Christian Adolf Jurgensen III better known as, Sonny Jurgensen, might have played in an era of football where quarterbacks were extremely reserved, but Jurgensen was willing to take risks through the air while he was on the field. During his tenure in the NFL, a lot of controversy surrounded his style of play for refusing to play ball-controlled conservative football. His unwillingness to conform split the city of Washington DC in half on whether Jurgensen or the team's second option should be the starting quarterback for the Redskins back in the early 1970s. Jurgensen attended Duke University from 1954 to 1956 and had an instant impact on the field as a defensive back. In his initial year with the team, Jurgensen broke a school record, nabbing an interception in four consecutive games. The following year, Sonny took over as starting quarterback and led the Blue Devils to an ACC co-championship. Despite starting out hot, Jurgensen had an abysmal final year at Duke, finishing the season 5-4-1.
Sonny Jurgensen would go on to be drafted 43rd overall in the fourth round of the 1957 NFL Draft by the Philadelphia Eagles where he would play seven seasons out of the eighteen seasons of his total NFL career. Sonny would go on to win an NFL Championship with the Eagles as a backup in 1960 but threw for an NFL record 3,723 yards and an NFL record-tying 32 touchdowns the following year as the team's starting quarterback. At the time, this was unheard of and Jurgensen began to revolutionize the game as a precision passer throughout his entire NFL career. In 1964, 5x Pro Bowler signed a deal with the Washington Redskins where he would play for the next decade before retiring. Throughout Jurgensen's nearly two-decade career, he would lead the league in passing yards five times as well as touchdowns twice.