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This profile is a tribute to Joe Namath and is not associated with him in any way.
I am the 20th century's most recognized and beloved football player. As quarterback for the New York Jets, I shot to stardom by predicting my team's long-shot victory in the third AFL-NFL World Championship Game over the NFL's Baltimore Colts. In case you were livin' under a rock, I delivered a near flawless 16-7 win.
Growing up, I was a star player in football, basketball, and baseball. After high school, I went to the University of Alabama on a football scholarship, playing under coach Bear Bryant from 1962-65. Under Bryant, the Crimson Tide became a national force in college ball.
Unbelievably, the NFL passed on me in the 1965 college draft for being "too expensive." The AFL's New York Jets signed me instead for a then unheard-of $450,000. Two years later, I became the first pro quarterback to pass for 4,000 yards in a season. I did this in only 14 games, an amazing feat even by today's standards.
Despite chronic knee injuries, I was a three-time AFL All Star, producing countless exceptional performances. In the 1968 AFL title game, I threw three touchdown passes to lead New York to a 27-23 win over the defending champion Oakland Raiders (the 1968 season would earn me the Hickok Belt as professional athlete of the year). I was an AFL All-Star four times (1965, 1967-1969) and a Pro Bowler in 1972. I am a member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, OH and the American Football League Hall of Fame.
The apex of my career has to be my role in the Jets' win over the Colts in the game now referred to as Super Bowl III. Back then, the Colts were touted as "The greatest football team in history." Former NFL star and coach Norm Van Brocklin ridiculed the AFL before the game, saying "This will be Namath's first professional football game."
Not quite. I was the game's MVP, completing eight passes to George Sauer alone, for 133 yards. I acquired legendary status for American Football League fans as the symbol of their league's legitimacy and the patron saint of underdogs everywhere. The game marked a new era in pro football, which had long been symbolized by "squares" with crewcuts and high-tops. Flamboyant and long-haired, I symbolized a change in American culture that ran far deeper than football.
Nicknamed "Broadway Joe" and "Joe Willie Namath" (by none other than Howard Cosell), I started the fad of wearing a full-length fur coat on the sidelines. I even hosted a talk show and starred in TV commercials, most notably for panty hose and shaving cream (in which I was shaved by Farrah Fawcett).
In the twilight of my career, I was traded by the Jets to the Los Angeles Rams. By this point my game was reduced by knee injuries and my hard and fast lifestyle. Retiring from the Rams after a single season, I went on to star in movies and a 1978 television series, The Waverly Wonders. Since the 1980s, I've worked as a color commentator for NBCs Sports and as a commercial spokesman.
In December 2003, I publicly admitted to an alcohol problem and entered into an outpatient treatment program. Now clean and sober, I am the father of two beautiful daughters and live in Florida.
