Unitas completed 2,830 of 5,186 passes for 40,239 yards and 290 touchdowns.

He completed at least one touchdown pass in 47 straight games, a record that no one has come close to matching since it was set from 1956-60.

Unitas was Most Valuable Player three times and played in 10 Pro Bowls.

Greatest

He led Baltimore to the NFL championship in 1958 and 1959 and the Super Bowl in 1970. He was inducted into the football Hall of Fame in 1979.

On the NFL's 50th anniversary in 1969, Unitas was voted the greatest quarterback of all time.

He also was selected at quarterback for the NFL's All-Time team in 2000 by the 36 Pro Football Hall of Fame voters.

Unitas was one of the few quarterbacks who called his own plays, an ability traced to his knack for reading an opponent's defence and spotting a weakness, then calling a play to take advantage.

Unitas' best moment probably came in the 1958 championship game against the New York Giants, called "the greatest football game ever played" for years afterwards.

With 90 seconds left, he completed four passes, taking the Colts to the 20-yard line to tie the game on a field goal. He then engineered an 80-yard drive for the winning TD.

Outstanding

The following year, Baltimore beat the Giants 31-16 in the championship game.

Unitas ran for one touchdown, and passed for two others, completing 18 of 29 passes, good for 264 yards.

For the season he set an NFL record by throwing 32 touchdown passes, and was named the league's outstanding player.

His Super Bowl victory came in 1971, a 16-13 victory over Dallas in which he played sparingly.

He also played in the 1969 Super Bowl, a shocking 16-7 loss to Joe Namath and the New York Jets.

He underwent emergency triple-bypass surgery in March 1993 after a coronary.