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Football Goes Broadway (Feature #1)-Draft

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J, 2014. -- As Super Bowl XLVIII is about to get underway at MetLife Stadium, the Broncos and Seahawks send out their captains to midfield for the coin toss. As team captains and NFL superstars Payton Manning, Champ Bailey, and Russell Wilson meet on the NFL logo on a cold 49-degree New Jersey night, cameras weren’t on either of the games star quarterbacks, but instead were on the 70-year-old Hall of Famer in his iconic full-length fur coat and a Super Bowl ring of his own on his finger. Football legend Joe Namath held the honor of flipping the coin, which he did in style on his old team’s home field, bringing back memories of his days of wearing giant fur coats over his New York Jets jersey on the sideline. The once gunslingers quick release was on display as flipped the coin prematurely as neither team has chosen a side, but the referee intercepted the coin, and he would flip it again.

The confidence, the swagger, and of course the fur coats, Joe Namath had it all. He wasn’t just a superstar quarterback, he was a national superstar, he was a celebrity who also played football. He was on the covers of magazines, the face of commercials, and was always a headline in the news. He was something that football had never had before, Broadway Joe was football's first celebrity. But all the confidence and swagger would have been for nothing in the eyes of NFL fans without winning, which Joe made sure to do with style.

The Guarantee

“The Colts are going to kick your ass.” Proclaimed by a heckler at Namath days before Super Bowl 3

How did the star gunslinger respond? Well of course in the only way he knew how, in style. Laying back relaxed poolside in Miami while surrounded by reporters, Joe took the heckle and without missing a beat delivered one of the most iconic lines in sports history,

“Hey, I got news for you. We’re going to win Sunday, I’ll guarantee you…”

Was it his unyielding confidence, the fact that he was a little tipsy, or cockiness that made him deliver this guarantee? It was probably a combination of all of the above, but that doesn’t matter, that was who Broadway Joe was, no matter the circumstances he would’ve always given that answer, and he would’ve believed it. To anyone who heard this guarantee, sports reporters, NFL fans, or even the underdressed women hoping to get even a look from him, this guarantee wasn’t just seen as a cocky remark, it was a completely insane claim that left his mouth. But this insane take that the underdog Jets would beat the powerhouse Baltimore Colts wasn’t insane to Joe, he believed it with his whole heart. He didn’t care what the odds were, what the reactions from reporters were, or even what his own coach had to say about it, Joe knew they were going to win, and that confidence wouldn’t just be held by him, as he would spread it like wildfire amongst the highly doubted Jets team until the whole team believed it.

“Joe has been trying to shake us up. That’s why he started all the talking. Well, now we’re properly shook, and I’ll tell you something else. It’s more than just his pregame behavior. He’s telling the truth. We are going to win.” Said Jets special teamer Bill Rademacher.

That confidence wouldn’t just stay poolside or in the Jets locker room, it would carry over to the field of the Miami Orange Bowl. When people called this confidence insanity, it’s because it was. The is well before the days of the NFL having the two conferences, the AFC and NFC, that were equal, there were no conferences, it was two leagues that would meet in the Super Bowl, the NFL with the Colts representing, and the AFL represented by the Joe and the Jets. The idea of an AFL winning it all was absurd to believe, but guaranteeing it was nothing short of insanity. The AFL was viewed as the little league compared to NFL, and this little league had a completely different style, the teams had flashier uniforms, the players had their names on their uniforms, and the AFL teams passed the ball, a lot. The AFL was a flashy upstart league that was gaining popularity with Broadway Joe as the face of it. But the AFL was not viewed to be on the same level as the storied NFL, who took home the wins of the first two super bowls.

The self-belief sparked by Namath was needed as the underdog Jets took the field against the Colts. Namath may have not had a great game numbers-wise, but the confidence he gave his team was exactly what they needed. The Jets defied all expectations and took down the Colts in a 16-7 game where New York’s defense and run game dominated the Colts. Joe's guarantee may have been insane, but insanity became reality on that day in Miami as the Jets gave the AFL their first Super Bowl champion and paved the way to making the AFL and NFL equals.

Joseph Willie Namath

Before the fame, before the guarantee, before the big contracts and all the spotlight, Joe Namath’s confidence and bravado were always there, and he was destined to be a star. Joseph Willie Namath was the youngest of four sons and would spend his childhood in Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania. At a young age, his parents would divorce, and he would go on to live with his mother and stay in Beaver Falls where he would attend Beaver Falls Highschool. In Highschool he was an exceptional three-sport athlete, playing basketball, baseball, and of course football. He was a standout quarterback while being a great baseball and basketball, where he would commonly dunk in-game, in an age before high schoolers dunking was common. In football, he would lead Beaver Falls to an undefeated record and WPIAL Class AA championship. He was destined to be a star coming out of high school, after he graduated, he had plenty of interest from professional baseball teams but he turned them down to pursue football. They say a mother always know right, and that was absolutely true for Joe as she pushed him to play college football and get a college education, and he had plenty of offers to play division 1 football and he would eventually choose the University of Maryland but despite being heavily recruited he was denied academically, and he would have to change his commitment to the University of Alabama.

The Battle of The Field

While on the football field life was easy for Joe, he was a star on the field but it’s when he stepped off the field is where the battle began. Starting at an early age the lowlights of his life started popping up. His relationship with his father was always less than ideal. When reflecting on his relationship with his father he mentioned how on occasion his dad would discipline him with his belt. He also recalls how at age 14 he and his father had an argument that would result in Joe not speaking to his father for two years. His lowlights would go well past his relationship with his father as they continued on to college. After a stellar first year as the starting quarterback, Joe carried it over into his second season as the Tides QB, but his season would not go on the way he planned. His coach Paul “Bear” Bryant was known as a disciplinarian, and he proved that reputation as Alabama’s season reached its final two games. Bryant would famously suspend Namath for the final two games of the season for breaking the team's no drinking policy. The suspension brought controversy with it as Namath was already a huge name in sports and now, he would have to watch his team play in a bowl game from the sideline. Joe would get his chance at redemption the following year as the Tide to be one of the best teams in the nation but four games into his season Joe would sustain a knee injury, sideling him again for most of the year. But his chance at redemption wasn’t over, later in the season he would get to enter a scoreless game in the second quarter and by halftime, Alabama was up 14-0 and he would go on to win the game. He would carry that momentum into the rest of the season as he dominated and lead Alabama to a 10-0 record and his status as a superstar kept growing. The stellar season would end in their Bowl game vs Texas where Joe was one yard short of winning the game and Texas would go on to win.

“When I got to the University of Alabama? wow! Coming from where I came from, I couldn’t believe it. Water fountains for whites were painted white; there were different bathrooms for whites and blacks; blacks had to sit in the backs of buses and whites had to sit up front. I just couldn’t understand it,”

His suspension was not the only low point of his college career, as upon arrival to Alabama Joe learn the dark truth of racism in America. Growing up Joe lived in a predominantly Black neighborhood where he wasn’t aware of the level of racism present in the rest of the country. While in a crowd at Alabama, the governor stood at the entrance of the school’s auditorium to stop Black students from entering in an effort to stop the desegregation of the school in 1963. Namath remembers admiring one of the students, Vivian Malone, for having the courage to endure the brutal racism of Governor Wallace and being able to become the university's first Black graduate.

While Joe was sitting in his freshman year dorm when one of his friends noticed a picture of him and his high school girlfriend, in an interview with Playboy years later he talks about the interaction, “My girl at the time was the football queen and the crown bearer was a black girl. The guy asked, “Hey Joe, is this your girl?” and I answered yes, thinking he was pointing at the queen. But he was pointing at the black girl. He said, “Oh, yeah?” and ran out and told everybody he could find that I was dating a black girl; so they started calling me [N-word]. I had a lot of bad times in the beginning, but it all changed.”

“When I fell back into the drinking, I was basically alone again in a sense.”

Even after Joe’s NFL career his demons still followed him. In 2000 he and his ex-wife divorced, and this hit Joe like a truck. He had been sober for 13 years at that point but that would change after the divorce as he recalls that he nearly drank himself to death. The once superstar was in a dark place as dealt with a battle with alcoholism. This struggle went on for years and in his autobiography, he looks back at the low point of it all, in a 2003 interview with ESPN’s Suzy Kolber where he made a fool of himself as he tried to kiss Kolber during the interview. While looking back he admits he was drunk during the interview and says he embarrassed his friends and family. That feeling of disappointing the people who always supported him never left him, but years later he thinks of it as "a blessing in disguise", as this was a turning point in his battle with alcoholism. His path to recovery began and after that moment he never had a drink again.

"With the help of my recovery, I learned that I had used my divorce as an excuse to go back to drinking. That knowledge made me a stronger individual." Namath wrote.


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