Watching a movie called Remember the Titans. A football movie telling the story of a high school football team from the 1970's. In the state championship game, there is a play by the opponent. Titans Defensive Coordinator is shocked by a play and he is seen saying the sentence in the subject line. "Shotgun... Who do they think they are? New York Jets?" Was surprised to see New York Jets being mentioned in this movie. Was Namath even playing at that time or was he retired? Sorry I am a pretty new Jet fan and don't know a lot about Jets football history? What the heck is this "Shotgun" being associated with the Jets?
He did not play much in 71 due to injuries, only played in 4 games. They used the shotgun a lot during the early 70's since Namath's knees where so banged up and he could not move around much at all.
Flash Gordon was QB of the NY Jets in the 1980 remake. Why? Because the position of QB of the NY Jets had heroic overtones at the time that were all Joe Namath.
I don't remember the shotgun being used then, but I do remember the first game he played that year was one of the most memorable losses in Jets history for anyone there. It was Thanksgiving weekend at Shea and Namath was to suit up but not play because his rehab from a preseason game injury and surgery was not completed. Al Woodall (I think) had gotten hurt Friday or Saturday and could not play so Bob Davis was the only healthy QB available and started the game. It was a cloudy, cold, miserable day and Davis was the same before getting knocked out shortly before the half. This is probably the moment that some misguided reporter referenced when he said that Jets fans were so terrible that they even cheered their own players getting hurt. What actually happened was not cheering that anyone got hurt, but that not many people seemed to know Namath was the last man standing, even if standing somewhat gingerly. You have to remember there was no interweb and with the holiday, a lot of people hadn't heard the news about Woodall (or whoever) being unavailable. But as the few of us aware realized Namath was the only QB left a small cheer began and very slowly built until the other 60,000 realized Namath was taking off that big warmup parka and loosening up his arm as the place then roared. It literally made the hair on the back of my neck stand up and I remember that today. The Jets were down 17-0 when Namath came in and dominated in the second half, throwing three touchdown passes, the first a bomb to Richard Caster. San Francisco scored after that one and held on for a 24-21 win but anyone watching that game not only saw, but felt, the huge momentum swing when number 12 hit the field; the game just ended a minute or two too early for the Jets. Even Junc would have no argument if he experienced that but he'll probably look up the stats and tell us about seventeen other non-HOF quarterbacks whose numbers are better. Sucks for him.
