Broadway Joe, lord of the links October 7, 2008 Joe Namath was surrounded by his old bodyguards, Winston Hill, Dave Herman and John Schmitt. Darryl Strawberry, Gary Carter, Bobby Ojeda and Howard Johnson, all members of the '86 Mets, sat together in the group photo. Julius Erving was there, looking like he could still fly. Some of the greatest pass rushers in NFL history, Deacon Jones, Richard Dent, Ted Hendricks and L.C. Greenwood, were on hand, too. It was wall-to-wall Hall of Famers from all the major sports. This was the scene this morning at Bethpage State Park on Long Island, where Namath held his annual celebrity golf tournament to benefit the March of Dimes foundation. Spearheaded by Brooks Thomas, himself a former Jets PR man, the tournament attracted about 350 golfers and was expected to raise more than $700,000 for the charity. There were enough celebs to choose up all-star teams for the various sports. Naturally, Namath was the center of attention. Every time I see Namath with his old teammates - and there were plenty at the event - I'm struck by how they gravitate toward him, how much they admire him. Namath was perceived by many as a superstar/playboy quarterback, the originator of "the guarantee," but his former teammates know him in a different light. Larry Grantham, a terrific linebacker on the Jets' Super Bowl team in '68, is battling cancer but he flew up from Memphis out of loyalty to Namath. Dave Herman, best known for shutting down the Colts' Bubba Smith in Super Bowl III, called Namath "probably the best teammate I ever played with." Former receiver Richard Caster, who still lives on Long Island, picked up Namath this morning at his hotel and they reminisced on the way to the golf course, talking about that amazing day in '72 when Namath set a Jets record with six touchdown passes against the Colts - three to Caster. Ten days ago, Brett Favre tied that record. I spoke to Namath and some of the old Jets about Favre and, more than his legendary arm strength, they raved about his intangibles. In that respect, they compared him to Namath. As for Broadway Joe, he was fired up about Favre's arrival, saying, "This is the most exciting beginning of a season we've had in some time." Maybe since you were the quarterback, I told Namath. He laughed. "Yeah, and the Triborough Bridge was 25 cents," he said. "It was a little different back then." For the rest of Namath's comments - he expects big things from the Jets if the rest of the team can raise itself to Favre's level - check out my story in tomorrow's paper. Here's a partial list of the celebrities in attendance. It was a pretty impressive group: Hall of Famers: Namath, Carter, Hendricks, Jones, Erving, Jim Kelly, Joe DeLamielleure and Steve Largent. Members of the '68 Jets: Hill, Herman, Schmitt, Emerson Boozer, Mike D'Amato, Randy Beverly. Other former Jets: Lance Mehl, Bruce Harper, Erik McMillan, Ken Schroy, Lou Benfatti, Victor Green, Greg Buttle, Joe Klecko, Chad Cascadden, Marty Lyons and Rich Kotite. Other former football players: Jonathan Ogden, Chris Doleman, Jim Burt, Karl Nelson, Jim Hart, Jimmie Giles, Ed Marinaro (of "Hills Street Blues" fame), Louis Lipps, Mike Wagner, Pete Banaszak, Jim McMahon (wearing lime-green golf slacks), Phil Villapiano, Sterling Sharpe, Ed "Too Tall" Jones, Bart Oates, Jacob Green. Former baseball players: Ralph Branca, Reggie Smith, Tony Womack, David Wells. Former boxers: James "Bonecrusher" Smith and Gerry Cooney. Former golfer: Lee Elder. Former hockey player: Clark Gillies. __________________
Hard to say he's wrong. Well I wasn't around for Namath - if you take a step back and look at his career, he just had one solid season and that lead to a Super Bowl. Not trying to knock him down, I know he was a big name back in thsoe days. Even Still, Brett Favre is far more popular, and has had more success, then 90% of the players in the hall of fame. Now, I know stats are not everything, but if you want to be bigger then favre, you had better have teh rings to prove it. Such as Montana. Now that man knew how to win games. Look, Namath has that reputation to the masses because I really think hje wanted to be percieved as that. Even Still, Brett Favre is a far bigger name int he headlines then Namath ever was, or will be.
Packerbacker, what you are overlooking is that chicks dig the long ball. If Favre throws enough bombs he will overtake Namath in the messiah QB category.
While he wont be with the jets long enough to take over the long ball, Favre has had more long balls then Namath could even dream of completeing in a life time. Ahh yes... anyone besides packer fans remember his nice 99 yard bomb? Those were the days.
Its fu**in' ignorant to even have this argument. His name doesn't even belong in your mouth. There's lines here that shouldn't be crossed--my opinion. I'll leave it to the veterans to discuss this with you if in fact they care to.
In terms of the Jets and the Jets only, Namath is still the king of this franchise. Favre can overtake Namath with a SB win and other successful seasons, but that may not even be enough. An interesting debate would be who is more iconic, I will of course back Namath, but that would be a cool study.
I was around for Namath (I was a kid but I was around). No doubt Favre's achievements on the field surpass Namath's (blame the knees). But Favre will never have the impact in popular culture that Namath had in the late 1960s, and which resonates to this day. Think Muhammad Ali or Michael Jordan. His time was brief, but in that time, Namath changed the image of pro football itself and turned the Super Bowl into the event it is to this day. Brett Favre and every other star quarterback since Namath is indebted to him, because he was the one that brought the glamor to the QB position. No one else did.
Allow me to illustrate what I mean by "glamor" Exhibit A, pre-Namath: Bart Starr (remember him, Packer people? He was the Chad Pennington of his day) was a great QB, but he came off like Ward Cleaver in pads. Exhibit B, Namath in 1968: looks like a member of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band in pads. You are witnessing a barrier being broken.
That's exactly what I was thinking, I would have thought he would be shot on site with a tranquilizer gun, and dragged off the course back to his nursing home for a bowl'a'matzo-ball soup.......almost as insane to invite Herm back for a Edwards/Mangini family barbaque ...........:smile::up::up::wink:
Yeah all we need is a potent D & a smash mouth running game to go along with BF & we would be in fat city
FAVRE is a great QB (and I've always been a fan), but NAMATH has an iconic value that no other player can ever touch IMO, particularly for this franchise. :jets:
I really dislike trying to compare quarterbacks from different eras, it really was a different game back then, not better, not worse, but the rules were very different than they are today, of course athelets today are also bigger and faster than they were then and also surgical technicals are certainly much better, one has to wonder if Joe's knees would have been as big of an issue with todays surgery techniques. Now for the young ones here, wish I were young again, back in the day there was no in the grasp, QB's got hammered just like anyone else, but the really big difference was in the passing game. Back in Namaths day about the only pass intereference calls were if the ball was in the air towards the receiver being knocked down. It wasn't uncommon to see receivers get pancaked running their routes because there was no 5 yard contact zone, basically you could do everythhing short of grab a receiver as long as the ball wasn't in the air, that's why alot of 60's receivers were really big guys, they had to be. Dan Marinos smurfs would have never caught a ball, they woulda been pancaked more often than not while running their routes. That's not saying old time players were better or that modern players are better, you really just can't compare them because the game is so different, it's like trying to compare a QB from the 40's to one in the 60's to one in the 80's...because the rules and the way the game has changed so much between these era's there's just no way to really compare them. Though I will say that Namaths 4000 yard season in 67 really stands out considering the era it was played in only 7 other players through 1968 had ever thrown for atleast 3300 yards or more, compared to 242 players since the 70's who have thrown for 3300 yards or more in a season. of course now there have been 66 players with more than 4000 yards in a season....
