Houston’s most legendary QBs detest this element of modern football

Warren Moon and Andre Ware share plenty in common. 

Both are former quarterbacks who shined in the Bayou City. Both led college and pro football in an assortment of passing stats in the 1980s, helping revolutionize the sport with high-flying, high-scoring offenses. What do the two share in 2025? Frustration with the state of modern college football.

“It’s like the Wild West out there right now,” Moon, a star at Washington in the late-1970s before his 1980s dominance with the Houston Oilers, told Chron this month. “There need to be restrictions on some of the things that are going on right now where it’s not just free-free fall every six months.”

Moon, now 69, played his college games on the west coast at Washington when Pac-8 games were watched by a small fraction of the country each week. Ware had more fanfare as a collegiate player. He took college football by storm in his senior season with the Houston Cougars in 1989, earning the Heisman Trophy with nearly 4,700 yards passing and 46 touchdowns (both NCAA highs) in 11 games.

Ware became a major celebrity in Houston and nationwide in 1989. The Galveston kid became something of a local hero. For Ware, there was no absence of fanfare. But he insists there’s still a crucial difference between his collegiate career and that of many recent Heisman-worthy quarterbacks, who log stints at multiple programs and secure major gains in NIL contracts as a result. Ware says his greatest joy as a quarterback didn’t come from awards or esteem. Rather, a bond with his teammates, forged over multiple years of mutual growth.

Ware didn’t attend the Heisman Trophy ceremony in New York in 1989. Instead, he remained in Houston before a season-finale against Rice, where he famously watched the ceremony with his Houston offensive lineman. Ware insists no amount of NIL money could have poached him from Houston. When a quarterback makes a commitment, he’s obliged to keep it.

“All someone has to do now is open a wallet and a kid will switch,” Ware said. “It’s one of the things coaches always tell me. But if you commit, stay committed. It says a lot about your character.”

Moon admits he isn’t quite so much of a hardliner as his fellow Houston legend. Moon’s career, in some ways, is defined by its winding course. He started his collegiate career at West Los Angeles College before making the leap to major college football at Washington. He won four straight championships in the Canadian Football League from 1978-81, and his NFL career included four franchises from 1984-2000. Moon doesn’t want an overly-strict approach. He just wants to fortify the currently crumbling guardrails. 

“I understand why guys end up leaving, but I don’t really like it. I think there should be some more parameters behind it,” Moon said. “Parameters should be put on how much you can move around, if you have to sit out a year after you transfer. … There are plenty of things [the NCAA] can do.

“The old structure wasn’t perfect. It works better than this.”

Moon then removes his metaphorical soap box for a moment, offering understanding through a more personal moment of reflection. Moon was a young quarterback once, widely considered one of the top upcoming passers during his time at Washington. “If I was playing today, everything would be different. I would command top dollar,” Moon says.

The actual money is important, of course, but Moon hints at something deeper in the NIL and college compensation game these days, especially among top quarterbacks. Just as chasing passing records is a competition, so is the jockeying for contract dollars. That battle was previously waged professionally. It’s now done collegiately, a system Moon and Ware can understand given their own superstar journeys. 

“If I was the same type of caliber player today as I was back then, yeah, I’d be a big time earner,” Moon says. “I’d be at the top with just about any other player.”