With all the sudden attention and hype focused on Matt Ryan, the quarterback for the Boston College Eagles, it reminds us that there was once another Boston College quarterback who made a name for himself. Doug Flutie, that’s right… what made him famous again?

Oh, that’s right… his pass to Gerard Phelan beat the (at the time) seemingly unbeatable Miami Hurricanes. Flutie would go on to win the Heisman Trophy, win championships in the Canadian Football League, and quarterback in the NFL.

What will become of Matt Ryan?

Joe Montana, the legendary San Francisco 49ers quarterback who had led the team to four Super Bowl victories had missed the entire 1991 NFL season due to injuries. To add to this, he also missed the majority of the 1992 season with injury problems and essentially lost his starting quarterback job to teammate Steve Young.

The general consensus is that most players, especially star players, don’t lose their starting job due to an injury. But with Montana’s injury keeping him out of the game for a year and a half, and with backup Steve Young performing so well, there was quite a quarterback controversy in San Francisco.

Before the start of the 1993 season it was decided that Steve Young would be the quarterback for the 49ers future and Joe Montana was traded to Kansas City to finish his career as the starting quarterback for the Chiefs. This was to be the end of Joe Montana’s stunning NFL career, doing what aging NFL stars do, playing their last year or years in a situation where they are not expected to excel.

This is not your run-of-the-mill star player we are talking about, this is Joe Montana. In that 1993 season, Joe Montana got the Chiefs to the AFC Championship Game – one game away from the Super Bowl. He followed this up with getting the 1994 Kansas City team to the playoffs as well before retiring and eventually being elected to the Pro Football Hall-of-Fame.