Word: namath
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There was relatively little wrong with Joseph William Namath, 21, when he checked into Manhattan's Lenox Hill Hospital last week. But there was a great deal more than usual riding on the routine surgery that was scheduled for repair of the torn cartilage in his right knee. By signing an unprecedented three-year contract with the poised and polished quarterback from the University of Alabama, the New York Jets had bet $400,000 that surgery was capable of undoing the damage done by football to one of the weakest and most vulnerable joints in the human body...
...early October game against North Carolina State, Namath had rolled out on an option play and dropped suddenly as if poleaxed. No other player had even touched him. Under the strain of a sudden stop, his tensed knee had simply collapsed. First aid consisted of ice packs, and a couple of days later Alabama Surgeon Ernest C. Brock Jr. removed some fluid ("water on the knee") by inserting a hollow needle in the swollen joint...
...last season, and they cost him $48,000. Now he has six. He picked up Virginia Tech's Bob Schweickert for a song, but he had to shell out $200,000 for Notre Dame's Heisman Trophy winner, John Huarte. And to land Alabama's Joe Namath, he went all the way to $400,000-the highest price ever paid for a rookie in the history of pro football...
Pink? No, Green. Exclusive of benefits, of course. Like the retirement plan that guarantees Namath $5,000 a year for life after his playing career ends-if it ever begins. Namath has a bad knee; he reinjured it practicing for the Orange Bowl, and it will take an operation to correct it. Werblin is springing for that too. And just to make sure Joe can transport all that money to the bank, Sonny threw in a Lincoln Continental. Reporters naturally inquired about the color. "Pink?" they asked. Uh, uh. "Jet green," said Namath smartly, and went charging on down...
...pass from Jim Hudson to George Sauer), the fifth-ranked Longhorns opened up a 21-7 halftime lead. Then they hung on for dear life, intercepting two passes, stopping one Alabama drive at the 1-ft. line, as 'Bama's great Quarterback Joe Namath, playing with an injured knee, frantically filled the air with footballs, completing...