Injuries didn't keep Gale Sayers out. If somebody came along and looked at his stats they could be making the same claims as you are about Joe. And actually have a better case Sayers made it on his recognized talent. And his place in the history of the sport Looking back at stats without historical context is shortsighted and narrowminded Namath was a great talent and his place within the history of the sport is gigantic. that's why he IS in the HOF. Bear Bryant called Joe the most talented athlete he ever coached. There's always some naysayer latching onto anything they can
Try reading the article 3-4 more times. It directly addresses the point you and others who never saw him play make. How is it that voters in the 70s almost unanimously voted him the best QB in AFL history and consider him the best QB of the late 60s-early 70s, but people like you who have never seen him play look at the TD to Int number and make assumptions that ignore so many factors? As the article points out, those interception numbers are skewed because he played 2-3 years more than he should have on very very bad teams. It is very telling that virtually every person who claims Namath is overrated did not see him play. You also display a lack of knowledge about SB III. Namath called the plays in that game and dismantled a Colts defense that was considered among the best in NFL history before that game. He kept them off balance all game by countering the pass rush with runs and short passes that were completely uncharacteristic for the Jets before thst game. He duped them all game long. You have to realize that the entire football world thought the Colts defense was going to put Namath on his back all game long. Namath's play calling was brilliant. But you wouldn't know that without context. Yes the Jets defense also played very well, but it's a team game, right?. Take a look at the stats for the second halh, particularly the third quarter or watch the entire game some day. The Jets held the ball for something like 13 minutes in the third quarter and Namath did not throw a pass in the fourth quarter.
If I'm not mistaken he only threw more TD in only 2 or 3 years then ints. I guess Geno play is because he been on bad teams? No it not
Yeah...but....yeah...but...what about his stats? Lol. He was the best QB of that generation. Like someone else pointed out, if you'd never seen Gale Sayers play you'd question his enshrinement. If you ever saw him play once, you'd never question it again. One of the greatest. Except for the "stats". _
Really. But the laugh I got from Geno Smith being interjected into this and somehow compared to Joe F Namath is way better, hahahahaa
I'm sorry but because your on a bad team no excuse for how you play. That my point. I'm not blaming Geno bad play on the team I blame it on Geno. I'm not comparing any of them to Namath. It seems that what you want to think since all you and other dude can do is blame bad play on bad teams. Yes Joe had a quick release and strong but a lot of sorry ass QB's had those. Jeff George to think of one
If stats were so important, there wouldn't even be a Brady v Manning argumentn First Geno, then Tebow and now you are comparing Namath to George? Please read the article. It explains why Namath is considered great even when viewing stats. Otherwise, you just sound ignorant. Again, for the thousandth time on this board, why do/did Namath's contemporaries and those that saw him play think he was great and young people like you just look at numbers and continue this ridiculous argument. Namath is not in the HOF because he won a SB and made commercials, despite what some of you think. Just do a little bit of research before typing.
Find one quote from me where I blame bad teams. So now the list of QBs you've compared to Joe Namath are: Tim Tebow Geno Smith Jeff George Wow. Step away. _
Well thank God your ignorant opinion (and it is TOTALLY IGNORANT to dismiss him on stats when you never saw him play live and don't understand what the game was like back then) doesn't count for anything. No true Jets fan is going to trash Joe Namath. It shows a total lack of understanding and ignorance about who the Jets are/were and what kind of player Namath was.
People who threw the ball a lot in the 60's threw a lot of picks. That was the price of doing business in a game where pass interference and mugging were synonymous and where a receiver had no protection at all from being hit in the air. In 1966 and 1967 Joe Namath threw 55 picks combined. That led the AFL by a comfortable margin over that span. He did this in 962 attempts, which also led the AFL by a significant amount. From 1962 to 1965 George Blanda threw 124 picks to lead the AFL by a wide margin. He did this in 1,788 attempts which also led the NFL by a wide margin. If you threw the ball a lot in the 60's and threw the ball deep you got picked a lot. It was part of the price of doing business. Blanda was a Pro Bowl QB in 1962 and 1963 while throwing 67 picks over those 2 seasons. People recognized that the interception was going to happen in that environment unless you played it very close to the vest on offense and they didn't penalize people for taking appropriate risks with the ball. Blanda threw 42 picks in 418 passes in 1962. The 10% interception percentage was terrible. The Oilers went 11-3 and scored 387 points that year and Blanda was in the Pro Bowl. With a 10% interception percentage. Then Joe Namath came along and began eclipsing single season records, passing for 3,379 yards, the 4th highest total in NFL history in his second season and then the unheard of number of 4,007 yards in 1967. Nobody had any doubt that he was the best passer in the game on any given pass. Teams were afraid of him in the same way that teams were later afraid of Dan Fouts and Dan Marino. He could beat you with his arm even when his team wasn't having a great day. People who look at the overall numbers and make comparisons just don't understand what the 1960's were like in comparison to more pass friendly eras later on. People who look at his career totals don't understand what happened with his knees. They just can't make the right comparisons because they lack the appropriate context to make them in. If Dan Marino had come into the NFL with bad knees and then missed most of his 27, 28 and 30 seasons with recurrent knee injuries his career would have looked much different overall. He'd still have been Dan Marino when he was on his game but the opportunity to have the statistical output that he had just wouldn't have been there. He would have made the Hall of Fame if he won an important Super Bowl in his 4th season and he wouldn't have made the Hall of Fame if he won the number of Super Bowls he actually won.
