Monday, January 28, 2008 Jerry Green: Super Bowl memories Namath changed the game forever PHOENIX -- The man who made the Super Bowl super walked stooped over with a shuffle and spoke in a cultivated Alabama drawl. He had long black hair and good looks and he could also pass a football. The ladies loved him, and his nocturnal escapades became part of a legend. The Ballad of Joe Willie Namath! The Sunday night Namath arrived at the Super Bowl he nearly became involved in a barroom brawl. The next morning he slept in when commissioner Pete Rozelle had ordered all athletes to appear for a grilling by the press. Rozelle fined him 50 bucks for disobedience. Tuesday, he again stiffed the cream of American sports journalism, assembled inside the Galt Ocean Mile Hotel in Fort Lauderdale. Then he was spotted shuffling through the lobby. He plopped himself alongside the swimming pool. Advertisement There, Joe Willie brushed off one intrepid Midwestern journalist. The guy sheepishly crept away. It was about then that the late Si Burick, a sports editor from Dayton, quietly approached me. "Namath's agreed to talk to a few of us," Si whispered. "Want to come?" "You betcha," I responded. So the Selected Six gathered around Joe Namath in the sunshine and listened to him speak in his cultivated drawl. "Somebody wrote I was fined for drinking J&B scotch," Namath said with the sunlight glaring off his bare chest. "Hell, I don't even drink J&B . . . unless they run out of Johnnie Walker Red. "I was fined for missing the picture session." Women ogled him over our shoulders. Joe Willie Namath was the symbol of the American Football League. It was league established by proud men who had been denied their ambitions to purchase franchises in the established NFL. The AFL went to war against the NFL. AFL clubs signed premier draft choices away from NFL clubs in a prolonged bidding battle. Namath was one of many stars coveted by NFL clubs who signed with what Rozelle mockingly called "The Other League." He had been drafted by the St. Louis Cardinals and turned down a lucrative contract to play in the NFL. He signed with the New York Jets for $424,000. In six years, the AFL had become a serious threat to the welfare of the NFL. A peace treaty, known eternally as The Merger, was agreed to by the AFL's Lamar Hunt and the NFL's Tex Schramm in the airport parking lot in Dallas. Part of the merger would be a match between the champions of the rival leagues. Still haughty NFL executives ridiculed the AFL as a league of inferior teams. And the inferiority was magnified when Vince Lombardi's NFL champion Packers soundly defeated the AFL's Chiefs in the first Super Bowl and routed the Oakland Raiders in the second. NFL owners, privately, were considering abandoning the entire concept of the Super Bowl. Super Bowl III was going to be the test -- and in the planning of the NFL, the grand finale. Super Bowls I and II had been duds. The following season, 1968, the Jets, with Namath, won the AFL championship. They were to be pitted against the NFL champion Baltimore Colts. Oddsmaker Jimmy The Greek installed Don Shula's Colts as 18-point favorites to beat the Jets. Shula figured Earl Morrall, in for John Unitas as the Colts' quarterback, would outduel Namath "There are five quarterbacks (in the AFL) who are better than Morrall," Namath said when the Jets won their AFL title. "Namath hasn't been throwing against the defense that Earl has been throwing against," countered Shula. Then the teams arrived in Florida on the Sunday before Super Bowl III. That evening Namath wandered into Jimmy Fazio's saloon. There he encountered the Colts' gruff Lou Michaels. "Namath," went the reconstructed conversation, "Lou Michaels." Namath just nodded. "You sure do a lot of talking, boy," Michaels said. "There's a lot to talk about," Namath responded. "We're going to kick the hell out of your team." The conversation turned bellicose until Namath picked up Michaels' bar tab. Two mornings later Namath, having snubbed the press at two media sessions, enchanted six journalists from NFL towns. And two nights later, at a banquet, he issued his famous statement: "We're going to beat the Colts. I guarantee it." Joe Namath delivered on the guarantee the following Sunday and saved the Super Bowl. And AFL teams became merged partners of the NFL. Last time, I read about Joe Willie Namath, the nocturnal creature who once stirred America, the article announced that he had become a grandpa. Article Tools: Print Email Comment
Ah those memories what a dream it was between 01/13/69 & the Sunday of the loss to KC in that drummed up PO game. What great feelings & emotions. It still warms the cockles of heart now some 39 years & a few days later when I think about it. At least you/I have felt it. Glorious times. With the present thinking on this board by most will insure that they will never experience what you/I & several others on this board have so SB3 may turn into a once in a lifetime treat for the NYJs organization as well
That is the man that is Joe Willie. That's why he is in the hall of fame. The stats guys bitch about him not having the numbers (although throwing for 4,000 yards in a 14 game season is effing amazing) but what he did was take the AFL on his sholders and say "come with me, I'll get you the respect you need", and that is exactly what he did. That's why Joseph William Namath is in the Hall of Fame.
That wasn't a "drummed up" or "trumped up" playoff game. Here is what I wrote to you on September 7, 2006 in response to you calling the game "trumped up"- Prior to the 1969 season the AFL decided to go to a playoff system whereby the 2nd place finishers in each division would qualify for the postseason (2nd place Western Division team would play 1st place Eastern Division team and vice versa). The league did this in part for money and to make sure the teams didn't have a bye week while the NFL played its conference championship. (The NFL had four divisions in 1969 and hence, four playoff teams.) In the Eastern Division the Jets went 10-4 and the Oilers went 6-6-2. In the Western Division the Raiders went 12-1-1 and the Chiefs went 11-3. Under 1968 rules, the Jets and Raiders would have met in the AFL title game. The Oilers and Chiefs would have gone fishing. But this was not 1968 anymore. The Chiefs beat the Jets 13-6 and the Raiders beat the Oilers 56-7. The Chiefs then beat the Raiders 17-7. "Trumped up" refers to something that is fraudulent. It's not like the league announced the new playoff system in early December. "Wow, look at this. The Chiefs are hot. Let's get them in the playoffs." No, again the change was announced prior to the season. There was nothing fraudulent about the 1969 AFL playoffs.
I didn't know any of that. Just out of curiousity, who finished third in the West, and how many games did they win?
Ask any Pats fan that posts here regularly, the team's play on the field is the direct result of how hard and righteous the fans root for them.
Here's the full standings- Eastern Division Jets 10-4 Oilers 6-6-2 Patriots 4-10 Bills 4-10 Dolphins 3-10-1 Western Division Raiders 12-1-1 Chiefs 11-3 Chargers 8-6 Broncos 5-8-1 Bengals 4-9-1
Well at least San Diego didn't miss out after winning 10 games or something. That'd be tough to stomach watching a team with 6 wins get in.
I never knew Namath to have smoked pot, but perhaps he did. If he did smoke pot and was quoted as saying that, then he stole the line from Tug McGraw.
That's another thing he changed. He was the pioneer for how people look at qb's and other football players outside of the field. Now adays they're more than just athletes, there like hollywood superstars as well. Thanks to Big Willie.
Sorry but Joe did not change the game all by himself the whole 69 Jets team had a part in that so why isn't that team in the HOF?
It's a proven fact that all the flashy good playes get into the HOF. Tell me why Art Monk not in the HOF but Miachel Irvin is?
True, but Willie brought hollywood glamour, and put football on the spotlight. Your right, he was known for a lot outside the field, but what he did outside the field helped the game as well.
