The Spiral as Identity
There’s a compelling new book out on Quarterbacks by ESPN’s Seth Wickersham — “American Kings.” The jacket calls it “a must-read for anyone who wants to understand what the price of ambition tells us about the quest for achievement and status.” I agree.
Wickersham’s genius is that he humanizes the position. He starts not with stats or rings but with the spiral — the very physics and fingerprint of a quarterback. “The first known spiral was circa 1885,” he writes, “but it wasn’t until 2020 that scientists pinned down why a football turns over in flight rather than sinking to the ground.”
Every quarterback, he notes, has his own version of that motion — “Namath’s is different from Unitas’s is different from Marino’s is different from Montana’s is different from Elway’s is different from Brady’s is different from Mahomes’. That wrist snap and twist-swirl, that whip of the finger — it’s a signature, like a strand of DNA.” If you enjoy my stories, you need to get Wickersham’s book.
The Release is His Heartbeat
But for now, I want to build off Wickersham’s spiral and add another dimension: The Release. Why? Because if the spiral is a Quarterback’s signature, the release is his heartbeat. And my front-runner for the 2025 NFL MVP award has one of the most unique — and devastatingly effective — releases in the game today. I’m talking about the Rams’ Matthew Stafford. I’m talking about 37-year-old Matthew Stafford. And I’m talking about his release today — not the one he had 17 years ago as a rookie.
The 2025 MVP Case
Through 10 weeks in 2025, Stafford’s numbers look like something from a younger man’s game: 2,557 passing yards (5th in NFL), 27 TD passes (1st), 2 interceptions (lowest league ratio for QB1s). His Rams are 8-2 and leading the NFC West while averaging 29 points per game.
Born to Throw
Matthew Stafford is the NFL’s MVP frontrunner because he’s been preparing for this season his entire life. Long before the side-arm lasers and off-platform wizardry, he was a Texas high-school phenom — the type of kid who could rip a deep out at 16 with a motion that looked God-given.
Then came Athens, Ga., where he blossomed into a national star, became the face of the Bulldogs, and eventually married the cheerleader he met on campus. When he went No. 1 overall in the 2009 NFL Draft, the league already expected greatness — and he’s delivered it at every level since: franchise cornerstone in Detroit, Lombardi-trophy winner in Los Angeles, and now a veteran quarterback playing cleaner, sharper football than at any point in his career.
The Fastest Eyes and the Fastest Hands
What’s separating Stafford this season isn’t his arm strength — though it’s still elite — but the timing around it. Micro-timing. He has a lightning-quick trigger and a shape-shifting ability to throw from any platform the pocket demands: side-arm when the lane opens, three-quarter when it tightens, no-step when he has only a beat to spare.
The ball is like a laser out of his hand. That’s why he’s one of the most difficult quarterbacks in the league to sack, even at 37. He doesn’t outrun pressure; he beats it to the spot. And with a 27–2 TD-to-INT line in mid-November, he’s pairing old-school aggression with the cleanest decision-making of his life.
The Blueprint: Namath & Marino
Before you can appreciate what Stafford is doing today, it helps to look at the quarterbacks who first turned the release into a weapon. Every era produces dozens of strong arms, smart passers, and mechanically sound throwers — but only a rare few redefine how the ball leaves their hand.
Joe Namath and Dan Marino were two of those rare few. In their respective eras they became the blueprint, the original examples of effortless velocity with a hair trigger, the quarterbacks whose releases didn’t just stand out but reshaped expectations. You don’t compare Stafford to them because of when they played, but because of how they played — with a motion so distinct, so fast, and so bold that it set a standard quarterbacks still chase. Today, Stafford is extending the lineage.
Back when Joe Namath and Dan Marino were letting it rip, quarterbacking was closer to trench warfare than the aerial chess match we watch on Sundays now. Corners could mug receivers for 30 yards without so much as a raised flag. Safeties roamed like heat-seeking missiles, earholing anyone who drifted into the seam.
Pass rushers were basically deputized to maul the quarterback — no “landing with your body weight,” no “strike zone,” just chaos and bone-rattling hits. The hash marks were wider, the windows tighter, and the ball felt like it was carved out of old leather. In that world, the release was an escape hatch, a way to play offense without getting carried off the field. Namath and Marino didn’t just beat pressure — they outran their era.
Joe Namath – Effortless Velocity Before its Time
His release puts him in a rare lineage. Joe Namath’s motion was the first true outlier — smooth, effortless, almost casual, like he was skipping a stone across a lake. In 1967 he became the first quarterback ever to throw for 4,000 yards and in only a 14-game season, with defensive rules so punishing they’d be unrecognizable today. Yes, he threw 220 interceptions. Yes, he played aggressively. But he was attempting throws the sport hadn’t invented language for yet. Namath wasn’t reckless — he was ahead of schedule.
Dan Marino – Violent Efficiency, Instant Punishment
Dan Marino’s release was legendary – the fastest in history. His release was violent efficiency, a sudden twitch that fired the ball before most rushers completed their first step. It was like a trapdoor opening, defenders blinked, the ball was gone. His 5,094 yards and 48-touchdown season in 1984 didn’t just break records — it broke the timeline, records that stood for 30 years. Marino retired with 420 touchdowns and 252 interceptions because he spent two decades challenging windows that only his trigger could beat. He didn’t respect the pass rush. He invalidated it.
Matthew Stafford – The Modern Evolution
Stafford belongs in that lineage, but he isn’t a carbon copy — he’s the next stage of it. Namath gave the league effortless velocity. Marino gave it instantaneous violence. Stafford adds something modern: multi-platform torque. He throws like a shortstop, a point guard, and a pitcher wrapped into one, generating clean velocity from angles most quarterbacks would consider broken mechanics. He was executing no-look passes when Patrick Mahomes was still learning his trade at Texas Tech.
Like Namath and Marino, Stafford has always been a gunslinger at heart. His career interception total reflects a quarterback who never shied from the throw that could win the game. It’s also why, since entering the league in 2009, he’s thrown for over 60,000 yards and 390 touchdowns, ranking among the top 10 all-time in both categories. And, oh yeah, Matthew’s release has been the catalyst for 51 game-winning drives ranking him 4th all-time in league history.
On a Mission in 2025
The difference is that in 2025, he’s playing reckless without being irresponsible — a line only the great ones know how to walk. He’s the rare quarterback who looks more comfortable when the structure dissolves and more dangerous when time tightens.
That’s what makes Stafford’s release so striking today: in a league engineered to protect quarterbacks, he still absorbs punishment like someone playing in the old rules. He takes hits because he’s hunting one more progression, one more window, one more fateful split-second before he lets it go — a modern quarterback who still plays with the survival instincts of the men who came before him. I can’t tell you how often, when I’m watching Stafford I’m yelling “get rid of it!”
The Quarterback Connection
Wickersham reminded us that every Quarterback carries a spiral shaped by thousands of lonely reps – a signature encoded in the wrist snap and fingertip whip. Matthew Stafford’s isn’t just a motion; it’s his biography. Its Texas swagger, Georgia polish, Detroit scars, and LA glitz, all fused into one blink-fast release.
If Wickersahm gave us the story of the spiral, Stafford is giving us the master class on the release – and in 2025, no Quarterback in football wields it with more precision, more creativity, or more consequence. Matt Stafford, at 37, is proving that the spiral still spins – and the release still matters.