Joseph William Namath (born May 31, 1943), also known as
Broadway Joe, was an American football Hall of Fame quarterback in the American Football League and National Football
League during the 1960s and 1970's. Namath played for the New York Jets for most of
his career. He finished out his career with the Los Angeles Rams.
Namath retired with a record of 77 wins, 108 losses and 3 ties. In his career he threw 173 touchdowns and 220 interceptions.
During his thirteen years in the AFL and NFL he played on three division champions (the 1968 and 1969 AFL East Champion Jets and the
1977 NFC West Champion Rams), earned one league championship (1968 AFL
Championship), and one championship (Super Bowl III). He was 2-1 as a starter in
the playoffs.
In 1999, he was ranked number 96 on The Sporting News' list of the 100 Greatest
Football Players. He was the only player on the list to have spent a majority of his career with the Jets.
He is known for brashly telling the media that he guaranteed that his team would upset Don
Shula's NFL Baltimore Colts in the third
NFL-AFL Championship Game in 1969. The Jets did exactly that.
Early life and family
Namath's Hungarian born grandfather, known as A.J. to his family and friends, came to
Ellis Island and worked in the coal and steel industries of the Pittsburgh Metro Area. Joe referred
to his own ethnicity as "Bohunk." While growing up, Joe was close to both of his parents, who were divorced. Following his
parents' split, Joe lived with his mother, Rose.
He was born and raised in Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania, twenty miles away
from Pittsburgh, one of the many steel towns in Beaver County. He was a standout in basketball and
baseball. In an age where dunks were still uncommon in high school, Namath regularly dunked in
games. However football prevailed, even though, upon graduation, he received offers from six Major League Baseball teams, including the Yankees, Mets, Indians, Reds, Pirates, and Phillies.
Namath has told interviewers that he wanted to sign with the Pirates and play baseball like his idol, Roberto Clemente, but elected to play football because his mother wanted him to get a college
education.
Namath had many offers from Division I college football programs, including Penn
State, Ohio State, Alabama, and Notre Dame, but initially decided upon the University of Maryland. He was rejected from Maryland because his college-board scores were just below the school's requirements; he scored in the low 730's, while Maryland required
750. After ample recruiting by University of Alabama's head football coach,
Bear Bryant, Namath accepted a full scholarship to
Alabama. Bryant states his decision to recruit Namath was "the best coaching decision I ever made."
College football career
At Alabama, Namath played under the legendary coach Paul
"Bear" Bryant from 1962 through 1964. A year after being suspended for the final two games of the season, he led the
Crimson Tide to a National Championship in 1964. Alabama went 29-4 with Namath at
quarterback. Bryant would one day call Namath "the greatest athlete I ever coached." While
many speculated on what was anticipated to be a stormy relationship between a freedom-loving player and an iron-fisted coach,
Namath returned Bryant's praise, often referring to him as "not only the smartest coach I ever knew, but the man who taught me
the meaning of integrity." When Namath was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1985, he broke down during his
induction speech upon mentioning Bryant, who passed away two years earlier from a heart attack.
Pro football career
Despite suffering a serious knee injury in his senior year at Alabama, Namath was drafted by both the National Football League
and the upstart American Football League. The two competing leagues held their respective drafts on the same day --
November 28, 1964.
The NFL's St. Louis Cardinals selected Namath 12th overall in their draft, while
the Jets selected him with the AFL's first overall pick. He elected to sign with the Jets, who were under the direction of Hall
of Fame owner Sonny Werblin, for a salary of more than $400,000 (a pro football record at
the time).
Namath was the American Football League Rookie of the
year in 1965 and became the first professional quarterback to pass for 4,000 yards in a season (1967), a feat which
remained a record for the 14-game seasons that were played during that time. [1] He was a four-time American Football League
All-Star, although he was plagued with knee injuries through much of his career. These injuries, which caused his knees to
swell up with fluid and require periodic draining, plagued Namath for the rest of his career. On some occasions, Namath had to
have his knee drained at halftime so that he could finish a game. Later in life, long after he left football, he had to have
knee replacement surgery on both legs.
In the 1968 AFL title game, Namath threw three touchdown passes to lead New York to a 27-23
win over the defending American Football League Champion Oakland Raiders. His
performance in the 1968 season earned him the Hickok Belt as top professional athlete of the
year. Namath was an AFL All-Star four times, in 1965, 1967, 1968,
and 1969. He was a AFC-NFC Pro Bowler in 1972. Besides having the Hall of Fame distinction, he
is a member of the Jets' all-time team and the American Football League
All-Time Team.
The apex of his career was his performance in the Jets' January 1969 win over the Baltimore Colts in the AFL-NFL World Championship
Game, now referred to as the Super Bowl. The Colts were touted as "the greatest
football team in history". Former NFL star and coach Norm Van Brocklin ridiculed the
AFL before the game, saying "This will be Namath's first professional football game." Writers from NFL cities insisted it would
take the AFL several more years to be truly competitive with the NFL. Much of the hype surrounding the game was related to how it
would either prove or disprove the proposition that the AFL teams were truly worthy of being allowed to merge with the NFL; the first two such games had resulted in blowout victories for the NFL champion in
the two previous years, the Green Bay Packers, and the Colts were even more favored by
media figures and handicappers than the Packers had been.
Three days before the game, Namath responded to a heckler with the now-famous line: "We'll win the game. I guarantee you." His
words eventually made headlines across the country, but were dismissed as mere bravado by most observers.
In the game, however, Namath backed up his boast and showed that his success against tough American Football League
competition had more than prepared him to take on the NFL. The Colts' vaunted defense was unable to contain the Jets' running or
passing game, while their ineffective offense gave up four interceptions to the Jets. Namath was the game's MVP, completing eight passes to George Sauer
alone, for 133 yards. Namath acquired legendary status for American Football League fans as the symbol of their league's
legitimacy.
Not long after this, Namath grew a Fu Manchu moustache, which contrasted him even
more with his clean-shaven peers. In probably the most touted act in the history of shaving, Namath shaved his mustache off in a
television commercial for Remington
electric razors for a fee of $10,000.
After the season, Namath opened a popular Upper East Side bar called "Bachelors III", which quickly became frequented by social undesirables, with plans to
open branches in Florida and Boston. To protect the league's reputation, the NFL Commissioner, Pete Rozelle, ordered Namath to divest himself of his interest in the bar. Namath reacted defiantly,
retiring from football during a teary news conference. Down at the NFL offices panic ensued. His presence on Sunday afternoons
meant millions of dollars in television ad revenue. Working through intermediaries, a meeting between Namath and Rozelle was
arranged. It lasted well into the night, and in the end the antagonists reached a compromise. Namath would sell his share of the
New York Bachelors III only. He would retain his shares of the Boston and Miami locations, as well as any that might open in the
future. After missing most of training camp, Namath came out of retirement and reported to the Jets.
The head of ABC's televised sports, Roone Arledge, made sure that Monday Night Football's
inaugural game would feature Namath and the New York Jets in a game against the
Cleveland Browns in Cleveland Municipal
Stadium. A record crowd of 85,703 and a huge television audience watched the Jets set a team record for penalties and lose
on a late Namath interception.
After not missing a single game because of injury in his first five years in the league, Namath played in just 28 of a 58
possible games because of various injuries between 1970 and 1973 as the Jets struggled with records of 4-10, 6-8, 7-7, and 4-10.
His most memorable moment in those four seasons came on September 24, 1972 in Baltimore, when he and boyhood idol Johnny Unitas combined for 872
passing yards. Namath bombed the Colts for 496 yards and six touchdowns in a 44-34 victory, New York's first victory over
Baltimore since Super Bowl III. In that same game, Unitas threw for 376 yards and three touchdowns. This game is considered by
many NFL experts to be the finest display of passing in a single game in league history.
When he played, Namath always managed to improve the Jets level of play. In a 1974 game against city rival New York Giants, Namath scored a game-tying touchdown on a five-yard bootleg, and then hit
Emerson Boozer with a touchdown pass in overtime to lift the Jets to a 26-20 victory (the
first regular season game in NFL history to be decided in overtime), launching
New York on a six-game winning streak to end the 1974 season at 7-7. The Jets were poised to make another play-off run under
Namath's leadership, and "Gang Green" seemed likely to win during the 1975 pre-season, but collapsed after the short NFL strike
of September as 1975 and 1976 became a series blow-outs punctuated by punishing sacks of Joe Namath. The Jets were lucky to
finish 3-11 both years.
In the twilight of his career, Namath was waived by the Jets to facilitate his move to the Los Angeles Rams when a trade couldn't be worked out. He was signed by the Rams on May 12, 1977. Namath hoped to revitalize his flagging career, but by this point his
effectiveness as a quarterback was greatly reduced by his knee injuries, a bad hamstring and
the general ravages of a long period of time playing professional football, as well as his "hard and fast" lifestyle. After a 2-1
start, Namath took a beating on a cold, windy and rainy Monday night game in a one point loss at the Chicago Bears and was through for the regular season.
He did not play again, but redemption and a Hollywood ending was there for the taking. After a disastrous three quarters of
turnovers and only trailing by seven points in the opening round of the play-offs, Head coach Chuck
Knox seemed ready to pull Pat Haden and insert Namath. Rams assistant coach
Kay Stephenson said Joe looked great warming-up in the third quarter and advised Knox to
put him in. The television audience was on the edge of their seat's as it appeared Namath would replace Pat Haden and save the
Ram's season. But Knox hesitated. Haden's problems continued and the Rams lost to the Vikings by a score of 14-7 in a sea of mud
at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. Namath retired from the Rams after a
single season. Joe Namath is in the Hall of Fame despite being just a 50% career passer and throwing 50 more interceptions than
touchdowns. Namath's bravado prior to Super Bowl III and reputation for having the quickest release of any quarterback in any era
was responsible for his entrance into the Hall. Only Dan Marino of the Miami Dolphins has been compared to Namath for his rocket
release time.
Movie and television career
Namath went on to a minor career as an actor in several movies
and starred in a brief 1978 television series, The
Waverly Wonders. He guest-starred on everything from The Brady Bunch
to The Flip Wilson Show and Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In to The Dean
Martin Show and The Simpsons to The
A-Team and "The John Larroquette Show." He was guest host on
The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson several times, as
well as hosting his own show, the 1969 cult classic The Joe Namath Show (co-hosted by Dick
Schaap) with its eclectic guest pairings and open-bar attitude.
He was also used as a color commentator on broadcasts of NFL games for a while,
including the 1985 season of Monday Night Football, but never seemed to be
particularly comfortable in this role and slightly over-critical of then current players.
Controversial moments
By far, his most controversial moment was the long multimedia event reported above under Pro Football Career when his words
made headlines across the country and were discussed wildly on talk and sports programs preceding the January 1969 game, now
called Super Bowl III. Three days before the game, Namath responded to one particularly loud heckler with the now-famous line:
"We'll win. I guarantee it." which sparked the media feeding frenzy. (It is noted,
however, in at least one Namath biography that Namath's guarantee, while being made before the game, did not get widespread press
until after the Jets won Super Bowl III.)
Some would argue that the term 'Super Bowl' came about as he aptly made the AFL's case on the field that day. Shortly
afterwards, his fame assured, Namath created new controversy by starring in a succession of commercial advertisements as
something of a playboy 'sex symbol', including an outrageous commercial for pantyhose (with
Namath wearing them) that for the time, in the 'plain vanilla' TV-culture then,
were viewed by many as borderline tasteful. This spawned a new era of television advertising with athlete sex-symbols that
continues today.
In December, 2003, Namath gained new notoriety, apparently after partaking of too much celebratory champagne during the Jets' announcement of their all-time team. During live ESPN coverage of Jets' game, Namath was asked about Chad Pennington and
his thoughts on the struggles of that year's squad. Namath expressed confidence in Pennington, and then stated to the
interviewer, Suzy Kolber, "I want to kiss you. I couldn't care less about the team
strugg-a-ling." He has since apologized. Later, he publicly admitted to an alcohol problem, and entered into an outpatient
alcoholism treatment program on January 12
2004, the 35th anniversary of Super Bowl III.
Namath was also featured on the "Master list of Nixon political opponents." This was particularly ironic since Namath claims
to have voted for Nixon in both 1968 and 1972.
Currently
Namath has a new book out published by Rugged Land Books, which is currently on the New York Times extended Bestseller List
(#23) and was recently interviewed for the November 19, 2006 edition of 60
Minutes on CBS network. He was back at his old alma mater, Alabama, [1]
studying for the degree that he did not complete in 2006. His youngest daughter just gave birth. He currently lives in the ritzy
village Tequesta, Florida.
Icon and adverts
Namath's nickname was "Broadway Joe"; he is sometimes called "Joe Willie Namath", a characterization popularized by
Howard Cosell. He originated the fad of wearing a full-length fur coat on the sidelines, a
habit which was adopted by many players after him. He also appeared in television advertisements both during and after his playing career, most notably for shaving cream (in which he was
shaved by a then-unknown Farrah Fawcett) and pantyhose; they contributed to his becoming something of a pop-culture icon. He has appeared in advertising as
recently as 2003. He reportedly lived a somewhat hedonistic lifestyle and many anecdotal reports exist of women propositioning
him for dates whenever he was seen in public places.
Namath also opened several bars using his nickname Broadway Joe's in both New York City and in Tuscaloosa, Alabama (location of the University of
Alabama). These continue today with moderate success.
Namath spent many years appearing as a booster for golf tournaments and other good causes, for years for youth camps including
football camps and lately for arthritis. He has served as a March of Dimes volunteer for over 40 years. Most recently he was the
March of Dimes' WalkAmerica Honorary Chair from 1998-2007. He also holds a celebrity golf outing annually on Long Island to
benefit the March of Dimes.
Namath had many notable lines during the NFL Films presentation of NFL 75 Seasons. Recounting his 1969 Super Bowl performance,
he said "It was such a feeling of elation, joy, tickling explosions inside, the teammates we did it, we were #1". "The same three
words keep coming back: 'We did it. WE DID IT.'" Namath's infectious and genuine joy at recounting this made it natural for NFL
Films to feature this quote in advertisements for its historic series, somewhat ironic, since Super Bowl III was a resounding
American Football League victory, and an ignominious defeat for
the arrogant NFL.
Talking about the Raiders he said, "You were always playing a tough football team, and some of the guys cheated. Some of the
guys kicked and bit and hit ya in the back, some of that kind of stuff, hit ya in the back of the head, and it's on film".
See also
References
- ^ NFL 2001 Record and Fact Book, Edited by Randall Liu, p. 439, Workman
Publishing, 2001, ISBN 0-7611-2480-2
- Kriegel, Mark (2004). Namath: A Biography. New York: Penguin Books. ISBN
0-670-03329-4.
External links
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