker, told me that as they were preparing for the 1958 and ’59 championship games … he said, ‘I was looking at [Marchetti] on film, I didn’t want any parts of him. I had the other side, which I was really thankful for,'” Accorsi said as part of the “Top 100” series.
A Player Ahead Of His Time
Hall of Fame coach Don Shula, who played in the NFL during the 1950s and began his long coaching career in the league in 1960, noted that Marchetti was ahead of his time in changing defensive end play.
“He revolutionized the way you play that position in the NFL,” Shula said, as quoted by the Los Angeles Times. “Prior to Gino, the attitude [of pass rushers] was to try to physically overpower the offensive tackle. Gino showed that with good instincts and a lightning quickness, he could get around his man without really engaging him.”
Or he’d just throw them aside to clear his path.
Hall of Fame Vikings and Giants quarterback Fran Tarkenton shared a colorful story to that end with NFL Films.
“We had a tackle named Frank Youso and he was blocking on Gino and he before the game had put Vaseline all over his shoulders, so that when Gino would go up and hit his shoulders he’d slide off,” Tarkenton recalled. “The first couple times Gino comes in I hear him grunting and he didn’t get to me. I was surprised. The third time I went back to pass I threw the ball down the field and I hear this awful commotion, and Gino had taken Youso by the jersey and ripped his jersey completely off of him. He said, ‘Kid, when you come back in here the next time don’t put any grease on your jersey.'”
Said Shula, in the same NFL Films feature: “If I could pick a player out of the past and bring him back, I’d pick Gino Marchetti in a hurry.”
For his dominance in his own era, his impact on the way the position is played and his enduring legacy and legend, Marchetti remains the greatest No. 89 in NFL history — a number he wore for his final 10 seasons.
Honorable mentions include Hall of Fame tight end Mike Ditka (who helped revolutionize that position in the 1960s), Hall of Fame linebacker Dave Robinson (who played for Green Bay and Washington from 1963-74) and five-time Pro Bowl wide receiver Steve Smith.
