Happy 80th Birthday, Joe Namath!

May 31, 1943, 80 years ago: Joseph William Namath - not named "Joe Willie," as Howard Cosell called him, and allowed it to be incorrectly entered into public consciousness – is born in Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania, a mill town outside Pittsburgh.

Joe would play quarterback at the University of Alabama, where he developed that weird half-Pittsburgh-half-Dixie accent, and led the school to the 1964 National Championship. Then on to New York, where he made the American Football League first exciting, then respectable.
 
Statistically, he was not that impressive. He only completed a shade over half of his passes. He threw more interceptions than touchdown passes. He only made 1 Pro Bowl, in 1972. That was also the only time he led the NFL in passing yards, and the only time he led it in passing touchdowns. And after predicting that the Jets would win Super Bowl III, and doing it, he only appeared in 1 more Playoff game, and lost it.

In 1999, at Number 96, he just barely made The Sporting News' list of the 100 Greatest Football Players. When the NFL Network chose its 100 Greatest Players in 2010, he squeezed in at Number 100 – although he was ranked Number 1 on the Network's list of the NFL's "Greatest Characters."
 
But that Super Bowl III prediction and win made him a legend for all time. That 1 Super Bowl win stands taller than the 4 won by fellow Number 12 Terry Bradshaw, and the 7 won by fellow Number 12 Tom Brady. (And Joe never had to cheat, as Brady did.)

That win, often called one of the greatest upsets in sports history, also helped pave the way for the Mets' World Series upset win later in the year. A wiseguy might say that the modern world of sports was conceived on January 12, 1969, when the Jets won the Super Bowl; and was born 9 months later, on October 16, 1969, when the Mets won the World Series.

The Jets retired his Number 12, and he was elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame. As yet, he does not have a statue outside MetLife Stadium. Maybe, as the Mets did with Tom Seaver, the Jets are waiting until after he dies.

From 1984 to 2000, he was married to actress Deborah Mays. They had 2 daughters, Jessica and Olivia. Through Olivia, he has a granddaughter, Natalia. He quit drinking after he got married, relapsed after the divorce, and quit again in 2004, after an embarrassing interview the previous year.

Like his contemporaries Muhammad Ali and Walt Frazier, Broadway Joe was a perfect mix of man, method and moment in sports. As a rebellious young player, at the glamour position in what had become the glamour sport, in the biggest city in the country, at a time when television had become not just the big thing (as it was for his hero, Johnny Unitas) but everything, he was the right man, doing the right thing, in the right way, in the right place, at the right time.

He was also the only athlete who made it onto President Richard Nixon’s infamous "Enemies List." White House Counsel John Dean was once asked about this, and said he didn't know why, suggesting that it might have been a mistake.
 

Because of those circumstances, there might one day be another quarterback leading the Jets to a Super Bowl win – stop laughing – but there can never be another Joe Namath. Anybody copying his style would be hit with, "Yeah, been there, seen that, what else ya got?"