Post by Lithfan on Jan 9, 2016 8:26:41 GMT -5
January 9, 1969
It was 3 days before the Jets and Colts would take the field for Super Bowl III. On a site that currently houses a Comfort Inn and Suites, not far from the Miami airport. 47 years ago it was the home of the Playhouse Banquet Hall. The Miami Touchdown Club would present Jets quarterback, Joe Namath, its Most Outstanding Football Player Award.
The Jets had been installed as an 18-point underdog against the 15-1 Colts, who had just dismantled the Cleveland Browns 34-0 in the NFL Championship game. If the Browns could not hang with Baltimore, then who could possibly think the Jets could.
But the Jets players and coaching staff saw a beatable team when they studied the Colts. A quiet confidence ran through the Jets team while preparing for the game. Namath had been telling friends all week to bet on the Jets, but to take the 7-1 odds for a bigger payday, rather than taking the points.
As he walked to the podium to accept his award, Joe had finally had enough of all the writers, the commentary that the Jets didn’t stand a chance. As Namath recalled the scene, “A guy in the back yelled out hey, Joe, we’re gonna kick your ass.” Joe responded.
"We're gonna win the game. I guarantee it." There were no cameras at the Playhouse. The only mention of Joe’s guarantee was buried in a column in the Miami Herald the next day. The moment became legend after the game. After it was mentioned on air by Curt Gowdy during the telecast, and only after Joe and the Jets made good on the guarantee, beating the Colts 16-7.
Namath discusses the guarantee in this video clip from A Football Life:
While Joe was the only Jet to say it publicly, he was not the only Jet who felt that way. Earlier in the week, Jets tight end Pete Lammons spoke in a team meeting, "We've got to stop watching these films. We're going to get overconfident.''
"We couldn't understand how they could make us 18-point underdogs,'' said RB Emerson Boozer, "The coaches and players in the AFL came from the same pool [as their NFL counterparts]. We were champs. We didn't get there by stumbling to it. We won a lot of close games. They didn't understand how good we were on defense, and we had a running game.''
Left tackle Winston Hill added, "Pete was expressing the sentiment of all of us.''
Coach Ewbank may have been the only one on the team who was upset with the guarantee. He felt the Colts were taking the Jets lightly and did not want to light a fire under them.
"Weeb believed it, too,'' Hill said, "but he wanted to quietly go in and get the trophy.''
Source: Newsday and The Washington Post
It was 3 days before the Jets and Colts would take the field for Super Bowl III. On a site that currently houses a Comfort Inn and Suites, not far from the Miami airport. 47 years ago it was the home of the Playhouse Banquet Hall. The Miami Touchdown Club would present Jets quarterback, Joe Namath, its Most Outstanding Football Player Award.
The Jets had been installed as an 18-point underdog against the 15-1 Colts, who had just dismantled the Cleveland Browns 34-0 in the NFL Championship game. If the Browns could not hang with Baltimore, then who could possibly think the Jets could.
But the Jets players and coaching staff saw a beatable team when they studied the Colts. A quiet confidence ran through the Jets team while preparing for the game. Namath had been telling friends all week to bet on the Jets, but to take the 7-1 odds for a bigger payday, rather than taking the points.
As he walked to the podium to accept his award, Joe had finally had enough of all the writers, the commentary that the Jets didn’t stand a chance. As Namath recalled the scene, “A guy in the back yelled out hey, Joe, we’re gonna kick your ass.” Joe responded.
"We're gonna win the game. I guarantee it." There were no cameras at the Playhouse. The only mention of Joe’s guarantee was buried in a column in the Miami Herald the next day. The moment became legend after the game. After it was mentioned on air by Curt Gowdy during the telecast, and only after Joe and the Jets made good on the guarantee, beating the Colts 16-7.
Namath discusses the guarantee in this video clip from A Football Life:
While Joe was the only Jet to say it publicly, he was not the only Jet who felt that way. Earlier in the week, Jets tight end Pete Lammons spoke in a team meeting, "We've got to stop watching these films. We're going to get overconfident.''
"We couldn't understand how they could make us 18-point underdogs,'' said RB Emerson Boozer, "The coaches and players in the AFL came from the same pool [as their NFL counterparts]. We were champs. We didn't get there by stumbling to it. We won a lot of close games. They didn't understand how good we were on defense, and we had a running game.''
Left tackle Winston Hill added, "Pete was expressing the sentiment of all of us.''
Coach Ewbank may have been the only one on the team who was upset with the guarantee. He felt the Colts were taking the Jets lightly and did not want to light a fire under them.
"Weeb believed it, too,'' Hill said, "but he wanted to quietly go in and get the trophy.''
Source: Newsday and The Washington Post
