Word: namath
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...ever seriously suggested that a 20th century counterpart of Tom, Quarterback Joe Willie Namath, should suffer such a fate. But he has always been the same kind of rococo rascal that Jones was. As a child Joe Willie was, by his own cheerful confession, an occasional thief and vandal. In his youth he ignored his studies for the pursuit of pigskin and other cutaneous diversions. In setting a career for himself as a professional quarterback, Joe snubbed the St. Louis Cardinals of the older National Football League in favor of the New York Jets of the lowly American Football League...
Even then he did not play by the rules. His hair was too long. His clothes were too loud. His lip was too loose. There were wild tales of girls and booze, of riotous predawn odysseys through Manhattan saloons. There were even darker stories of gambling associations. Joe Namath, libertine and profligate. What good would come of such a rogue...
Merciless. What good indeed? At 29, after six turbulent, injurious seasons, Joe Namath has established himself as the pre-eminent quarterback in professional football today. Playing on a pair of frangible knees, Namath-after the 27-17 win by the Miami Dolphins over the Jets this week-had passed for a career total of 116 touchdowns and more than...
Even more significant are the changes that Namath is signally responsible for working on the structure of pro football. It was the purse-draining price war for top draft choices like Namath that led to the merger of the A.F.L. and N.F.L. in 1966. It was also Namath who bluntly announced to a disbelieving sports world that the Jets would beat the heavily favored Baltimore Colts in the 1969 Super Bowl, then led his team to a stunning 16-7 upset that gave the A.F.L. parity with the N.F.L...
...Namath sat out most of the past two seasons with knee injuries. That did not stop him from winning an estimated two-year, $500,000 contract from the Jets management. At the beginning of the 1972 season he set about earning...