I can feel the tone in your post as to how much you’d like to be playing AFL park football again. Great post man, thanks for the awesome narrative.
I'm older than Joe and remember it well. I go back to yankees football team and of course the titans. In my circle we had two definite opinions. The NFC was way better or the AFC could beat them. Constant arguing. The build up to the game was fantastic. Of course, 1969, should be remembered for quite a few other momentous events. The METS. The Knicks. A big time mayoral race in NYC. And the best for last, the moon landing. I was too old for hero worship at that point. I mean I had Mickey and Willie, Jim Brown, Wilt, Russel and Oscar. But i always felt Namath was a bit underrated. Yes, underrated. He was always compared to Johnny U. Namath was a great player and the team gave us a tremendous thrill that year.
I was 13, & my dad & I went to my aunt... she had the color TV, we, still black n'white. I had no doubts they'd win, but did get some palps when Johnny U hit the field. I remember it pretty vividly, but that may be because I watch the game now & then. For anyone who hasn't seen it, there's a thread on TGG... https://forums.theganggreen.com/threads/vintage-jets-games.98148/ If anyone has access to free storage, I can upload it. Also, tenyardtorrents (https://talk.tenyardtracker.com/login) has a thread with it.) .
I should be chiming in here, but I can't - I never saw the game; I believe it's the only Super Bowl (or Superbowl) I didn't see as it happened. I had been drafted and was on the other side of the world and television service was extremely limited. I've seen bits and pieces of the game since then but strangely have never felt the desire to track down the complete game which I believe has come available in the past few years. I do, however, disagree with @Cman that Namath was the Rodgers of his time. The only controversy regarding Namath was that which @Since1969 describes between the old guard NFL suit wearing fans and the AFL jeans and boots or sneakers types. In general his persona was one of a very nice, humble and friendly guy who, while wearing a long fur coat, was still only steps away from his coal country upbringing. It would have been basically impossible at the time to create and continuously feed the kind of division that social media with its instant response enables today.
Somehow, Namath was seen as such a threat to the established order that he wound up on Nixon's enemies list. God knows why. Namath was completely apolitical. Maybe Nixon had bet on the Colts.
You really should watch Supe III. The quality aint bad, & just as an historical thing, seeing what TV looked like in '69, their uniforms... & how the game has progressed/regressed since then. I'd be happy to upload it. As for Joe Willie, there was the Bachelor's III soap opera also. .
My Dad was a Sony distributor/dealer back then and we didn't even have a Trinitron yet... had to make do with our old 25" RCA console. I was so excited that I barely remember the game... though I've watched it more than a few times since.
Yep, Pete Rozelle was maintaining his version of what players should be off the field as well as on, even with no criminality involved. The change there has been that society will no longer approve of that type of control being instituted by employers. That doesn't mean that Goodell wouldn't be thrilled to have that power back and plenty of fans would support whatever he said.
The Furs, the Broads, the white shoes, all of it. He may have had a humble upbringing, but during that time, he was literally the King of New York. Especially after "The Boast".
I hope you're not saying Rodgers is now the King of New York. Namath was known for what he accomplished here. Rodgers? Not so much.
I think you had to live through the 60's to fully appreciate the counter culture symbols. This was an awful decade in the US, from JFK through the Vietnam war. There really was a divide between young adults and older adults who served in WW2 or Korea. Joe Willie thumbed his nose at the establishment, just as many young folks wished they could have. A clash of values. No computers. No cell phones. No internet. But, as today, the media, in print and TV, made heroes or villains'.
Hauling one of those monstrosities out of your grandmas house is like a universal suburban America rite of passage. Like your older sister playing Rumours over and over for a year and a half.
Rodgers is not King of NY mainly because he's hasn't done shit since his arrival. Relative to the times, Namath was a media darling before he won the SB. By today's standards, Rodgers is the gift that keeps on giving to the media as well. I'm having trouble finding more than a 2 day stretch where Rodgers was not in the news for something. Namath was flamboyant which kept him in the light. There's no denying that. Rodgers is just outrageous for the sole purpose of staying in the light. There is a huge difference however, the times were a lot simpler back then than they are today.
I was 11 at the time, and definitely watched it. Sometime I’m not sure if what I remember about it comes from the game, or from the many times I have watched videos of it through the years. Either way, the game definitely sent me down a path.
