Joe Namath played qb for the Jets from 1965 thru 1970 I believe....Those were the days....qbs playing while defensive linemen were breaking qb jaws and kicking offensive linemen in the balls....no pussyfooting like today. Its just not the same game today. You just cannot compare statistics from THEN and TODAY and make any kind of meaningful comparison. Its like comparing gladiators to a tick tack tag team wrestling match today. Joe Namath transcended the sport. He actually completed games playing with a broken jaw and cracked ribs. He took a league (the old AFL) and took it to the "elite" NFL in the football game of the century.....He was a TRUE NEW YORK HERO and GREATEST JET of them all.....
Joe Namath was the Babe Ruth of the NFL Joe Namath played qb for the Jets from 1965 thru the early 1970s. Those were the days....qbs playing while defensive linemen were breaking qb jaws and kicking offensive linemen in the balls....no pussyfooting like today. Its just not the same game today. You just cannot compare statistics from THEN and TODAY and make any kind of meaningful comparison. Its like comparing gladiators to a tick tack tag team wrestling match today. Joe Namath transcended the sport. He actually completed games playing with a broken jaw and cracked ribs. He took a league (the old AFL) and took it to the "elite" NFL in the football game of the century.....He was a TRUE NEW YORK HERO and GREATEST JET of them all.....He forced the OLD NFL to merge the draft and consolidate the two leagues and bought FOOTBALL to the nation's TV consciousness.....
No... Babe Ruth made baseball what it is and was a MAJOR part of the switch from dead ball to modern ball. Joe Namath was important, yes, but he didn't change the way the game was played, he was just a factor of a TEAM that was a small part that brought the AFL and NFL together.
I think the poster meant that both Willie Joe and Babe Ruth were boozers and skirt chasers. They owned the night.
Exactly how did Babe Ruth change the way the game was played?....Joe Namath bought NFL football to the nation's consciousness and forced the TV networks to pay millions for the privilege of reporting the sport....he's the single individual most responsible fot TV paying millions to broadcast the sport on CBS,,NBC,,,ABC and ESPN....
and NO offense to Curtis Martin,,,who is a future HOFer,,,but put him on national TV 35 years from NOW (the last time Joe Namath played) and see how much of the country will recognize him,,,,and see how much passion he will evoke from the Jet faithful....
Well, to be fair, Bednarik will pretty much criticize anybody when given the chance. I particularly like this one regarding Deion Sanders: "He couldn't tackle my wife. He's back there dancing out there instead of hitting.? - Chuck Bednarik
This is just silly. Babe Ruth was certainly the single most important figure in American sports - he singlehandedly took a sport that was in danger of being destroyed (because of the Black Sox scandal) and brought it back to national consciousness because of his exploits on and off the field. He was also better than any of his contemporaries by a wider margin than any athlete in history, hitting more home runs by himself than most teams multiple times. If you want to know who the single individual most responsible for NFL football becoming the national pastime, with the associated television revenues involved, that's easy - it's Pete Rozelle. He followed the model used by the far smaller AFL in getting the conservative NFL owners to agree to revenue sharing. He negotiated big money television contracts in the 1960s by playing one network against another. People think the AFL and NFL merged because of Super Bowl III, but that is not true - the merger was negotiated by Rozelle and Al Davis (AFL commissioner) in 1966, and was always scheduled to happen after Super Bowl IV. He was a key supporter of Monday Night Football, which was the single most important factor that led to the growth of the NFL. Namath and the Jets (and after him Dawson and the Chiefs in Super Bowl IV) gave legitimacy to the AFL teams, and made the transition to a single league much smoother. Namath was the glamorous face of the AFL, and made football cool for young people. He was a far better QB than his statistics would have you believe. He was not remotely close to Babe Ruth in importance, or to Pete Rozelle, or to Muhammed Ali, either.
No way. Your arguement about stats is a bad one especially since Ruth's stats are still the benchmark of baseball stats.
What always bothered me was that Unitas didnt start that game because of an injury and Shula put him in during the second half out of desperation. I just would have been a better victory if Unitas had been healthy and started the game instead of Morrall.......but hey a win is a win and Namath did get us there
Morrall was NFL MVP in 1968. He was the toast of the league until the Jets' D toasted him for 3 INTs.
Exactly, Unitas was hurt that entire year he had 2 TD and 4 INT's on 32 attempts in 68. Morall had a great year with 27 TD's and as you pointed out league MVP. That team prior to the SB against the Jets was widely considered the best team in NFL history at the time.
I met him at Bill's Meadowbrook, the old Jet and Hofstra hangout on Hempstead Turnpike. He bought me a drink and autographed a napkin for me which i still have 32 years later.
