But when it comes to NFL birthdays, there’s no date that can compare to today.  Drew Bledsoe — born on Valentine’s Day, 1972 — ranks 16th on the all-time passing yards list, and he’s only the third best quarterback born on this date.  Hall of Famer Jim Kelly was born a dozen years before Bledsoe, and Steve McNair was born February 14th, 1973.  There are only 47 quarterbacks with 30,000 passing yards, and three of them were born today.  David Garrard ranks 142nd on the all-time passing yardage list with over 16,000, which is pretty darn good for the 4th best quarterback born on a calendar date.  In fact, no other calendar date has four passers of note (May 17th is the only other day to give us four quarterbacks who hit even 7,500 yards).

And Patrick Ramsey, who ranks as the 5th best February 14th passer, has more yards than any other player who ranks fifth on his birthday’s passing list. The same is true of Anthony Wright at #6, although that’s where the fun stops. With Christian Hackenberg — yes, he celebrating his 25th birthday today — failing to gain any traction in the NFL, May 11th remains the only birthday with seven 1,000-yard passers.

The graph below shows the career passing yards for each birthday for all of NFL history. With over 137,000 passing yards, February 14th is easily the leader:

Thanks to great strides from Philip Rivers over the years, December 8th is now the birthday with the second-most passing yards at just under 110,000. That is likely going to be eclipsed by May 17th soon, and that’s the only real threat to Valentine’s Day. Does Matt Ryan have another 32,000 passing yards in his right arm? He did that over the last 7 years, but it seems unlikely he can do that for the next seven seasons, too.

But for the foreseeable future — and maybe even much longer — February 14th will be the special birthday for that passer in your heart. Hence today’s tag.

Passing is for lovers

If we drop the cut-off to 16,000 yards, we jump to 137 quarterbacks but get to include David Garrard, another Valentine’s Day baby. But wait, there’s more: If we drop the threshold to 3,500 passing yards, we get to include Patrick Ramsey and Anthony Wright. Those guys may not impress you, but consider that only 334 players have thrown for 3,500 yards. That means dozens of days have zero quarterbacks with 3,500 yards — including New Year’s Day, Cinco De Mayo, Halloween, and Christmas Eve — so slotting in Ramsey and Wright as QB5 and QB6 on your birthday dream team is pretty damn good.

Regular readers will know that I write about this phenomenon every couple of years. In terms of total career passing yards through the entire history of the league, today has an enormous lead on the second-best birthday, March 24, which consists entirely of Peyton Manning, Aaron Brooks, and Scott Brunner.  Put simply, passing yardage is for lovers, which may be very good news for Jets fans.  Why is that? Because there is a new Valentine’s Day QB on the horizon: Christian Hackenberg.

The former Penn State quarterback wore 14 in college, but switched to number 5 in his rookie year with the Jets, a certain bearded turnover machine having rights to that number. With the Jets almost certain to cut their losses there, that would leave 14 open for Hackenberg if he chooses to switch back to 14 for the 2017 season.

Happy Valentine’s Day to that special quarterback in your life, young and old.