John Brodie couldn’t quite recall how the feeling compared. He had waited seven long years for this first PGA TOUR Champions victory, and even longer since encountering the thrill of victory on the gridiron.

No matter. This was a joy that stood on its own, a triumph unlike any other he ever experienced.

“Emotion is something that I can’t call back on and get the same feeling,” Brodie said after his lone win on PGA TOUR Champions, at the 1991 Security Pacific Senior Classic. “I feel just as good as I can possibly feel right now. I can’t think of anything else right now that would make me feel better.”

Had a few more winning putts sunk throughout Brodie’s life, who knows where golf would have ultimately led him. He was a star quarterback for the Stanford Cardinal, a first-round draft pick and NFL MVP, and yet fell in love with the allure of golf and all that it offered him away from the gridiron.

Brodie, who spent more than a decade playing on PGA TOUR Champions, passed away on Jan. 23, 2026, at 90 years old.

"I really like what I'm doing," he told the Associated Press in 1987. "I'm doing something I'd rather be doing more than anything in the world. If I take a day off, I don't know what to do. I've never been burned out on golf. I thought I was once. Then when I woke up, I went out and played."

Brodie’s fame came largely from the 17 years he spent in the NFL with the San Francisco 49ers. He was named MVP in 1970—when he led the league with more than 2,900 passing yards and 24 touchdowns—and was selected to the Pro Bowl twice. That famed 1970 season with his hometown team, who had taken him third overall 13 years earlier, saw him amass a 10-3-1 record and fall to the Dallas Cowboys 17-10 in the NFC title game.

When Brodie retired in 1973, his more than 31,500 passing yards ranked third all-time behind only Johnny Unitas and Fran Tarkenton. He led the league in passing three separate times.

But there’s reason to wonder whether all of these milestones would have happened if it was golf that took precedence in Brodie’s life.

There’s one incredulous story that recalls Stanford coach Chuck Taylor struggling to locate Brodie during a spring practice, only to discover that his quarterback was out auditioning for the golf team. He’d eventually appear in a pair of NCAA Golf Championships with the Cardinal between football seasons.

And he continued to play part-time golf after the 49ers drafted him, appearing in several PGA TOUR events during the offseason, including a career-high 13 in 1960. He carded his only top-25 finish on TOUR that year at the Yorba Linda Open Invitational and was in contention on the final day before eventually losing to Jerry Barber.

“I always wonder what would have happened if I had knocked that ball on the green and holed it and won the tournament,” he later said.

In all, he made nine cuts in 29 starts on TOUR and played in a pair of U.S. Open Championships in 1959 and 1981, the latter as an amateur.

His biggest triumphs in golf came later on PGA TOUR Champions, where he made 230 career starts between 1985 and 1998. He carded 12 top-10 finishes in that span, including a personal-best four during the 1987 season.

"I have not reached the level in this sport that I reached in football," Brodie told the AP. "That's what I'm striving for. At one time, football was very tough for me. As I went on, it became easier because I knew what the heck I was doing. Hopefully, the same thing will happen with golf."

He ended his career with a pair of runner-up showings—a solo second at the 1987 GTE Kaanapali Classic and a T2 finish at the 1988 Doug Sanders Kingwood Celebrity Classic—and that fateful win in 1991.

Brodie missed a birdie putt on the 72nd hole to win in regulation, though it only delayed the inevitable. On the first playoff hole, he almost holed his spectacular approach shot for a tap-in birdie putt to edge Chi Chi Rodríguez and George Archer for his lone victory on PGA TOUR Champions.

His life saw him reach the pinnacle of not one, but two sports. When he left football, he was one of the best to play the game at his position. And when he resumed his competitive career on the golf course, he added a victory over the best the sport offered at his age.

Leave it to him to explain which one proved the most challenging.

“I happen to think golf is the most demanding sport in the world,” he said.