I’ll take him because winning takes more than standing in the pocket with all the mobility of Mount Rushmore, hitting passes. To win big games, you’ve got to make big plays.

And Young could make big plays. He was Michael Vick before there was a Michael Vick — big and strong, fast and elusive, often the best running back on the field. And he threw with deadly accuracy and efficiency.

If I have to win one game, I want a guy who can run for a first down or a touchdown when his receivers are covered. I want a guy who can dodge the rush, break containment, and scramble for big yards, leaving the defense in a shambles. I want that guy because sooner or later he is going to have to use his feet as well as his arm.

Marino has the better numbers and was the better pure passer. No one was better than he was at throwing the football. To go to one of his games live and watch the receivers making their cuts and finding the ball already there for them was to see something you knew you might never see again.

Manning is like that. If he plays a full career, he’ll have all the records at the end of his career. And a lot of people now will tell you they’ll take Manning for their big game every time over a guy like Brady, who, like Montana, just wins, or a guy like Donovan McNabb, who can both throw and run.

But the object isn’t to pile up numbers. It’s to win. It’s true that Marino won an awful lot of football games, but he didn’t win the big one; in 17 years he got to the big one only once.

It’s not losing one Super Bowl, but failing to get to any others more than one that makes me not want Marino. Young, too, lost conference championship games. He, too, got to only one Super Bowl, but he was a starter for just those seven seasons.

And when Young was at the top of his game, he was nearly impossible to beat because of all the ways he could hurt you.

For me, that’s enough. Maybe if I had to pick Marino or Young to start a franchise, knowing in advance how long they’d play, I’d take Marino. Year after year, I’d know I didn’t have to worry about who was going to play quarterback. But for one game, I’d take Young.

And that, to me, makes him better than Marino, better than the best.

But my congratulations to the voters for getting both in.

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