A week after the Minnesota Vikings exacted revenge against the Dallas Cowboys for the 1975 "Hail Mary" catch, the Indianapolis Colts will try to exorcise the demons from Super Bowl III. Sadly for us Namath fans, the Colts will likely succeed in that endeavor. In an era of sports when Muhammad Ali was the most recognized face in the world, Joe Namath was a close second. Namath once proclaimed that he couldn't wait until tomorrow, cuz he was only going to get better, better looking, better throwing, better thinking. Injuries quickly ended his days of getting better, but not before his story culminated in the 1969 NFL championship at the Orange Bowl. I'm keeping my fingers crossed for next Sunday. But I'm not holding my breath.
If you have doubts about how good Namath was, think about the fact that he threw for over 4000 yards in a season during an era when everyone ran the football, and the rules discouraged passing. Still have doubts? Listen to Al Davis and John Madden talk about #12 in the above video. Below Dave Anderson from the Times takes a look at the current team through the eyes of the one that one the championship:
Hollywood would call it a remake. When the Jets play the Colts in the American Football Conference championship game Sunday, the cast will be different but the dialogue and the story line aren't that much different than before the Jets played the Colts in Super Bowl III.
The Colts are based in Indianapolis now, but it's the same franchise that was in Baltimore 41 years ago, when the Jets justified Joe Namath's ''guarantee'' in a 16-7 upset. And the Baltimore connection persists. Baltimore is where Rex Ryan, the Jets' talkative rookie coach, established his defensive wisdom as a Ravens assistant, and where Weeb Ewbank had coached the Colts to two N.F.L. titles before joining the Jets in 1963.
Just as Namath's brash confidence inspired his teammates, Ryan has reshaped the Jets' psyche. The day he was introduced as the coach, he talked about how the Jets would someday meet President Obama as Super Bowl champions. When the Jets barely qualified for the playoffs two weeks ago, he issued a day-by-day monthlong timetable that ended with a Super Bowl victory parade. With never a negative thought, he has made every Jets player better.
''It's like a proud parent who believes in you and wants the best for you,'' the All-Pro center Nick Mangold has said. ''You want to go to school to get the good grades to make them even prouder. He says, 'We've got the best offensive line in football.' Us as an offensive line take that as let's make sure we don't make him look silly and not be the best. It's a trust thing. It's a belief that he has in us that we're going to do the right thing to get the job done.''
When the Jets needed a yard on fourth down to clinch Sunday's 17-14 triumph in San Diego, the offensive line got the job done. When the Jets were listed as 17-point Super Bowl underdogs, Namath talked the same way -- with trust in his teammates.
''If we were allowed to bet, I'd bet $100,000 on this one,'' Namath said on the Jets' charter flight a week before his ''guarantee'' remark. ''It's going to be a challenge, but it's going to be a challenge for them, too. I might sound like I'm boasting and bragging, and I am. Ask anybody who's played against us in our league. The Colts are good, but we're good, too.''
In the first two Super Bowls, the Green Bay Packers had routed the Kansas City Chiefs, 35-10, and the Oakland Raiders, 33-14, but Namath believed in the American Football League's maturity. ''You put their good teams and our good teams together, it's 50-50, flip a coin,'' he said. ''And we've got better quarterbacks in our league -- John Hadl, Daryle Lamonica, myself, Bob Griese.''
That annoyed the Colts, who had rolled to a 15-1 record, mostly with Earl Morrall at quarterback because the great Johnny Unitas had a damaged elbow. In the N.F.L. championship game, they had routed the Browns, 34-0. The Jets were 12-3 after a 27-23 triumph over the Raiders in the A.F.L. title game in which Namath threw three touchdown passes.
''For wide receivers, the Jets have the best,'' Namath said. ''George Sauer has the best moves; nobody can cover him one on one. And Don Maynard is the smartest. When a quarterback has wide receivers that good, he should throw to them.'' Namath didn't tell only reporters that. He told whoever happened to be around. During a confrontation with Colts kicker Lou Michaels at a restaurant, he said that Baltimore didn't have a chance and that ''I'm going to pick you apart,'' then drove Michaels back to the Colts' hotel. While signing autographs for youngsters, he asked if they planned to bet on the game. Several nodded and one said, ''I bet a whole dollar.''
''If you lose any money,'' he told them, ''come here after the game and I'll reimburse you.'' Namath's confidence was contagious. Tight end Pete Lammons told Ewbank: ''Coach, you better stop showing us these films. We're getting overconfident.'' Ewbank wouldn't agree publicly, but when his wife, Lucy, mentioned how nervous she was, he told her, ''Calm down, we're going to win this game.''
And on the Thursday night before the game, Namath accepted the outstanding pro football player of 1968 award from the Miami Touchdown Club. ''This should be a most valuable player award for the entire team,'' he said. ''You can be the greatest athlete in the world, but if you don't win those football games, it doesn't mean anything. And we're going to win Sunday, I'll guarantee you.''
Joe Namath said it firmly, but not loudly, almost casually. It wasn't much different from any of his other predictions, but his word ''guarantee'' created a headline in The Miami Herald. Ewbank was annoyed, thinking it would fire up the Colts, but when the Jets won, the guarantee would live in Super Bowl history.
Almost mystically, little Rex Ryan was around the Jets that week. His father, Buddy, was the defensive line coach. Buddy would later be a revered defensive coordinator with the Bears, and the coach of the Eagles and the Cardinals. Rex Ryan remembers how he and his 6-year-old twin, Rob, enjoyed being with the Jets' linemen. ''They went out of their way to talk to us,'' he has said. ''We loved Joe Namath, too; everybody loved Joe Namath.''
And after that Super Bowl put Jets green in Rex's blood, when the Jets' job opened a year ago, this is where he wanted to be. Now the Jets are playing the Colts again, the 15-2 Colts with the great Peyton Manning at quarterback. The world turns, but sometimes, it doesn't seem to turn at all.
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